Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 15
1 policy which meant fast growth in all directions. There
2 was a rise in the fat intake of the diet and this was
3 recorded by some of the earlier COMA committees that
4 discussed the relationship between diet and fats and heart
5 disease. So without any question the diets of people are
6 changed by the sort of foods that are made available to
7 them.
8
9 Q. Right. That change in increased fat intake after the war,
10 has that remained the same or has that been influenced by
11 subsequent dietary recommendations?
12 A. Well, I mean, I think I make the point later in my
13 statement, if you go through it, that in fact there have
14 been -- part of the industry has been responsive to the
15 recommendations that have been made by scientists and the
16 medical profession, particularly the Food and Agriculture
17 Organisation's report in 1978 conjointly with the World
18 Health Organisation and the Royal College of Physicians'
19 report in 1976 which was a sort of landmark report. And
20 there was no doubt that these precipitated and encouraged
21 changes by the industry in the direction that were being
22 recommended.
23
24 Now, Unilever, as I mention in my report later, was, in the
25 vanguard, was a leader in this respect, and there are
26 several examples of the way in which the food industry
27 responded, quite dramatically, it was almost a volt fast so
28 far as Unilever was concerned, to change from saturated fat
29 margarines to polyunsaturated fat margarines. So yes, the
30 industry played a very important part in changing the
31 diet.
32
33 And I think if you look at the British Heart Foundation's
34 mortality statistics, it is quite interesting to see that
35 since the end of the '80's mortality, and certainly in
36 England, has been falling from heart disease. So this is
37 really a welcomed change. Now, there are people, it is
38 difficult to say at this stage just what the causes of that
39 fall are, but there are people who are claiming, and
40 certainly Unilever would be one of them, that there has
41 been a significant contribution by the changes that the
42 industry have made in response to the kind of
43 recommendations that have come from science and medicine.
44
45 Q. OK. Were we on indirect --
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause. You got to 2.2, indirect
48 effect, and then I asked my question about the figures in
49 the paragraph above, so carry on from there.
50
51 MS. STEEL: "2.2 Indirect effect.
52 2.2.1 Does McDonald's influence habitual eating? May I
53 suggest that the possibility of an indirect effect on
54 peoples's eating habits induced by the high profile
55 advertising campaigns and inducements to children and
56 customers."
57
58 I think maybe the word "that" should not be in there.
59 Would that be right? "May I suggest the possibility of"?
60 A. You can remove the word "that". I am happy with that.
