Day 034 - 11 Oct 94 - Page 43


     
     1        scientists or interested members of the public to look up
     2        the nutrient content of various foods, including fast
     3        foods by brand name.
     4
     5   Q.   So we have a small extract here.  I mean, there are
     6        hundreds and hundreds of pages of these documents?
     7        A.  It is quite a lengthy document, yes.
     8
     9   Q.   They do all their own research, do they, and analysis?
    10        A.  They draw on many different sources.
    11
    12   Q.   You do not happen to know in their analysis of McDonald's
    13        food offhand whether that was drawn from the company's ---
    14        A.  I do not know.
    15
    16   Q.   -- own research?
    17        A.  I do not know, but I suspect it probably was reported
    18        from the company.
    19
    20   Q.   The next document:  "Breast Cancer Risk" -- do you want to
    21        refer to that?  It is No. 9?
    22        A.  I have made reference to this already.
    23
    24   Q.   Just explain what it is then.
    25        A.  ORC is the Opinion Research Corporation which is
    26        located in Princetown, New Jersey.  They conduct polls and
    27        by telephone random samples of Americans to determine
    28        knowledge or opinions.  We contracted with them to do a
    29        study in an unbiased way on what a group of American women
    30        knew regarding links between diet and breast cancer, in
    31        particular.  When asked an open ended question as to what
    32        can a woman do to reduce her risk of breast cancer, we
    33        were disturbed to find that only 20 per cent of women
    34        spontaneously would give any sort of response that related
    35        to lowering the fat content of the diet.
    36
    37   Q.   This research was actually done after the US Surgeon
    38        General's Report was published?
    39        A.  That is correct.  This was done in the fall of 1991.
    40
    41   Q.   It was published or was it done literally just before it
    42        was published?
    43        A.  These -- yes.
    44
    45   Q.   Yes.  You are right, September 1991.  It was completed at
    46        that time?
    47        A.  That is correct.  We also then asked a follow up
    48        question prompting the women who were telephoned in a
    49        randomly generated list:  Were they aware that reducing
    50        the fat in the diet might reduce the risk of breast 
    51        cancer?  And, even with that degree of prompting, simply 
    52        asking them to say "yes" or "no", still only about half 
    53        were able to respond positively to that statement.
    54
    55        The implication of this to us at that time is that the
    56        medical profession and others responsible for providing
    57        nutrient information -- in that group I might include the
    58        food industry -- has not done an adequate job of providing
    59        information to American women, at least, that would allow
    60        them to make informed choices that might affect their risk

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