"they ate fast food and junk food but had splashed out of a plasma TV."

[ConfusedPixie]

This comment just came up on the radio news, supposedly said by Jamie Oliver about one of the families he was working with in his new TV show.

AIBU to wonder how the fuck what you eat relates to what TV you have?

Surely this just reinforces stereotypes of the people likely to have bad diets through lack of education on the matter? What a bullshit statement.

Theres plenty of free fishing here in cornwall too bty! (im a veggie so not advocating it - but again its a free and fun thing to do with children - my brothers were 12 and making money from fishing by selling it to the local restaurants)

Nobody ever did from a lack of cake or chocolate or biscuits or crisps either Sal.

Most people I know haven't got the space for a full sized freezer let alone to hang venison hinds. Allotmenteering also costs a lot of money - rent alone is some people's annual veg bill and in terms of time it is very labour intensive. But we shouldn't have to be resorting to this. The supermarkets have plenty of spare cash to put their prices at an affordable level.

The TV is a complete non relevance. You don't buy a TV every week. It is a one-off expense. The lack of a TV is unlikely to make any significant difference to someone's food budget. Most of the 'poor people' I know have flatscreen TVs now simply because they've been out a long time now and most people know someone who's replaced theirs and either has donated the old one or sold it at a low price.

I am not on benefits and never have been (though I have spent several years as working poor living beneath the poverty line). My TV is a 32" flatscreen I paid less than £100 for because someone was selling it. Even if I sold it and used the money on food, it wouldn't provide more than a month's worth of food, so next month I'd have no extra money for food and no TV to watch either. How does that help?

Right, I'm getting a fishing net and am off down the Tyne to see what I can forage for tea. Might find a half eaten kebab if I'm lucky.

I agree with Empress that a sugar tax and fat tax is well overdue. Fat has already gone up in price but if they priced crisps and mars bars at £1 people would eat them a lot less.

here middle class children more likely to be obese

It's obviously Jamie's crisp sandwich recipe that's responsible.

I think many of these celebrity chef recipes are incredibly rich in fat and salt. Good food can be very simple (boiled egg for breakfast) but whole celebrity chef culture seems to have inspired people to eat brioche, or muesli etc

Seasicksal the developed world has terrible heath! We dont die from malnutrition no, but we die from obesity & heart disease.

Im not necessarily advocating a tax on food although it may make sense to tax macdonalds etc where food is so cheap but so unhealthy, but the high fat food dependence directly costs the NHS billions - so why is it different from smoking? No ones going to die because of taxing high fat foods - they just will no longer be the cheapest option.

We already have plenty of nanny state laws such as preventing cigarette advertising, displaying in shops, I see healthy eating as very similar.

There is no fucking way I am eating anything that's come out of the Clyde.

it bugs me because when you are skint you are not a person anymore, but a problem to be solved

fuck off :(

I don't understand why people are using the fact that both parents work for not cooking meals for their kids.

Both my parents worked, and the only time we ever had ready meals was very occasionally when my sister and I badgered my mum.

I think that JO is raising an important issue of lack of education of cooking and budgetting. We had home economics at school, and watched parents cooking at home. Seems like that is whats needed.... Possibly sponsored by local supermarkets.

If the government imposed a tax on "unhealthy" food, chances are they'd follow the NHS's advice and encourage people to eat a high carb, low fat (high sugar) diet, which will increase the obesity problem.

There is more to obesity in this country than poverty. It's going to take far more than JO standing on his soapbox to tackle it effectively.
JO may be trying to help, but by not understanding how people have arrived in the situation where they eat crap, he's coming across as a judgemental twat with no idea of the real world.

child obesity is a problem. Middle class or poor either way.

BrokenSunglasses if a tax was put on what some people class as junk, such as chips, noodles, reclaimed meat and high fat products then you would have, if not people dying, then people suffering from malnutrition and health problems.

Anyway, I hate this idea that when you are poor doing something like eating a piece of chocolate cake is morally wrong.

Why do you have this idea that if you are poor you should be denied anything nice?

This idea that the -poor must be 'forced' to eat healthy things is very Victorian. Like they have to atone for the sins that led to them being poor.

Jamie Oliver is fat. Why is it acceptable that he is fat but poor people shouldn't be?

Boozybear where do you find a wholesaler which will do this? Genuine question. I don't have any freezer at present, but I'm getting one and this is what I'd like to use it for.

I did not say the people are disgusting, I said the way they eat is. It is unhealthy and very, very bad for their children.

I bet none of you give your children chips and cheese from the takeaway for dinner, in a styrofoam container and plonk them infront of the TV.

Bet you don't - do you?

Rich and por people can be fat, either can eat like he has discribed, if you eat like that, you will be fat.

Boozy I do the same,

along with 20 kilo bags of potatoes that I make and freeze.

Our local wholesalers is bookers but you need to have a company number or vat number to use it.

My kids have eaten chips from the chippy in front of the telly,yes.

Why do you have this idea that if you are poor you should be denied anything nice?

I don't have that idea, you are making that up yourself. Again, I will say that not everything is about poor people!

McDonald's isn't unhealthy and it certainly isn't cheap. It's meat and bread and lettuce. The local Chinese or Indian is far more unhealthy.

Sorry, I have Spanish autocorrect

Well, good for you usual well done.

I bet none of you give your children chips and cheese from the takeaway for dinner, in a styrofoam container and plonk them infront of the TV.

The only time my children have eaten chips out of styrofoam is when we have had a day trip to the beach and finished it off with going to the fish and chip shop. And bloody lovely it was too, but it's not something that happens at home. If we want to eat crap at home we phone a pizza!