Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 08


     
     1        things you give -- are these particularly high?
     2        A.  These are higher even than an average unmodified diet
     3        of a person who had never even heard, say, of any need to
     4        modify their diet.  These foods present more fat than an
     5        average and unmodified diet.  If one compares them to the
     6        most conservative nutritional recommendations, they are
     7        quite high in comparison to those, both in fat and in
     8        cholesterol.
     9
    10   Q.   You did not mention sodium content or sugar.  Do you have
    11        any comment about that?
    12        A.  Yes.  When I have reviewed the sodium content of the
    13        offerings sold at McDonald's restaurants, a number of them
    14        are really quite high.  By that I mean over a gramme of
    15        sodium in a single food, a single product.  That is really
    16        a very large amount of sodium.  Some of their foods, of
    17        course, are high in sugar.  Their sodas have sugar as
    18        their virtually sole nutrient.
    19
    20   Q.   You have compared that kind of food with other foods on
    21        the top of the second page?
    22        A.  Yes.  Well, if one compares, say, for example, a
    23        cheeseburger, 40 per cent of the calories of a
    24        cheeseburger, according to the reference text that I used
    25        to check a McDonald's cheeseburger, 45 per cent of the
    26        calories come from fat.  If you compare that to typical
    27        beans, whether black beans, pinto beans or other navy
    28        beans, the figure is only 4 per cent.
    29
    30        In other words, for every calorie from fat in beans, more
    31        than 11 are found in a typical cheeseburger.  Rice is from
    32        one to five per cent fat as a percentage of calories; one
    33        per cent would be white rice; five per cent would be brown
    34        rice.  So it varies with the variety.  A potato is less
    35        than one per cent fat.  Similarly, these foods that I
    36        have mentioned, beans, potatoes, rice and virtually --
    37        well, all foods from the plant kingdom contain no
    38        cholesterol at all.  It is only found in animal products.
    39        So the difference is really quite striking.
    40
    41   Q.   What are the implications for chronic diseases and other
    42        diseases?
    43        A.  A diet that is high in fat and in cholesterol, sodium
    44        and sugar and low in fibre, low in certain vitamins and
    45        minerals, is clearly linked to a higher risk of heart
    46        disease, cancer and other chronic diseases as well as to a
    47        worse prognosis when these diseases arise.
    48
    49        When people reduce their intake of fat, particularly
    50        saturated fat and of cholesterol, and increase their 
    51        intake of fibre as well of certain vitamins and minerals, 
    52        their risk of these diseases clearly drops.  This is 
    53        supported by a tremendous amount of research and is widely
    54        accepted in the medical community.
    55
    56   Q.   If I could refer you to -- maybe I can just hand this up
    57         -- the World Health Organisation report.  I will not read
    58        it in full because it has been read out a number of times
    59        in court.  (Handed)  It is the Conclusions on page 157.
    60        If you just read those two paragraphs to yourself, I will

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