Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 32


     
     1        And that frying oil was changed....  I seem to have the
     2        wrong date here, because Professor Wheelock gave evidence
     3        in July, and it says that frying oil was changed in
     4        September 1994 so I must have made a wrong note, because of
     5        the significant effect of saturated fats and amount of
     6        saturated fat in the frying oil previously.  In any event,
     7        whatever the date is, the reference is day 15, page 15, so
     8        I can check that.  It was obviously only a recent change.
     9
    10        Professor Wheelock at the stage almost went as far as to
    11        say that eating McDonald's food two or three times a week
    12        will be enough to jeopardise the dietary recommendations if
    13        someone was eating the most fatty items of McDonald's
    14        food.  He then retreated from that position, saying that he
    15        did not know what people ate and that other types of food
    16        were more healthy.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Was not the answer, which might have been
    19        most helpful to you on this line of what he would accept
    20        and what he would not, in answer to the question I asked
    21        him about what he would say to a friend or a member of his
    22        family about how often they should eat at McDonald's at the
    23        most?  What did it end up as?  Once a week or something
    24        like that?
    25
    26   MR. MORRIS:   I can't remember.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Anyway, I have a note of it in a notebook in
    29        my room.  But it was more favourable to you than the
    30        statement you have just made, was it not?
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:   The point I was going to make on this point, that
    33        comment about we don't know what people were eating and
    34        other types of food at McDonald's were more healthy - and
    35        that was on day 15, page 21 - is the point that the
    36        so-called healthy options that McDonald's introduced in
    37        order to improve the nutritive value of their food were
    38        options that are introduced after the time of the alleged
    39        libel.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That last bit was, did you say, day 15, page
    42        21?
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:   Yes.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    47
    48   MS. STEEL:   Later on, Professor Wheelock seemed to accept that
    49        if you ate a typical McDonald's meal once a day you would
    50        have to be very careful about balancing the rest of your
    51        diet.  That was on day 15, page 22.  This is an important
    52        point which we think raises a very contentious issue in
    53        this part of the case, which is if the Plaintiffs know this
    54        about having to be extremely careful, and since Professor
    55        Wheelock is their consultant they must know this, then
    56        surely they should come under a special duty to ensure that
    57        members of the public have the fullest and most accurate
    58        and most cautious information available to them.
    59        Obviously, that relates to the point about rather than
    60        promoting their food as nutritious, warning the public of

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