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.

education is on many fronts, MB. TV, magazines, after school clubs all count too.

My old senior school had / has a farm where kids grew veg, as part of their environmental science classes when I was at school. this may not fit in with the current curriculum but couldn't similar activities be done with after school / holiday clubs? The Sure Tsart in Bridgwater ahd a Gardener doing similar with the littlies in the holidays, perhaps it could be rolled out?

(And I do agree RE they don't care, but I wonder if it goes in then starts to nag at about 30, much like smoking seems to? And it's easier to change diet than give up smoking)

It is the governments fault. They are responsible for education and with so many women forced into the workplace there is no one to teach our children how to eat and now there are parents who don't have a clue that crap food is bad for them.

Nutrition and cooking should be an obligatory subject at all schools to A levels, how the hell else are our kids going to find out how to shop for and plan a decent diet.

You have to give children the foundation to build on, if they don't know how to cook or have any appreciation of food, when they leave school and have their own income, they are just going to buy processed crap and so the cycle will continue.

Beacky ...you are the sort of teacher that I was thinking about when I said that people subvert the system. But FFS! Whys should you be frowned upon for doing such a fantastic thing???

I agree that TV and mags etc can help, but you can't guarentee that this will get to the kids who need it most.....and the same is true for after school clubs.

It was frowned upon because it was my turn to use the lightboxes and instead of going on to light and sound I was still whittering on about Food and Nutrition. So I do see their point. But really. In food tech all they were doing was consumer surveys about muffins.

The best part about the whole thing is that he is being totally "unpolitically correct" and I will back that one hundred percent!

For all the people who post 'my kid eats a some healthy stuff and eats his or her fruit and veg and drinks warer but we give him or her the odd packet of crisps - so am I bad parent, go on shoot me', no-one at any point, inc JO has sadi there is anything wrong with that. Just really want to clear that up so noone feels they have to say it. That's not what Jo is talking about.

And for anyone who does give their kids crisps and chocolate and additive laden food every day and doesn't give them a healthy balanced meal, as well as the odd treat of crisps and chocolate and cakes etc (SN's aside) I agree with Jamie, seems an idiotic and irresponsible thing to do imo.

LOL - and tyalking of balanced etc, Lottie is currently sat here munching on some steamed carrots and half a sausage roll!

Oh and Eve just had home grown spinach with fish but is now sucking on a twiglet!

Carmenere, are you saying that the reason so many people eat shite is because women are working???

(I am SO glad that DD1 took up school dinners. And that the said dinners, while not exactly fabulous, are far better than they used to be. I have absolutely no idea what JO is like in person, but I am extremely grateful that my daughter is getting food that is fairly OK.)

oh i must stop agreeing with thomcat

onyl YOU know what your kids eat
go adn get on wiht it

I promise you can be really rude to me later Cod, you know balance things out a bit.

Anyway, you own me, I have been nice about you on the 95th thread all about Cod

PMSL - I meant owe me not own me, LOL!!!!!!

BTW - off topic but. I don't think he was being politically incorrect. He was just being blunt and possibly a bit undiplomatic. Not the same thing.

and about bloody time, too.

"It is the governments fault. They are responsible for education and with so many women forced into the workplace there is no one to teach our children how to eat and now there are parents who don't have a clue that crap food is bad for them."

Oh so working mothers feed their children worse than SAHM now then???

I'm a working mother & no matter how late I've stayed at work or how tired I am I ALWAYS make sure a healthy packed lunch for both DD & I is in the fridge by the morning. Also some mothers aren't "forced" into the work place. I don't have to work but I want to.

& by healthy I don't mean no crisps, or chocolate or cake. I avoid giving LO crisps, but she often has a cake bar. I prefer my LO to eat packed lunches as she is a bit fussy (something we're trying to overcome) & I prefer to give her something that I know she likes rather than have her pick a meal & then only eat the parts she likes.

All the talk about food on it's own is wrong IMO. Being healthy also includes exercise & although eating healthy is a start to becoming more healthy exercise is also very important. Even eating a very healthy diet would be useless if you did no exercise.

Jamie Oliver's article (or what he supposedly said) annoyed me. Some children have the odd day of "crap" food. Nothing's wrong with the odd day. I know in some cases it is every day. But if "crap" was banned then you could never have a treat day. It'd be like saying you can't eat chocolates at work or drink coffee everyday as that is crap & potentially bad for you!

Banning things is extreme. Come on we don't live in a dictatorship, well maybe that's too come. For older children education is probably key - if they can't eat what they want they'll just get it at the shop on the way home instead.

No Mother Inferior, I am saying that the government hasn't addressed the changes in society that have happened in the past 20 years. SAHM's do a valuable job, one that cannot be totally replaced by childcare.

Have to disagree.

Most cooking skills are/should be passed down from parent to child within in the home. Whilst there are lots of full time parents out there, I dont think it comes anywhere near equating with the lack of skill and knowledge over all.

