Day 266 - 20 Jun 96 - Page 17


     
     1        knowledge through the work you do?
     2        A.   My work is to promote healthy eating.  I work in
     3        Salford.  The population of Salford.  It is an inner city
     4        area and one of the problems in promoting healthy eating is
     5        to enable people to make the right choices about what food
     6        they make.  So there is a number of levels to the choices
     7        they have got.
     8
     9             First of all, you have got to look at things like
    10        whether the shops sell the food, what food is available,
    11        and one of the problems in promoting healthy eating is that
    12        basic cooking skills are in decline and people are eating
    13        more processed food.  So if you are asking me in relation
    14        to this particular paper in terms of the salt content, it
    15        is difficult to reduce peoples's salt content when they are
    16        relying more and more on processed food, I would agree with
    17        that, yes, and it is part of my role to address the issue
    18        of cooking skills being in decline.
    19
    20   Q.   OK.  Thank you.  There are a couple of references just on
    21        page 1252 in the conclusion section.  It says: "Data
    22        presented here indicate that sodium intake lowers by 17
    23        millimols.  For example, 70 instead of 170 millimols a day
    24        could result in adults (average age 40) in systolic
    25        pressure lower by 3.6 millimetres HG and enslope in
    26        systolic pressure from aged 25 to aged 55 less by ten
    27        millimeters HG.  Extensive data from prospective population
    28        studies indicated that such improvements in average
    29        systolic pressure levels could substantially reduce rates
    30        of major cardiovascular diseases and mortality from all
    31        causes."
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Just pause a moment.  Yes.
    34
    35   MS. STEEL:  On page 1285--
    36        A.  Were you wanting a comment on those or?
    37
    38   Q.   I was doing another bit at the same time.  Maybe I should
    39        do them separately.  I will just do them together but if
    40        you keep your finger there.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Keep a finger in 1252.  What is the next
    43        one?
    44
    45   MS. STEEL:  On 1285, on the first column just above a kind of
    46        graph or chart, whatever you want to call it, the sentence
    47        starts:
    48
    49        "Other evidence shows the importance of a modest change in
    50        the average blood pressure.  At aged 55 the blood pressure
    51        difference for a 100 millimol per 24 hour sodium difference
    52        is about ten millimetres HG systolic (or 5 millimetres HG 
    53        diastolic).  This is associated with the 34 per cent
    54        difference in mortality from stroke and a 21 per cent
    55        difference in mortality from ischemic heart disease.
    56        Excess dietary salt is a serious public health hazard."
    57
    58             Now, you are familiar with this paper, are you?
    59        A.   Yes, we receive the BMJ in our department, and yes I
    60        would certainly read the sort of recommendations and the

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