Jamie Oliver has blasted “idiot” parents who feed their children junk food.
In a show about to air on UK TV called Jamie’s Return to School Dinners, the father-of-five says he’s had enough of being kind to those people who are making poor choices.
“I’ve spent two years being PC about parents, now is the time to say, ‘If you’re giving your young children fizzy drinks you’re an arsehole, you’re a tosser. If you give them bags of crisps you’re an idiot. If you aren’t cooking them a hot meal, sort it out.’ If they truly care they’ve got to take control.
“I have seen kids of the ages 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.”
Jamie recently posted about cooking a meal with his little boy, Buddy
Apparently his wrath was stoked by an off-screen exchange with a mother he met during filming who was giving her one-year-old child fizzy drink, and who said she would not make shepherd’s pie because it was “too posh”.
He is now calling on the Government to give teachers the power to confiscate junk food at the school gates, adding that 70 per cent of packed lunches given to school children were “disgraceful”.
Oliver, whose wife Jools gave birth to the couple’s fifth child a few weeks ago, has long campaigned to get families eating healthier and kids having nutritious packed lunches at school. He’s obviously decided that his “lovely chubbly pukka” approach is no longer working.