"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.

All people who work long hours, or just women or parents?

*I'łl sorry! Silly phone! ~

I once saw some 60p mussels. They were on a supermarket reduced counter. They reeked. Later that week, a friend of my mother bought some reduced meat from that counter, and my mother phoned me up to tell me all about his diarrhoea over the next 48 hours.

There's a lesson there for us all.

I expect he just means those struggling to raise families on minimum wage and zero hours contracts.

He won't be referring to rich people who work and moan about it.

Interesting fight thread.

I'm pretty sure JO is referring to a family they filmed for Ministry of Food. It was a young mum and toddler, and she did feed her lo takeaway in a polystyrene box on the floor because she did not know what else to do. It wasn't that she wasn't willing, or didn't have time, but she just did not know to shop and cook and put a meal together.

And yes she had a big fat tv, but I think the point JO is making that she wasn't so desperately poor she couldn't buy anything that cost more than 40p - because surely you would always sell the big tv or at least take it back to bright house if you literally couldn't afford to feed your child - so it was more poverty of knowledge than poverty of funds that was causing the problem.

And yes there are lots of people producing good nutritious food on a budget, but there are also lots an d lots like this girl who just don't know how to do it.

He is a well known voice, he has influence, he has good intentions. Good prices are rising, wages and benefits agree falling, so he wants to focus on low budget family food - that's a GOOD thing surely? It will draw attention to the issue, spark debate, maybe bring about some changes.

Also, done people seem to be not getting the fact that Fifteen is not for progit charitable trust. That means he does not make a profit on it. And he set up the first one ages ago, well before Jamie's Italian and lots of his really big business ventures.

I love the way well-off people feel the need to tell 'the poor' how to spend their money.

Nigel inadequate housing is a huge issue and if JO points out the fact that not having decent housing means that a poly dish of crap is all you can feed your children then that is a good thing - he is highlighting this as an issue that is a consequence of poor quality housing.

He is spectacularly missing the point then. The problem is poverty. The problem is inequality. It is not about people's unwillingness to fanny about with tins of tomatoes and value pasta.

Rich people also eat and drink too much but no-one seems to be banging on about 'educating' them.

It is so fucking patronising.

he takes a travel cooker into the room of Twizzlers and eats them while contemplating who next to insult

I love this idea. I'm picturing him hunkered jealously over an enormous pile of grey meat, grease running down his chin.

Limited I bet that's what is happening. He has A Twizzler Addiction.

It's not their money ubik. It's our money, because they're all on benefits. We can make them do whatever we want for our entertainment because we own them.

Dance, dolescum, dance. Hahahahaha!

Rich people also eat and drink too much but no-one seems to be banging on about 'educating' them.

JO comments related to someone on a low income being too poor to buy better food.

I have only heard rich fat people say they are stressed or don't care/enjoy their food.

being too poor = saying they are too poor

Can I clarify my onion&tomatoes point that seems to be taken out of context - if you read back my point is:

You can make a pasta sauce cheaper than you can buy one from a jar - all that is Needed (I'm not saying desired) is an onion & tomatoes, and that just because you don't have any basil, black pepper its not a dramatically different sauce and makes a perfectly delicious thick passata sauce that I, personally, love. And am happy to eat. Even if I didnt have an onion I wouldnt be moaning, Id be very happy. And this is not because Im pants at cooking, I just wouldn't think it a major issue to be out of essential ingredients.

Im sorry if some people are not happy with this minimalist eating - I wasnt saying you would want to eat this every day or should eat it every day(its clearly not a balanced diet). I was only saying I find it perfectly fine to eat and wouldnt say the extra cost of a jar of pasta sauce is essential just because you dont have any basil/black pepper.

Any investment in herbs and spices obviously massively opens up cooking possibilities.

Im not saying the 'poor' should eat onions & tomatoes, Im just saying I am very happy to. If I didn't have a cooker Id probably eat a lot of chopped tomatoes on toast - which I also love. but thats just me, I love tomatoes. So I guess Im lucky my food tastes are cheap. Cant believe how much my own food preferences annoy some people.

Plus there's a lot of people who'd be bloody over the moon to have an onion and tomatoes included in their diet.

Faster, that is an awful thing to say! So there is no one out there reliant on food banks?

Of course everyone is just lying about not being able to afford basic, nutritious food?

i have not said anyone is lying.

Even if I didnt have an onion I wouldnt be moaning, Id be very happy.

YY People are so entitled these days. I used to be really happy with just an orange in my Christmas stocking.

Played with it for weeks, I did. Then I licked the mould off and turned it into a nourishing stew flavoured with my own toe jam that I'd carefully saved.

Really dont get whats wrong with liking onions & tomatoes!

See I have to disagree with that Empress. It's a tin of tomatoes with some chopped onion. It's not a sauce. That's like saying that if you can't afford to make cheese sauce, you just use milk and flour. It will just about do the job but it's not comparing like with like.

And as anyone who regularly uses tins of tomatoes knows, the 33p variety (significantly more if not bought from a supermarket) is actually very thin and watery, not a "delicious thick passata sauce". Not a problem if you're using it as a base for a proper sauce, adding several onions, garlic, basil, simmering it down, etc., but used in its own right simply as a topping for pasta, you'll just end up eating soggy pasta that, once eaten, leaves you with a pile of chopped tomatoes swimming in juice on your plate.

And why doesn't anyone get that selling the TV is only a temporary solution. Most people don't have a TV to sell every month. What do they do then?

if someone says i cannot do something because of X,Y,Z, others will ask if that is really the reason or are they making excuses/avoiding making changes to their own life. sometime it will be correct to be sceptical and sometimes it wont.

if someone says i could do something but am choosing not too - they are taking responsibility for themselves. maybe not very well. but they aren't blaming anyone else.

i cannot abide tomatoes so i'm always buggered when people come out with the only 'from scratch' meals they reckon are cheaper. also ds would rather starve to death than put mince in his mouth, i kid you not.

one thing that gets overlooked is small families like me and ds - it is impossible to buy a variety of veg that will either not go rotten before you get through it (especially given supermarket 'fresh' produce is pretty much sold at the point of going rotten these days) or isn't sold at a ridiculously high price simply for being available in small quantities.

yes jamie it would be lovely if there was a little shop round the corner that would sell me veg at the same price per weight at small quantities as at large quantities but i've never found one.

i'd also like to know where you can buy 1 onion solo for 9p.

I love tinned tomatoes, plum or chopped. I regularly have them on toast, or with egg. Cheap, heathy and nutritious.

The tinned tomato bashing needs to stop!