Jamie Olivers rant about packed lunches.

[misdee]

LONDON (Reuters) - Jamie Oliver, the television chef famous for his crusade to improve school dinners, lashed out at parents on Thursday over the food they give to their children.

Speaking at the launch of his new TV programme, Oliver said 70 percent of packed lunches in were "disgraceful" and he would like to see them banned.

He said the decisions parents made regarding the diets of their children
were sometimes just plain wrong.
"I've spent two years being politically correct about parents but it's time to say, if you're giving your young kids fizzy drinks, you're an a*hole and a tosser," Oliver said.

"If you give them bags of crisps, you're an idiot. If you aren't cooking them a hot meal, sort it out."

Oliver said headteachers were too frightened of some parents to tell them what they should give their child to bring to school.

He was particularly critical of parents who give their children Red Bull an energy drink when they are tired, saying it was not much better than giving them a line of cocaine.

Oliver's new programme, "Jamie's Return to School Dinners", is a follow-up to his successful Channel 4 series on improving school meals.

I was talking to a mum in the part the other day who said her lunch box has been dictated by the other children. Her daughter started school last year and would frequently come home crying because basically her lunch box was in effect crap, no crisps chocolate etc. in the end the mum gave in. peer pressure is a pretty big issue it would seem even with packed lunches.

Well, I agree with a lot of what you say mummydoc, but all that's going to take a bit of time. Changing school dinner menus doesn't. Of course he isn't the saviour of good family food. But improving school meals is not a bad achievement.

But change isn't effected overnight.
Why do you have to diss someone who genuinely wants to make a difference. Who cares if he starts with turkey twizzlers? At least he started.

very sad to leave this debate - afternoon surgery beckoning, i'll try hard to remember not to offer a jelly baby from my jar to any child who has been brave / good.

Precisely, niceglases.

However I do think his heart's in the right place and things do seem to be moving with regard to cooked school lunches. Not at our school mind you as we don't have any provision for them so it's not an issue I personally have to worry about.

I'd be interested to see what happened if our school banned crisps etc. We already have a ban on chocolate and fizzy drinks and anything containing nuts (which is a pain as all my kids love nuts and they are so nutritious - but I understand why it has to be). Some of the kids lunch boxes would be empty. I'd also like to see the teacher's trying to police the lunch boxes - some of our parents are a little ermmm...rough round the edges !! Sorry Mrs ScaryParent but little Tyson isn't allowed Monster Munch and Dairy Lee Lunchables in school...... Ha!

This is from the Times today .
Will the parents that he appears to be targetting watch his programme anyway?

How can the government change people's attitude to food?

mummydoc
most medical poeple on here try to hide the factt hat they are!

do you not fear pople asking you for advice allt he time>

mummydoc, i'd have to refuse the jellybabies.

i think she must have been joking

Jellybabies are horrible choking hazards to under 5's, aren't they?

Whoever said about the lunchboxes being dictated by other children (IE, other parents) - that is so depressing and it really does annoy me that the lowest common denominator is what we all have to fight against in terms of peer pressure. DS didn't want olives in his lunch box a few months ago, because the Tyson-kids laughed at him; but I continued to put them in, and he continues to eat them, because he likes them and he's hungry.

Frankly, I would rather my son came home starving than ate shit every day. Being hungry for a couple of weeks while he gets used to the fact that this is what his lunch box contains, is not going to do him any long term harm; giving him a packet of crips, a fruit shoot and something produced in a factory every day for lunch for years, probably will.

Education how? We have copious amounts of sex ed in schools, yet record teenage pregnancies. We already teach children about healthy eating and balanced diets. It's in the national curriculum. It's covered in Science, Food Tech, PSHE. They KNOW it. They just don't DO it. And if you try to educate adults - how would that work. Show me an adult who hasn't heard of "5-a-day". It's all over the place. People already mutter about the "nanny state". Is the government really to blame because people choose to feed their kids red bull and crisps?

yes
odd thing to say

hmmm now harm as been brought into the equation, next we will be saying its abuse

I was the kid in the class with the weird stuff in her lunch box (avocadoes with home made coleslaw, home made brown bread with home made pate ect) and yes I did long for the white bread luncheon meat sandwiches and mars bar lunches but I appreciate now the effort my mother put into our nutrition.
It made me a stronger person(ie not afraid to be different) and gave me a life-long love of real food(I trained as a chef and have studied nutrition)

Sort it out???

Is he taking the michael?

I sent ds1 hot dinners, they refused toa ccept hisa llergies (despite letter from dietician) and gave him milk every day- cue stomach pains and diarrhoea

Send him again?

peachy repeats swear words under her breath at the idea

(he has diluted juice, fruit, dairy free yoghurt, homemade flapjack and a sald btw)

But we can't pretend a constant diet of shite food is not harmful, Fio. The word "harm" is not unreasonable in this context. And all J O is saying, it seems to me, is that we should all stop being so bloody sensitive about it and call a spade a spade. As I said earlier, I don't think this kind of language or tone would be appropriate from a health professional (it would be intimidation) but from a celeb chef or people chatting on the internet, it's fair enough imo.

I just think its all about moderation. Usually I love JO but this article irritated me. I had a health nut dad as a child and he was way before the time with colourings/preservatives. my food was strictly monitored. Consequently I grew up with an obsession for butterscotch angel delight. I think if he'd allowed me the odd packet of crisps I wouldn't have cared nearly so much about getting hold of the crap. I cook loads of healthy stuff in our house but I'd never call someone who has the odd packet of crisps an idiot. Yes we'd all love to be making our cakes from scratch as treats but some of us have to work for a living. (comment to Jules not Jamie)