- Image via Wikipedia
Jamie Oliver Versus Andrew Lansley
The new UK Health Minister Andrew Lansley criticized Jamie Oliver’s attempts to improve school meals yesterday. The celebrity chef fired of a quick retort to Mr Lansley, accusing him of not understanding the facts and suggested he had never watched the TV program.
As a nutritionist, I did watch the TV series and I saw the tremendous effort and dedication that went into transforming the quality of school meals from being high fat, high sugar, low quality offerings into healthy, nutritious dinners that I would have been happy for my kids to eat.
Over the weeks the series ran on UK TV I saw Jamie combat the issues of low budget and untrained “dinner ladies” with great success and I commend his efforts wholeheartedly. It was also a joy to watch how the school catering assistants learn from the master, working hard to improve their cooking skills.
There were numerous obstacles to overcome, not least the children’s dietary preferences, having become addicted to burger and chips (fries) over their short lives. There was clear evidence to show that with patience it was possible to educate these young palates to new taste experiences and learn to eat fresh produce that had not been subjected to immersion in high temperature fat.
I believe the Health Minister’s argument was based on figures suggesting that fewer kids were now eating school dinners than before the dietary reforms. I don’t know if they are correct or not, but the point of the exercise was to stop institutionally feeding junk foods to kids and this was achieved.
Unfortunately, as I am all too aware, it is difficult to get people to change their ingrained dietary habits, especially when they are fed on junk food at home. Some “loving” mothers even resorted to delivering burgers through the school railings, when headmasters locked the gates at lunchtime to prevent pupils going out to the take-a-way food shops nearby.
Andrew Lansley believes Jamie’s “lecturing” on healthy diet was the wrong approach and therefore resulted in the lower take up of school meals, but I know how hard it can be to change the diet of a child raised by overweight parents who eat nothing but junk food.
My vote goes to Jamie Oliver. What about you?
Related articles by Zemanta
- Minister rejects Jamie Oliver approach to health (sfgate.com)
- Jamie Oliver hits back at health secretary over school meals ‘insult’ (guardian.co.uk)
- British Health Minister Andrew Lansley Rejects Jamie Oliver’s Anti-Obesity Efforts (huffingtonpost.com)
Similar Health Related Posts:
- You Are What You Eat? People who follow a Mediterranean diet are less likely to...
No comments yet.