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.

Maybe should just whack some crackers and butter in, along with the other bits. Think rice and pasta salad would be deemed unacceptable. Should make some for home and get him to try at this end. He is an odd sausage - think a lot of it is peer pressure.

"If I packed him up pittas and fruit etc he'd bring it all back with him and be starving."

Have you actually done it? More than once? What about sitting down with him and getting him to go through some ideas with you. He can choose from a list what's going to go in his lunch each day and can also choose a treat. Possibly if he feels a bit more involved and, crucially, you stick with it for a bit, he may well surprise you.

i do cracker snad himous some days - waitrose and maybe tesco sell tiny weeny homousses

fridays is crap lunch box day
they have gone today with chocolate spread sarnies and quavers
once a week is fine imo

ho ho and of course i haev one of htese for the crakers

willow2 - my ds is hard to please as well, but as for the crackers and butter - he ate 3 mid morning today, complaining he didn't like them without even trying, so I do as I usually do and left them out for a while, a few minutes later he'd eaten then all! Maybe there's hope yet.

If he eats crackers willow put them in! Got to have crackers and cheese for lunch now mmmm

oh willow wiht the bread i say if they dont eat them first ) ( as apprently he mdsas asre supposed to make them)
t ehn the next day the yog/ biscuit or whatever coems OUT

haveing been in school most mums give theri kdis far too much to eay btw
i cut the sranies into tiny weeny little cubes sometiems of comedy shapes

What , you mean you don't have one of those tupperware boxes that are split into about four different compartments? Cod, I am astounded.

ho-kay...

haven't had time to read everything but just wanted to say that i've actually seen the new programme. he does say exactly the quote that's been attributed to him so it's not a misquote.

the last part is not entirely in context, though. at the time he says it he's heard that in schools in lincolnshire they have no cooking facilities, so kids are eating (none-too-inpressive) packed lunches, and the headmistress of one primary has just told him that many of the children aren't given breakfast and that when they go home they aren't cooked a hot meal.

So i think that's where the hot meal thing comes from, i don't think he's suggesting that you should send them in with lasagne, he's talking about parents who don't cook at all in the home, so nothing is balancing out the crap.

but you will be shocked when you see the results of his 'junk food' amnesty, which he holds at the school in greenwich with the wonderful Saint Nora of Ireland. the packed 'lunches' are frightening.

i've met J Oliver, and i thought he was a bit of a pr*, but you can't argue with his commitment to this project. (Unless you're his wife ).

coderoo, are you Annabel Karmel?

Is cod being sensible, on a food thread.
Come on Cod, what's happened to you, get someones back up, come on, come onnnnn

btw - i just got one of those lunch boxes that is split up into compartments. You can open it either way, front or back and it has different sized compartments depending which side you open. I don't get it. If DD open it front ways and I packed intot he back compartments as the size compartments were better it's gonna be upside down and fall out all over the place.

Message withdrawn

Mmm I remember sugar sandwiches too. Flabby white bread with spread with thick real butter and pressed into the sugar bowl!!

I also remember one of my grannies giving me sweetened condensed milk in a bowl with white bread to dip in... thought I was in heaven.

Oh ffs!!!! I wish he would calm down a bit. There's nothing wrong with a packet of crisps in a lunch box, there is nothing wrong with the occasional fizzy drink. It's all about balance. (I could write this in my f*ing sleep I've posted it so many time on so many fora). A sandwich, fruit and a packet of crisps seems a reasonable packed lunch to me. Mine would chuck hummus and quiche back in my face if I gave it to them...and beleive me it's not for want of trying on my part

If crisps and fizzy drink is ALL you give your kids you have a problem. If it's part of a balanced diet you don't.

jolallie, if you look at his website, he says to give your kids crisps now and then and pizza. He's helping to educate the people who don't even think of introducing anything even slighly healthy, and they do exist and they do nbeed to be shown an alternative way.

I wish our school would just put on decent lunches. That way I could just send the money and not have to worry about the contents of DS's lunchbox and whether he is gonna come off the school bus wearing his yogurt of an afternoon!

thomcat - I confess I reacted to the quote in the OP. But I'm not sure how calling people who give their children crisps 't*ssers' actually forwards the cause of good balanced nutrition... Beleive me I've seen the contents of some lunchboxes at my kids school and it's horrifying. Containing nothing that occurs in nature..... just in factories. But I hate polarisation of any issue - especially one so important.

it's not just down to jamie though, schools have been on about healthy eating for years and years. i just think someone like mr oliver is more interested in helping his own bank balance.

3 cheers for Jamie. I think he is fab. He doesnt have to line himself up as a target for angry parents. He does it because food is something he is passionate about. He is also a father - i dont think you can ignore that (whatever you think/assume of his work circumstances).

Someone said he was was brighter than alot of parents...I would disagree - from what i know - he wasnt "academic". He does care though, and he is passionate about food. Its indisputable. Im sure he has offended some people - there always will be people that disagree.

On the whole, this can only be a good thing, ultimately. Crisps should be treats, as should fizzy drinks biscuits etc. Not part of daily "nutrition". I know some children have eating difficulties of one sort or another. They are exceptions though. My DD has difficulties. However, the things that cause us a problem are the foods make in a factory that makes so many products that there is a cross contamination (nuts) risk. That poses quite a serious risk to my DD. So, biscuits, cakes, crisps etc could be quite dangerous for my DD. I think lunchboxes should be policed - if for this reason only.

Sorry - but that kind of processed stuff (want to say junk...) could harm my child, and I'd be very happy if it was banned from the school grounds - keep it for children to have at home, thank you.

How has it helped his bank balance sea?

schools/gov have been pussyfooting around about this for yrs! Haven't truly been advocating it as in actually doing something about it on a national, meaningful scale! If so, why the vending machines, why the chips everyday? why the tolerance of unhealthy lunchboxes, etc etc.
Good for Jamie - don't care if he earns a fortune over this, it's worth it!

i am a 'lazy' cook, but since dd1 allergic reactions(lips, eyes swelling differculty breathing) have gone off the scale the last 6months, we are all eating healthier as a result. i am reading labels at supermarkets, and my kids now say 'we cant have that it has colourings in it' or 'does that have nuts?'

and now the school canteen have the healthy cafe style food i am happy knowing what she is eating. i worry that if i do send her with packed lunches then she may 'swap' something with a friend, and eat something now not suitable.

at lunchtimes at home, its soups, sandwiches or picnic style food followed with fruit.

i saw a ladt at the supermarket once, her child was about the same age as dd3 (not school age, 18months-ish), and her trolly was full up with those lunchable things. at a guess i'd say about 20 packs. that made me feel really sad. tose things arent good are they?