Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 58


     
     1        occurring where individuals adopt an extremely low fat
     2        diet and have a tendency simply to stay there, unless they
     3        do so consciously from a health or ethical standpoint.
     4        There are researchers -----
     5
     6   Q.   That implies there is something in the fat or in the
     7        eating of it that ---
     8        A.   People do tend to ----
     9
    10   Q.   -- habituate.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think Professor Wheelock said that fat is
    13        palatable to us as a species.  He used the word
    14        "palatable".  He did not use the word "species".  Is that
    15        really what you are saying as well?
    16        A.  Well, yes, basically.  Regrettably, there are many
    17        things to which, when human beings are exposed to them,
    18        become highly palatable in spite of the fact there are
    19        health consequences associated with them, and in spite of
    20        the fact that they may have no nutrient value.  Caffeine,
    21        for example, is one.  Then there are others as well.
    22        Caffeine is physically addicting.  I am not suggesting
    23        that
    24        ----
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I wonder whether you have to add anything to
    27        it in the light of what I have told you Professor Wheelock
    28        said.  By "palatable" he just meant most people find them
    29        tasty, I think?
    30        A.  I am trying to suggest something.
    31
    32   Q.   What they find tasty, they are going to want to eat?
    33        A.  Yes, although I think I am suggesting something
    34        perhaps slightly in addition to that.  Whereas a person
    35        might find ice cream or some other food tasty and may want
    36        it as an occasional treat, high fat meals or high fat
    37        foods, for whatever reason, do tend to be adhered to on a
    38        daily basis; not simply as a treat.
    39
    40        If I might mention, in Birch's paper they describe in some
    41        detail where if children find the experience of eating
    42        high fat foods related to rewards, perhaps to the type of
    43        toys and so forth that McDonald's might offer, that does
    44        tend, for whatever reason, to cause the fatty foods to be
    45        consumed more commonly later on, even if those foods were
    46        not considered more palatable than other foods at the
    47        onset.
    48
    49   MR. MORRIS:  So the type of products sold at McDonald's -- what
    50        is your verdict on their contribution to the diet? 
    51        A.  If the overall diet is to be low in fat, high in 
    52        fibre, high in protective vitamins and minerals, if it is 
    53        to be low in cholesterol, specifically low in saturated
    54        fat, the McDonald's meals push the diet in precisely the
    55        direction we are attempting to avoid and they encourage --
    56        and that type of diet, if consumed habitually, leads to a
    57        higher risk of heart disease, of cancer, of diabetes and
    58        other serious and chronic diseases we have described, that
    59        are not only a tremendous economic burden but a very
    60        serious personal burden as well.

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