Fruit and veg vouchers? Why? Veg are literally dirt cheap. Far cheaper than a pack of potato waffles/smiles, and a tin of beans.

And for those that have gardens...they are even cheaper.

Re giving your kids the odd bag of crisps once in a while: this is all very well, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I would suggest that to put it in your child's lunchbox is anti-social. In a year of let's say 60 pupils who are having packed lunches, if all 60 parents decide that they're going to occasionally (once a week?) give their kids crisps, spread out over the week that would mean a significant percentage of children on any one day are eating junk food as part of their lunch. On an individual basis, that doesn't really matter if it only happens once a week or fortnight, but from the point of view of schools trying to push a healthy eating agenda, and parents trying to sustain an overall healthy diet with junk being seen as an occasional treat, what it means in reality is that kids get the impression that there's always lots of people eating junk and therefore it's the norm.

This isn't just about the food per se, imo, it's about an ethos. And the parents at my child's school who occasionally give their kids unhealthy crap in their lunch boxes, collectively undermine the parents who don't (and the school which constantly tells them not to), because when a quarter of kids every day on average are eating rubbish, it's almost impossible for parents and teachers to promote the message that crisps, sweets etc. are occasional, rather than regular foods.

I think it's the difference between the choices you make for your home and those you make for school. And I think you have to bear in mind that you're sending your child into a communal rather than private environment, so your choices will impact other children and families. And that's where for me, the "everything in moderation" argument falls down, because as with uniform, homework, etc., schools can't do moderation, they have to have blanket practices so that there's no ambiguity.

jesus blondie!

i am with jamie - allthese excuses are a load of fucking shite.

if someone told me they didnt realise that an energy drink if going to make their kids buzzed - i would slap them accross the face with a digital camera and say ...."NO"

there is no excuse - ignorance about what food has vitimins - yeah ok granted.

lazyness - yeah ok

its like food in general - everyone know mushed up chicken processed into shapes and full of fuck knows what is not good

deep fat fry it = no good

its not rocket science

its not

everyone knows what food is good what food is bad

cooking it - well theres your problem
buying it on a strict budget
another problem

ut not knowing

thats bollocks
bollocks bollocks

its just bolloks

see i am lazy. mushed up chicken shit all round.

the only guilt i feel - (sadly) is that the packaging is plastic

right am off to get my oven chips out oand slap em on abutty with lashings of salt.

why?

becuase i am fucking lazy. i just worked all day and i cant be arsed.

am i ill educated
no

People may know good food from bad when they stop and think about it but i bet there are loads of parents out there who go onto automatic pilot and fon't think about what they make their kids. There are a group of women out there, tired and worn out, some sahm, some wohm and they walk round that supermarket with a glazed look and they don't even look at what they are buying let alone stop an think. Arm reaches out, chucks in white thick bread, arm reaches out grabs te crisps, arm reaches and grabs fruit shoot, cakes, chocolate "all the things they love, they won't eat anything else".
They need to be slapped round the face and made to stop and think.
They need to be shown alternatives, alternatives they can afford.

If all I bought were hula hoops that's all my Dd would eat.
I don't buy them, don't have them in the house and when she asks for crisps I just give her 'the bowl' and she picks out a healthy snack of her choice.

My mate gives her Ds wotsits and cocktail sausages for breakfast cos 'thta's all he'll eat'. Now that's bollocks. It's all he'll eat cos he knows you'll buy it for him love, he knows you give in and if he refuses veg you'll say oh okaaaaayyyy, here's a packet of wotsits, bless him. That's SHIT.

I agree with every word of Thomcat's post.

What a good idea. Lets slap Mums round the face that are not making perfect choices.

Its one thing giving wotsits for breakfast i agree but another thing being so fucking judgemental just because they might have a bag of crisps.

I think most Mums try and do their best, and because they are tired and cant stand the thought of yet another tea time drama will OCCASIONALLY give in to a pre packed pizza or a packet of cheese and onion.

Just a small point, but the quote is "If you give them bags of crisps". The Times piece goes on to quote him as saying, "?I have seen kids of the ages of 4 or 5, the same age as mine, open their lunchbox and inside is a cold, half-eaten Mc- Donald?s, multiple packets of crisps and a can of Red Bull. We laugh and then want to cry.? Seems pretty obvious that it's the parents responsible for these extremes that he's slagging off.

But as people keep patiently saying, MSTG, those aren't the type of parents JO is criticising.

Nothing wrong with pizza, btw. Carb, veg, protein - as long it's not one of these high salt full of shite ones, pizza's an excellent food, I don't know why people are so snobby about it - I just wish my DS would it eat it.

And I hope all you perfect foodies never have more than 1 bloody glass of wine a day either.

You never know WHAT serious damage you could be doing to your liver.

rant

sometimes it just gets so extra on here.

right. Off to calm myself. Dont know whats wrong with me today...