Jamie Oliver, famous chef, thwarted by parents

[Azurite22]

He's pretty damn famous. I'm sure Greg has heard of him. Anyhoo, a year or so ago, he started promoting healthy eating in schools. He was thwarted, as you can read below:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006430142,00.html

Thoughts on this? How do you feel this reflects on the USA/Canadian obesity epidemic that's going on right now?

[Deacon]

What the hell??

I guess fatties will be fatties.

[Deacon]

It's hard to tell from the picture, as none of the children are pictured. Would you prefer that I say "would-be fatties will be would-be fatties" instead?

Regardless, these people are selling kids junk food. The kids are sent to school with money from their parents to buy food at the school, and instead the kids are spending it on junk food. Of course kids want to eat ho-hos and twinkies and cheeseburgers and chips! At least an effort is being made to make an attempt at making somewhat healthier foods available. Where in the article (or anywhere else) does it say, "they only get served disgusting rubbish and they are starving"? And regarding your notions about "keeping the kids at a healthy level of whatever it is in fast food," I guess I'm just having a hard time telling whether your entire post is sarcastic or what...

[adciv]

Thoughts on this? How do you feel this reflects on the USA/Canadian obesity epidemic that's going on right now?

It'a also Europe having the problem as well. So, it's more like a 'first world epidemic', if you must use that term.

That said, show me what the school cafeteria offers, then let me make up my mind. I don't see them say anything except about a pizza lunch which, I imagine, is only one of the meals.

Now, on the flipside, my high-school had a mall shuttle at lunch, and took orders for Pizza, Chinese food and subway. If we got enough orders, they delivered. Height/Weight entering my High School: 4'11"/145lb, leaving High School: 5'5.5"/135lb.

The kids are sent to school with money from their parents to buy food at the school, and instead the kids are spending it on junk food.

Not necessarily. Some parents may know that there kids are doing this and either support it or don't care.

[Mae Dean]

Lucksi, you're bordering on retarded.

While I cannot support actually FORCING the kids to eat stuff they don't want to eat, how can you applaud parents who are literally just giving in to their kids? Do they do the same thing at home? Why would their kids want to eat meatloaf when they could have Ice Cream? "No, mom, I refuse to eat the dinner you've prepared for me." "Oh, you POOR DEAR! If you won't eat this, what WILL you eat?" "I want twinkies!!" "Coming right up, dear."

Sickening. Those people are completely unfit to be parents. I'm absolutely appalled they would do this. And your support of it is maddening.

[Roberpb0270]

I agree with Greg, twinkies =/= food. But I don't blame the parents for shoving edible food through the fence. But ignorance is on both sides in this argument. Jamie Oliver doesn't know what good tasting "healthy" food tastes like, and the parents have the the same problem just from the opposite end of the spectrum. Something my parents and everyone else in my family has told me is to eat "in moderation" and it seems to work well.

[Azurite22]

I would think Jamie Oliver knows what healthy food is, and how good tasting food is. Check him out on wiki or imdb. He's second in the UK only to Ramsey.

Look, health food isn't what people think it is, tofu burgers with wheat..sauce and...christ, I dunno. (Granted, I don't know what peoples problem with tofu is..it doesn't taste like anything, it takes on the properties of whatever you cook it in) Healthy food can be chicken, beef, salads, fruits, etc. These are all delicious.

By the way, I found another link, the wiki of Jamie Oliver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliv ... _Criticism

In September, 2006, Jamie Oliver and Rawmarsh Community School, South Yorkshire, UK, made front page headlines after a group of parents revolted against Oliver's lunch scheme, in which all 1100 pupils on site were fed two portions of fruit and three vegetables every day. The parents, declaring, "Our kids have the right to eat what they like," took orders over the school fence for nearby sandwich and fast-food outlets. The food was then delivered over the fence to the waiting pupils.

Two servings of fruits and vegetables. That's not inedible, disgusting crap.

As for moderation, Roberpb0270, thats all well and good, but without education, it means nothing...and these children aren't getting the education.

And above all else, whats disgusting and unedible to you may not be to someone else..

[Gowerlypuff]

From the little I know about the general UK populace, it was probably them going against the "I actually know what's good for kids" that Mr Oliver was promoting. If you even begin to criticise most parents they will start shouting "HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST THAT I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR MY CHILDREN?!? FUCK YOU WITH A RAKE" and then proceed to get walked over by their brat of a child. That's just the culture these days. Parents like to believe they know what's best for their kids, refuse to accept outside influences, and then continue to fail at life. Sad, but... well, just sad.

