Day 031 - 05 Oct 94 - Page 44


     
     1        outlet with a huge McDonald's Big Mac man as a balloon
     2        almost occupying two stories high.  There is a lot of
     3        attention given to raising the image and drawing people
     4        into this style of eating.
     5
     6        As I say, individually, there is nothing wrong with having
     7        a beefburger or hamburger or anything like that.  But
     8        I think it is the collective pressure that is occurring
     9        which is likely to -- may indeed has already had an
    10        influence on the way people behave with regard to food and
    11        food choices.  That, I think, is really what I am trying
    12        to drive at here.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  We are coming to the end of our questioning -- if
    15        we could have our five minute break?
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will have the five-minute break.  You
    18        finish your questions, then Mr. Rampton can carry out any
    19        preliminary cross-examination and enquiries about
    20        documentation.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:   Can I just ask something?  If we get the paper
    23        about the pregnant mothers, if there is something that we
    24        particularly want to bring up, will that be all right to
    25        do it at a later time?
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When Professor Crawford comes back, if there
    28        is something in relation to that paper, for instance, you
    29        want to ask him about, raise it with me.  I do not know
    30        what Mr. Rampton's attitude would be.  I think it is more
    31        likely it will be a question of whether he would prefer
    32        you to ask your questions before he goes any further
    33        rather than in re-examination after he has finished rather
    34        than any outright objection.  I see him agreeing to that.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:   We may not want to ask anything but just in case.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  Raise it the moment you are about to
    39        bring Professor Crawford back into the witness box.
    40
    41   MS. STEEL:   OK.
    42
    43                       (Short Adjournment)
    44
    45   MR. MORRIS:  Can you, Professor Crawford, just explain what the
    46        role of plausible biological mechanisms are in the
    47        judgment on a particular link between diet and disease,
    48        for example?
    49        A.  I think that if you make a statement about "dietary
    50        fat causes heart disease" or "saturated fat causes heart 
    51        disease", in terms of epidemiology, it is useful to have a 
    52        biochemical mechanism at a cellular level so that you can 
    53        understand that because correlations can be misleading.
    54        So biochemical plausibility is important to the acceptance
    55        of epidemiological data.
    56
    57   Q.   So, in other words, would you say that it was part of the
    58        evidence towards making a judgment is whether that
    59        judgement, that link is biologically plausible, whether
    60        mechanisms can be shown to be plausible?

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