Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 69


     
     1   Q.   People bring up their children differently?
     2        A.  Of course.
     3
     4   Q.   Do you accept the government's, the COMA recommendations
     5        that we should keep our total fat content down to between
     6        35 and 30 per cent of our total energy intake, and that
     7        the saturated fat proportion of that should be no greater
     8        than 10 or 11 per cent?
     9        A.  I see no reason to dispute it, except for two things;
    10        one that those in the World Health Organisation's
    11        recommendations are seen as maxima and not as averages;
    12        two that average across the population can mask some very
    13        different groupings. It is a Jack Spratt would eat no fat
    14        and his wife would eat no lean situation.  Two of them
    15        could well meet the government mean, to coin a phrase, in
    16        which case the average might well show that no one is
    17        unhealthy, but in fact eating no fat at all could lead to
    18        some problems and eating an excess of fat could lead to
    19        some problems. So within an average figure you also have
    20        to look at subgroups that might well be eating excess.
    21
    22   Q.   I perfectly well understand that.  You must look at not
    23        only subgroups might be eating an excess; you must look at
    24        subgroups who may be particularly vulnerable for one
    25        reason or another; it might be constitution or it might be
    26        health or whatever.  Can I ask you one more thing --
    27        I think it is probably one more thing only; it may be
    28        two.
    29
    30        In the second paragraph after that I have just been asking
    31        you about in your statement, the second statement, after
    32        the references to "grazing in Peckham" you write:
    33         "McDonald's is not the only fast food outlet of course
    34        but it is the leading one, with an estimated 40 per cent
    35        of adults having visited at least once during the year".
    36        We noticed earlier on that, in fact, the Gordon Simmons
    37        Research Survey of 1987 said 36 per cent and not 40?
    38        A.  That is true.
    39
    40   Q.   Were you do you think you exaggerated figure?
    41        A.  I was trying to work that out at the time that you
    42        commented in passing earlier as to that being an
    43        exaggeration.  I can only assume when I say an estimate it
    44        is because I am predicting forwards from 1987 or something
    45        like that.  I do not now recall why I should have said 40
    46        instead of 36.  I would like to replace the 40 with the
    47        36.
    48
    49   Q.   It would not matter from the point of view of the public's
    50        health if as a matter of absolute fact as opposed to 
    51        estimate or anything else, if 40 per cent or even 100 per 
    52        cent of the population were visiting a fast food outlet 
    53        once a year, would it?
    54        A.  It would not matter if they were visiting it once a
    55        day if they were eating fast foods that were healthy.
    56
    57   Q.   Even if I went and stuffed myself with a double
    58        cheeseburger, huge chips, four milk shakes and whatever
    59        else you would like to put into my menu, supposing I could
    60        accommodate all that food and I did it once a year, it

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