Edit: Further to this, I fully agree with what Jamie is doing. Well, apart from the fact he seems to be owned by Sainsbury's, he's doing what he can to help the kids. They have a choice of what to eat at the school, by the looks of it. There's nothing there that looks disgusting:

Pizza, plus fruit
Baked Potatoes
Sandwiches.

It's not like they're saying "YOU SHALL EAT CARDBOARD AND LIKE IT". There's a good selection of healthy foods there, but the parents are saying that it's starving the kids? Look at the wings on the woman on the right in the picture, too. Quite obviously hasn't seen an apple in a good few months.

Edit: Greg, I think Luksi was being sarcastic. But then, I didn't think they had sarcasm in Germany.

[Azurite22]

He added: “I’ve seen kids of four or five — the same age as mine — open their lunchbox and inside is a cold, half-eaten McDonald’s, multiple packets of crisps and a can of Red Bull. We laugh — and then want to cry.”

I mean....keee-rist!

[adciv]

Pizza is actually a balanced meal, if you think about it.
Meat - Toping
Dairy - Cheese
Grain - Crust
Fruit/Vegetable - Toping/Tomato Sauce

3 out of the 4 right off the bat, eh? Never understood why it was considered a junk food.

Back to this.

in which all 1100 pupils on site were fed two portions of fruit and three vegetables every day.

If that was all, I could understand the complaint. Two portions is not a lunch. But there is, apparently, more to it. Hell, give me an orange and a banana.

[ampersand]

I just hope the food actually tasted good. If anything, there should be a cry for competent food service workers who can churn out mass-productions of food that is both healthy and taste pretty good. I never really started to like spinach until I learned that you can have it raw instead of cooked and wilted.

I think that's the legacy behind the current crop of television kitchen celebrities. Good and healthy food, not just food that's healthy, but taste like soylent green.

[RadicalDreamer]

Jamie said he was “f****** bored with being polite” and added: “Now is the time to say, ‘If you’re giving your young children fizzy drinks, you’re an a*******, a t****r. If you aren’t cooking them a hot meal, sort it out’.”

Heh. Decoding censored British insults is fun. How many points is "tosser" worth?

[Arres]

Oh man. So many points. I couldn't figure it out.

On topic, I'm just not surprised. Somewhere along the line people decided they should be their childrens friend. THIS IS COUNTER TO RAISING A WELL ADJUSTED CHILD.

[Lizzegirle]

Pizza is actually a balanced meal, if you think about it.
Meat - Toping
Dairy - Cheese
Grain - Crust
Fruit/Vegetable - Toping/Tomato Sauce

3 out of the 4 right off the bat, eh? Never understood why it was considered a junk food.

In a meal, you are only supposed to have 3/4 of a cup of whole grains. The white flour crust gets immediately turned to sugar in your blood stream, and that's how we end up with stage 2 diabetics. A serving of dairy per meal is about a half of a cup. I bet that there is half of a cup in one slice. Tomato sauce is not a vegetable. Tomatoes are fruits because they are filled with sugars. Most of the vitamins in a fruit or vegetable are in the skin or are cooked off when processed, so tomato sauce has very little in the way of truly healthy nutrients more than sugar. Meat, well all meat is fatty. That's ok. As long as you don't have more than about 3-4 oz of meat in your meal, you should be fine.

So why is pizza bad? It's not if you have a slice and leave it at that. Unfortunately, most of us have two or three slices which is two or three times the daily serving. Plus, all of the sugars that go immediately into your blood stream and raise your blood sugar level. This, ontop of all of the fats in the cheese and meat, it makes it a pretty unhealthy choice. If you could make a whole wheat crust pizza, that would be FAR more healthy, but you are still dealing with the fat.

[Azurite22]

If that was all, I could understand the complaint. Two portions is not a lunch. But there is, apparently, more to it. Hell, give me an orange and a banana

Well, the two portions would be part of a whole meal.

I eat nothing but whole wheat...but not on pizza. Most of the places here actually give you the choice of whole wheat or white bread for your pizza, and I never really liked the whole wheat crust. Thats my opinion anyways.