Day 298 - 11 Nov 96 - Page 39
1 about what the leaflet says by getting out the leaflet.
2 So he appears to be accepting what is stated in the Cancer
3 Education Coordinating Group's leaflet about avoiding
4 cancer.
5
6 The first reference, in case I did not give it, to that
7 that leaflet, was page 12, line 19.
8
9 Sorry, I remembered that I was allowed to sit down and now
10 I have gone too quiet.
11
12 Miss Brophy also referred to the Guide to Healthy Eating
13 published by the Health Education Authority, which stated
14 that fibre rich foods are very important for good health.
15 They help prevent constipation and they may help protect
16 against bowel problems, including cancer of the bowel,
17 which is one of the most common cancers in Britain.
18
19 The pamphlet also stated there were two problems related to
20 eating too much fat. Firstly, that the fat was loaded with
21 calories and that too many calories leads to overweight and
22 obesity, which obviously, as we know, increases your risk
23 of cancer and diabetes. Secondly, that too much saturated
24 fat is linked with a higher risk of heart disease.
25
26 The pamphlet also goes to say that sugar promotes tooth
27 decay and obesity, but also that adding sugar to food makes
28 it easier for us to eat too much, partly because our taste
29 buds have been trained to crave for sugary food. That is
30 the government's own advice on the subject. That was on
31 page 12, line 45.
32
33 With reference to the point about the use of the phrase
34 "balanced diet" and whether or not that is a helpful term,
35 Miss Brophy agreed with the NACNE report, on page 14, which
36 set out how the term "balanced diet" came about, and went
37 on to recommend a new approach which avoided using the term
38 "balanced diet"; and that suggested that the term "a
39 healthy, varied diet" would be better. That was page 13,
40 line 43.
41
42 Miss Brophy went on to say that people need to be given
43 guidelines in terms of what foods they should be eating
44 more of, what foods they should be eating less of, and that
45 a balanced diet, the phrase "a balanced diet", can mean
46 almost anything to anyone and can be interpreted in
47 whatever way people chose, and that "a health promoting
48 diet" or "a healthful diet" are more useful terms. That
49 was page 14, line 28.
50
51 We went on to the recent report in the British Medical
52 Journal about salt intake. With reference to something
53 that was raised in that report, Miss Brophy said: "One of
54 the problems in promoting healthy eating is that basic
55 cooking skills are in decline and people are eating more
56 processed food", and that was it was difficult to reduce
57 people's salt consumption when they are relying more and
58 more on processed foods. Obviously, McDonald's are a part
59 of that, both in the food they sell and the fact that they
60 are encouraging people to eat more and more of it, with
