Jamie Oliver says PM's obesity strategy has let down every UK child

[EventHorizon]

The government can help by subsidizing fresh produce, and perhaps by providing education to parents about how to cook quick, simple, meals with said produce. Or perhaps even give basic cooking equipment to poor parents. And so on.

The education to parents is at everyone's fingertips with a computer/internet connection today.

Chefs like Ramsay, Bourdain, etc... have made dozens if not hundreds of vids/guides/lessons/free online courses and tips to help people cook better - and for cheaper when possible. And we're not talking fancy 3* cooking here, a lot of those are meant to be doable in 15-30 minutes or less of preparation while being nutritious and delicious (I sound like an infomercial now).

People are busy or lazy and that's one of the core factors.

You can now have access to coupons on your cellphone, read the flyers on them too and can even search which grocery store has sales on x or y rapidly now.

Sure, the govt can help a bit because the price of some produce has increased wildly over the years, but it's not the fundamental problem, imo.

[Templar 331]

The government can help by subsidizing fresh produce, and perhaps by providing education to parents about how to cook quick, simple, meals with said produce. Or perhaps even give basic cooking equipment to poor parents. And so on.

I'm all for government assistance, but they are not the cause of childhood obesity. Being mad at them because they didn't "ban sweets at the checkout counter" is retarded.

[belfpala]

Yeah, we swapped all of out TV's for magic beans.

Can I have one?

I'll give you my last bit of fairy dust for it.

...but really, I haven't seen much of Jamie Oliver on US television for quite a while. Seemed kind of like a pretentious dick when I did see him. Oh cool, you have a full garden and a wood burning stove! Yeah.

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I'm all for government assistance, but they are not the cause of childhood obesity. Being mad at them because they didn't "ban sweets at the checkout counter" is retarded.

Right, I agree. Parents, food companies, schools, are also to blame. No argument there.

Here's a good read: https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fa.../dp/0812982193

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The education to parents is at everyone's fingertips with a computer/internet connection today.

The problem is, you can't look up a video or recipe if you don't know the thing exists. For example, I didn't know there was cheese other than Kraft American until I was in my teens.

Most people don't have time to coupon shop.

It's cooking autonomy that I'm talking about. Can you walk into someone else's kitchen, dig around for a few minutes, and make a meal from scratch? That kind of thing. And I don't mean opening a bag of pizza rolls

[Tennis]

I'm all for government assistance, but they are not the cause of childhood obesity. Being mad at them because they didn't "ban sweets at the checkout counter" is retarded.

Government can always use more revenue. Hike up taxes on unhealthy goods. It can only help society.

[Tradewind]

Government can always use more revenue. Hike up taxes on unhealthy goods. It can only help society.

Yes, make food more expensive. That'll sort out all the problems.

[Medusa Cascade]

Yes, make food more expensive. That'll sort out all the problems.

Bring back the workhouses!

[Aeula]

He still alive? Thought he got torn apart by the Americans. Pity.

[unfilteredJW]

He is one of the most well known and popular Brits out there.

lol

/10wuts

[Templar 331]

Government can always use more revenue. Hike up taxes on unhealthy goods. It can only help society.

Seeing as how cigarettes are taxed a good bit I don't see taxes stopping people from buying candy.

[Deleted]

The problem is shit parents unable to say "no".

[Bigbazz]

Jamie lost popularity here because of his over the top melodramatics using the kids health as self promotion for his reality tv style cooking shows, all the while he was cooking plenty of calorie dense "indulgent" stuff in loads of his non "save the children" shows, he's not exactly slim jim himself. Honestly though he is still very well known and people still generally think highly of his recipes and cook books.

He's a bit of a drama queen, over the years in the UK big measures have actually been made with school food to address health concerns. When I was in school (I finished in 2004) you could buy all manner of junk from the school cafe, these days all of that is gone. And honestly for an "obesity epidemic" I sure don't see that many fat kids. With the vastly better nutritional education these days and the healthier food at schools it should be much better than when I was growing up.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Jamie lost popularity here because of his over the top melodramatics using the kids health as self promotion for his reality tv style cooking shows, all the while he was cooking plenty of calorie dense "indulgent" stuff in loads of his non "save the children" shows, he's not exactly slim jim himself. Honestly though he is still very well known and people still generally think highly of his recipes and cook books.

