Jamie Oliver's healthy school dinners

[filthiestfis]

I saw this in yesterday's Sun newspaper and was amazed at the ignorance of some parents:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-200643014 2,00.html

Does anybody agree with these parents that children should be fed junkfood?

[aurelia]

that is unbelievable. On the first show when he went ino a primary school the kids didn't even know th names of basic fruit and veg an when he did the same thing on his Ialian show in a nursery 3 year olds knew the names of things loike auergines.

People in this country are just too lazy too cook their kids meals from scratch. more like the parents are the picky ones and not willing to change. It's ridiculous that the school is letting this carry on - as there is no way they should be handing garbage over to kids that aren't theirs. if they want their kids to be obese and die young then fair play to them. to say the healthy food has made them more picky - the stuff that was on offer before was garbage as I work in a school and it was about 5 years ago when the food here in scoland was the same in schools as jamie's show.

Scotland has the worst icidences of heart diseae in europe so the scottish executive launched changes in school here about 3 years ago and in my school which is for nursery, primary and secondary chikldren and teenagers with moderate, severe and complex learning difficulties the meals were subsequently changed to include a salad bar after the teenegers asked for it and boycotted the school meals and this was the kids who get free meals who were refusing to eat it. A new initiaive was launched for primary chidren nd we are a pilot school 2 years ago and the kids get stickers saying I ate veggies today, etc and there is also fruit and milk provided by the local authortiy for snack times and we have three water machines covering the whole school premises which the children are allowed to fill up and drink during class as this helps to hydrate the brain and help them concentrate more. Breakfast clubs have been started too as our kids come in buses and get picked up about 8am onwards.

[hammerman]

I couldn't believe the article when i first read it.......those arrogant pigs that call themselves mothers should be banned from having children.

Mind you, looking at the state of them, it looks like they've been bought up on a lifetimes diet of chip butties and deep fried mars bars

[mccfluff]

i still can't believe it, one of the women said that they were doing this because the school dinners were to expensive????? surely going down the chippy and stuffing themselves on processed crap its more expensive in long term health costs as well as day to day cost. And another excuse was they wanted their children to have a choice

Are they really that stupid?

[larkin]

Yes but the long term health costs wont worry them because, as long as there is a free NHS, they won't be affected by the financial implications.
I agree, it is disgusting. Bet they don't feed their pets on the same s**t !

[Catso]

It is rather sad. These kids will grow up thinking junk food is a proper diet 'because my mum says'. And thus it is perpetuated.

However, it would be a far worse situation where we could be forced to only eat certain things 'that were good for us'. There's too much of this sort of thing already. So although I feel sorry for the kids, I'm glad they (or they mums) have a choice.

I can only hope the ongoing food education thing gets through to the kids eventually.

[Scarlett]

There is a boy I teach at school and he is always eating. But he is always eating WHOLE PACKETS of biscuits, huge bags of crisps and other utter crap. He is SO small for his age and he is concerned cos his voice isn't showing any signs of breaking even though he is 16. I am convinced he is malnourished. He eats SO much but it is all packeted rubbish. I don't know how his mother can sleep at night.

[Scarlett]

Also I do blame the supermarkets. They put MAINLY processed food on their shelves. They make it look attractive and cheap- buy one get one free etc, and many people have to budget carefully. Even the "healthy" foods are full of sugar, salt and additives. People just don't know what to eat anymore. The only person out there other than Jamie Oliver telling people what they should eat is Gillian McKeith, and she is the other extreme.
We are constantly being told we are too fat, we feed our children wrong, and we are soon to be denied NHS for illnesses linked with obesity- but it is SO difficult to eat healthily when people really have little option but to buy what the supermarkets provide.

Yes, there are wholefood shops and greengrocers- but it is far more time consuming to buy from individual shops. I went to a greengrocers last week with the intention of stocking up on loads of fruit and veg, but the quality of it was really poor! The apples were mealy and the broccoli was going yellow. so back to the supermarket I go...

We need a new TV series on traditional cooking- healthy and quick stuff that everyone can do, that also gives advice and info on what food REALLY contains.

[filthiestfis]

I think that much of the fruit that supermarkets provide is **** poor in terms of flavour-yeah it all looks perfect but where is the taste? We grew our own tomato plant this summer and they taste amazing, try finding a decent tomato! I dont believe that it is the responsibility of supermarkets to encourage healthy eating, really, they push sales of junk food because these companies pay them to. Its up the government to make guidelines for supermarkets right?

[hammerman]

One of the biggest problems with cooking good, home cooked food every night for the family is the cost. To get decent cuts of meat like all the TV chefs use cost a small fortune.

I do try my hardest to cook something from scratch and something different for my daughter and wife every night and although it might be repeated every week, i always try to cook at least one thing new every week.

But there are times when i get home from work and i'm knackered....i work 10 hours and start at 5.30am. My wife is at work in the afternoon and evening ss i cook every evening. Occasionally...and that might be once or twice a week, i might put a pizza in the oven or it'll be fish fingers and chips.

But other days, there will be spaghetti bol, jacket spuds with fillings, cottage pies, bangers and mash, chops, pasta salads etc etc and all are served with veg.

So it can be done...with a bit of imagination and a bit of motivation, our kids should be able to have a varied, healthy diet every week.

[Backdrifter]

hammerman at least you're trying. It's very easy for people to parrot the same issue-avoiding stuff about "too busy" and "can't afford it". Good on you for showing that it can be done, with a bit of application. And it SHOULD be done - I'm sure any parent with the health of their children at heart would agree.

The women selling junk through the fence are inhuman. They're a testimony to how junk food addles the brain as well as damaging the body. They don't deserve to be parents. It reinforces my fantasy that people should be somehow vetted before being allowed to be parents!