Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 14
1 on the issue in health promotional literature and in daily
2 newspapers and on television, and so on.
3
4 If I just go through some of the important points that we
5 feel have come out of the trial, some of the important
6 evidence that has come out of the trial, and again, as on
7 the other issues, we do not want this to be taken as these
8 are the only points that we consider are important.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No.
11
12 MS. STEEL: They are just particular points that we wish to
13 highlight. We heard from Professor Colin Campbell, the
14 chair of Dietary Prevention of Cancer Worldwide from the
15 United States, that Dietary Prevention of Cancer Worldwide
16 is a highly distinguished, international committee of
17 scientists set up to look into and evaluate the links
18 between diet and cancer. So clearly he had a great deal of
19 experience and expertise on this issue, and his view, which
20 was supported by his own research work, for example the
21 China study, was that a high fat, low fibre diet is causal
22 in the development of a wide range of cancers and
23 cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, even smaller
24 additions of food of animal origin to an otherwise all
25 plant diet cause the occurrence of these diseases.
26
27 He agreed with the reference in the World Health
28 Organisation Executive report, which stated that the entire
29 population of most affluent countries shows a high risk
30 profile. Obviously, that view about the entire population
31 of most affluent countries showing a high risk profile is
32 particularly relevant to the point in the meaning that you
33 determined about whether or not the risk of getting these
34 diseases is a very real risk. Furthermore, he personally
35 was convinced that these serious diseases of heart disease
36 and cancer were largely preventable by dietary means.
37
38 There was the evidence of Geoffrey Cannon, a defence
39 expert, who is the chairperson of the National Food
40 Alliance of Consumer Organisations and also the scientific
41 director of the World Cancer Research Fund, and he stated
42 that the US government, the European Union and World Health
43 Organisation all recommend reducing consumption of fatty
44 food and increasing consumption of fruit, vegetables and
45 other foods containing fibre in order to prevent the
46 significant proportion of the large numbers of death each
47 year from heart disease and cancer.
48
49 So here we have reference to all the major organisations
50 who are making health recommendations, dietary
51 recommendations, on the basis of health, and they are all
52 saying roughly the same things as is said in the London
53 Greenpeace fact sheet which McDonald's are suing us over.
54
55 He referred specifically to the 1990 World Health
56 Organisation report, the statement in there that dietary
57 factors are now known to influence the development of heart
58 disease, various cancers, hypertension and diabetes. These
59 conditions are the commonest cause of premature death in
60 developed countries. The affluent type of diet that often