He's a bit of a drama queen, over the years in the UK big measures have actually been made with school food to address health concerns. When I was in school (I finished in 2004) you could buy all manner of junk from the school cafe, these days all of that is gone. And honestly for an "obesity epidemic" I sure don't see that many fat kids. With the vastly better nutritional education these days and the healthier food at schools it should be much better than when I was growing up.

Man, I still remember the menu in the cafeteria back in 1999 at secondary school.
Pizza and chips
Lasagna and chips
Fried chicken and chips
Burger and chips

Then off to the tuck shop in the main building to buy penny chews

I bet they fucking closed the tuck shop :/

[EventHorizon]

The problem is, you can't look up a video or recipe if you don't know the thing exists. For example, I didn't know there was cheese other than Kraft American until I was in my teens.

Most people don't have time to coupon shop.

It's cooking autonomy that I'm talking about. Can you walk into someone else's kitchen, dig around for a few minutes, and make a meal from scratch? That kind of thing. And I don't mean opening a bag of pizza rolls

I understand where you're coming from, I suppose that's difference in parenting/hobbies/interests/time/affordability. I can appreciate that some people will never actively search for things like that to learn, whether out of time or other factors. Coupon shopping isn't really difficult when done digitally though you can even just show up at a grocery store, pick things on sale and make something out of 2 days shelf life meat and some vegetables/broth/butter/some cheap spices and get something very nutritional and tasty... but that does require a modicum of knowledge and willing to mess up once in a while because your experiments failed :v

[Deleted]

A pack of resse ain't 6.50. Besides the whole obesity thing is a multi- faceted issue. Ranging from cost, working too much, and of course not being able to say no.

A pack of 20 is £9 here.

[Faerillis]

I understand where you're coming from, I suppose that's difference in parenting/hobbies/interests/time/affordability. I can appreciate that some people will never actively search for things like that to learn, whether out of time or other factors. Coupon shopping isn't really difficult when done digitally though you can even just show up at a grocery store, pick things on sale and make something out of 2 days shelf life meat and some vegetables/broth/butter/some cheap spices and get something very nutritional and tasty... but that does require a modicum of knowledge and willing to mess up once in a while because your experiments failed :v

It requires more than the pluck you seem to think it takes. There are more costs associated with cooking than just the ingredients. Decent knives and the equipment to maintain them are very expensive. Pots/Pans/Cookware, none of that is cheap and trying to buy the super cheap versions of things only leads to needing to replace them much, much faster. Then, at literally all stages of preparing the food — that is to say Recipe Research, Cookware Purchasing, Coupon Hunting, Ingredient Purchasing, Prep Time and Cooking Time — all take a large amount of time and energy. Most people working 40 weeks will end up only having the time to do a few of those things. Many people in extreme poverty work multiple jobs and exceed that 40hr/week figure so they have even less time. Plus they often live in Food Deserts and would have to invest even more of their meager budgets into gas to get somewhere they could even hope to buy the ingredients they need.

Now put yourself in the position of someone working 60 hours a week barely scraping by, what steps are you going to skip and where are you going to save money? I suspect you'd take the options for food that are super cheap and easy to make. Because that's the logical conclusion. Saves money, time and energy. Everyone gets fed and it's the most viable food you can really afford anyways.



Yeah go figure, dietary issues regarding the poor are (as with most things related to poverty) really complex, multi-level issues. The idea that they just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, tends to just lead to a bunch of people with ruined boots. They're very, very hard issues to legislate around as well — worker's rights are unpopular right now, higher minimum wages can be good stop-gap measures but how far can that line be sensibly brought forward is rather difficult to figure out, increased access and funding for food banks/stamps/etc... only have a certain level of impact.

[Kalis]

The chef said he would be “really, really annoying”

No change there then.

[Deleted]

Stop blaming government for that though. What about the responsibility of the parents?

[caervek]

Great to see a popular British chap like Jamie standing up against the obesity epidemic.

But he's not, he's just ranting at the government about something that's due to bad parenting lol.

[Super Kami Dende]

What about the responsibility of food suppliers offering healthy, affordable and convenient foods though.

They have no such responsibility, their business is supply and demand, not overseeing peoples food choices.

[Deleted]

Jamie Oliver is a fascist who would have guessed.

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What about the responsibility of food suppliers offering healthy, affordable and convenient foods though.

I doubt there arent any healthy foods being fofered. It's just easier to go for the Sugar and fat snacks.

Ive even seen a guy on youtube once that shopped healthy at the Lidl without spending more than he would on unhealthy food. The difference was that he would have to combine the things themselves and people in general cant be bothered to put in some effort.