Day 253 - 21 May 96 - Page 21


     
     1        they are green, and they are natural and they are
     2        unprocessed and they contain 93 per cent fat.  Now, I have
     3        never heard anybody suggest that olives should be avoided
     4        because of their very high fat content and I certainly
     5        would not recommend that.  It depends on what proportion of
     6        the diet is derived from individual foods and that is the
     7        key to the matter.
     8
     9        A diet which tends to be dominated by one particular food
    10        can become inadequate.  For example, one that is based on
    11        entirely on rice, one is thinking of somebody, an
    12        improvished person living in South-East India, is likely to
    13        have a nutrient deficiency than a diet which is based on a
    14        very high fat food, like chips for example.  If somebody
    15        lived almost entirely on chips, because they are high in
    16        energy that would not constitute a balanced diet, but very
    17        few people live at these extremes.
    18
    19   Q.   Arising out of that, yesterday Mr. Morris read you a
    20        passage from the WHO report which went as follows:
    21
    22        "In developing countries, the products have the
    23        opportunity to intervene before the typical dietary
    24        patterns traditionally associated" -- I think it must be
    25        'without that' -- "has become widespread and established
    26        within their populations".  The quote then closed and
    27        Mr. Morris then asked you:
    28
    29        "So, basically, they" -- that is developing countries
    30         -- "should consider not going the same way as Western food
    31        industry has gone?"  You answered: "That might be a good
    32        idea, yes."
    33
    34        Having your eye on developing countries, can I ask you
    35        this, first of all:  Do you have any knowledge about
    36        dietary and nutritional questions in developing countries?
    37        A.  I do, yes.  I have spent a year and a half in Nigeria
    38        and I have acted as a consultant for WHO on numerous
    39        occasions.
    40
    41   Q.   Did you mean by that answer to suggest "yeah" or "nay",
    42        that it might be a bad idea for McDonald's to introduce
    43        their food into such countries?
    44        A.  No, I was thinking specifically of one particular
    45        aspect of Western diets if the question was really asking:
    46        Is it a good idea that Third World countries adopt Western
    47        dietary habit, I think that was the question,  the major
    48        Western dietary habit that I am aware of that I think is a
    49        major problem in the Western world is over consumption.
    50 
    51        If one looks at figures that I was shown yesterday in the 
    52        WHO Report on the incident of obesity, this is a major 
    53        problem with its associations with hypertension, diabetes
    54        cardio-vascular disease and so on and that is a dietary
    55        pattern that I would certainly not like to see developing
    56        in the Third World but that is a pattern of affluence, and
    57        I think the price that is being paid in the Third World for
    58        becoming more affluent, and one is really, to be honest,
    59        looking at a very small section of the population, the
    60        affluent prosperous section, they are paying the price of

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