Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 39
1 published October 1984, second edition February 1985,
2 third edition October 1985.
3
4 MS. STEEL: So if we look at the October 1985 one.
5
6 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it is tab 5.
7
8 MS. STEEL: Actually, this is the one that is extremely
9 difficult to read in this volume. I think we will be all
10 right because the meal combinations look as though -----
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us do our best.
13
14 MS. STEEL: I suppose we could start by turning to page 13
15 which is the McDonald's introduction to the tables. It
16 states there that these are some typical meal combinations
17 at McDonald's. Then if you want to turn over to the meals
18 themselves and say what you think is wrong with them
19 nutritionally?
20 A. Well, my main problem with these meals would be that
21 if they were relied on for a substantial part of the diet,
22 they would not be providing sufficient essential nutrients
23 -- by which I mean the vitamins and minerals -- that we
24 need for the amounts of fat that they do provide. In
25 other words, they are excessively fatty and salty. I
26 cannot comment on sugar as sugar figures are not given.
27
28 Q. Is there anything else, I mean, in terms of the other
29 nutrients?
30 A. Well, shall I make an example of one of the meals? We
31 can choose any one you like.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do that. I cannot find it now but somewhere
34 you make the point about low in vitamins and minerals
35 which is an aspect which has not really come into the case
36 so far. We have heard lots about whether fats, saturated
37 fat, and sodium is higher than a sensible figure, but we
38 have not really heard anything about low in vitamins and
39 minerals.
40 A. OK. I think what I am trying to reflect in an
41 analysis of these meals is the notion of nutrient density
42 which has a specific meaning in dietary terms, namely, the
43 quantities of a particular nutrient per, say, 100
44 calories, in other words, for the energy that is in that
45 food; the point being, of course, that we eat a limited
46 quantity of energy or need a limited quantity of energy
47 each day, say, 2,000 calories for a child.
48
49 In that 2,000 calories, one would hope, that that child
50 eats food containing at least their recommended daily
51 needs for various vitamins and minerals, and does not
52 exceed a recommended level of fat consumption which, by
53 I think the COMA Report you have had already, would be
54 approximately 30 to 35 per cent of fat-- calories but from
55 the fat. So that the targets that one is aiming for is to
56 eat no more than a certain quantity of fat or calories
57 from that fat whilst getting sufficient of one's vitamins
58 and minerals.
59
60 And McDonald's have given us in these meal combinations
