Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 31


     
     1        has to be a man, but never mind -- "You had better not go
     2        to McDonald's any more.  The food can give you cancer and
     3        heart disease and that is accepted medical fact and,
     4        anyway, McDonald's are a bunch of crooks because they cover
     5        this up and pretend to be nutritious".
     6
     7        He talked about this whole section being in immediate terms
     8        and that it was all, well, just about the immediacy of the
     9        leaflet.  I just wanted to say that, I mean, I have covered
    10        this to some extent.  Most people in London, which is where
    11        distribution is alleged, in terms of on the street, would
    12        have come across McDonald's before and know people who eat
    13        there from time to time, even if they do not eat there
    14        themselves.  They would also know that they have not died
    15        instantly.  Most people are also aware of nutrition
    16        information which has been put about by health authorities
    17        and frequently been covered in the media.
    18
    19        I am not saying that they would have necessarily read the
    20        information directly from the health authorities, but they
    21        are aware of information which initially comes from health
    22        authorities which has been covered in the media, not just
    23        in broad sheets but in the tabloids too, about diet.
    24        Although parts of this have not been consistent, mainly
    25        because of input from people with vested interests in the
    26        food industry, they know from the information that they
    27        have read and, in addition, from their own experiences of
    28        their family and friends, that diseases such as cancer and
    29        heart diseases are not instantly brought about by a meal
    30        they eat, or even by a week or a month of unhealthy eating;
    31        that many people are not affected, the majority of people
    32        probably, and that where such diseases do occur they take
    33        several years to develop and are influenced by other
    34        matters, for example, smoking and exercise.
    35
    36        That is really just to counter this line that Mr. Rampton
    37        had about the immediacy of the whole leaflet, that people
    38        are not going to think:  "Oh, if I eat there I am going to
    39        drop dead".  This is a kind of implication that the public
    40        are completely ignorant in such matters.
    41
    42        We contend that, as the leaflet states, most people realise
    43        that the kind of foods sold by McDonald's is junk food as
    44        in not particularly good for you in nutritional terms.
    45        They know, and if they are asked they will say, that food
    46        from burger bars is unhealthy, and that they would not
    47        believe a company who told them it was healthy.  In some
    48        ways it might be thought that for most people the nutrition
    49        section of the leaflet was unnecessary, and that when they
    50        read it they thought:  "Yes, yes, I know all that", at 
    51        least in sort of basic terms anyway, "but I eat there 
    52        because it is cheap and/or convenient and/or I like the 
    53        taste".
    54
    55        In case Mr. Rampton gets up and asks:  Why then was the
    56        subject covered, the answer is that because although people
    57        know these things, they often shut them to the back of
    58        their minds because it makes life easier, or less
    59        complicated for them and also because the leaflet is a look
    60        at particularly the fast food industry, in particular,

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