Day 055 - 25 Nov 94 - Page 47
1 diet -----
2
3 Q. Please, I do not want to be impolite, but leave "diet" out
4 of it. It may be that "healthy food" or "healthy meals"
5 are a kind of a shorthand. I am not concerned with that.
6 What I want to know is whether you agree with me that it
7 makes no sense to talk of healthy food or healthy meals as
8 items in themselves?
9 A. The point I would like to make ---
10
11 Q. Very well.
12 A. --- is that it is primarily healthy foods which go to
13 make up a healthy diet.
14
15 Q. What do you mean by "healthy foods"?
16 A. The kinds of foods which I would say are healthy are
17 those which are not high in fats or high in sugars, which
18 do not include large amounts of salt, and which contain
19 suitable amounts of micro nutrients, such as vitamins and
20 minerals within them.
21
22 Q. Which is, surely, only a shorthand way of saying: "Do not
23 eat too many of such foods or you will have an unbalanced
24 and, therefore, possibly unhealthy diet"; is that right?
25 A. Yes. Those foods that do not fall within that
26 classification that I have given, generally, are foods
27 which should be eaten less regularly than foods that one
28 may provide the shorthand of "healthy".
29
30 Q. You see, the reason I am asking you these questions is not
31 that I perceive you to hold yourself out as a nutritional
32 expert. I know that you do not. It is this: you are a
33 member of an organisation which has for, it appears, at
34 least ten years campaigned -- and I do not use that word in
35 any pejorative sense at all -- to improve the eating habits
36 of the citizens of this country; would that be fair?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. Would you disagree with this proposition, that, leaving
40 aside foods which are naturally toxic or unnaturally
41 contaminated, it does not matter a row of beans (if may use
42 an unfortunate pun) what food you eat, so long as you eat
43 it in balance and moderation?
44 A. It matters inasmuch as food and the balance that is
45 provided by those foods is one that is going to promote
46 well-being and health rather than be detrimental to it.
47
48 Q. If you say to me that it depends what you mean by
49 "balance", of course I entirely agree with you -- and,
50 indeed, what you mean by "moderation".
51
52 Ms. Dibb, how is The Food Commission to be distinguished in
53 our mind from The National Food Alliance?
54 A. The Food Commission is a member organisation of The
55 National Food Alliance. I read out yesterday the aims and
56 objectives of The National Food Alliance. It is an
57 alliance; it has a large number of members.
58
59 Q. I see -- of which The Food Commission is merely one?
60 A. Yes.
