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
