food rant
It's not secret that I don't like cooking. I find it boring, and takes too long for the pay off. I'll eat potato smilies, and the occasional microwave meal. I'm a damn fussy eater. I won't eat fruit or veg I haven't had before, in most cases. I guess I'm lucky I was fed a good variety as a kid!
I'm watching Jaime's School Dinners. He's been talking to primary school kids. All but one had chips for dinner, and that one had a pot noodle. Only one kid could recognise and rubarb and a leek, and no one got asparagus. Fair enough for young kids, but when they're guessing celery and kiwi I'm scared.
They follow each other. One fussy kids can put off the rest, and often does. The school dinner is often the main meal of these kids' days, and the most nutrition they'll get until the next school dinner. The kids are happy to eat turkey twizzlers (less than 30% turkey, and I've no idea what makes up the other 70% and I'm scared to know) but think plain turkey is disgusting. I don't get it.
The packed lunches are scary too. Four chocolate bars, a packet of crisps, a bottle of ribena and a sandwich that's promptly binned. Four chocolate bars? Ngh! And the parents are surprised that the kids are irritable and hyper. One of the reasons that ADD medicine is less commonly prescribed in this country compared with others like America is because doctors reccomend a diet change first, and it usually works. I thought it was common knowledge that the chemicals in processed food cause mood swings and so on, and not just in kids. Apparently not. The local doctor talked about a 'constipation clinic' for the kids. For some of them it's been more than seven weeks. If that's not an indicator of bad diet I don't know what is.
What happened to the parents? None of them are so young they can have been brought up on microwave dinners. Fair enough, being lazy or tired or cheap occasionally, but every single meal? I've met the odd person who thinks it's gross to eat stuff that comes from the ground or off a tree, but it never occurred to me there were so many. I'm scared. Is anyone surprised we have an obesity problem in this country?
The dinner ladies don't like working off 37p per meal. They're cooks, not microwave operators. There's no job satisfaction in reheating. Jamie has already proved it's possible to make food for several hundred kids in a few hours, though it was over budget. The budget is government funding. I'm pretty certain a few extra pence in the school dinners budget would save a whole lot of money for the NHS. No more constpiation clinics, for a start.
I just... I just don't get it. I wouldn't do that to a kid. Couldn't. I swear, if I ever have kids, or get hold of someone else's, there will be no squash, no crisps, no salt, no fizzy drinks, no microwave anything. Chips, pizza, even burgers are alright in moderation. By which I mean once or twice a week, not once or twice a day. I've been bad recently with my potato smilies, but at least I could pronounce the ingredients. I will do my best to avoid anything with numbers in. I haven't had crisps, fizzy drinks, or burgers for years. Raspberries are not blue, lemons are not pink and nothing on this planet is that shade of atomic orange.
Jamie spent his last day feeding the kids a healthy meal. In budget. It's popular. As he points out, "it's a big V sign to all those companies that say they're just giving kids what they want." You can feed kids healthily, you can feed them cheapily, you can feed them food they will eat. The companies are scared to give up 'popular' menus because customer will go elsewhere, or go without. Schools don't want complaints, so they go for popular. Give it time, I say. They're kids. They don't know what they like and don't like. Don't let them convince each other they only like what's sold in Mcdonalds and Dominos (both of which were recognised where leeks weren't). let them find out for themselves.
~~~
Jamie's accusing Bill Clinton and his mates of being 'plebs'. His restaurant had worked out a meal, confirmed in advance, for 16 people. 30 people turned up, and declared they were on the 'South Beach Diet' and they had to chuck away all the food, prepared over the last fortnight by Jamie's student chefs, and serve chicken, stakes and ketechup. Jamie refused to talk to Clinton. I think it all speaks for itself, doesn't it? (And Clinton's one of the few US presidents I admire)
I'm watching Jaime's School Dinners. He's been talking to primary school kids. All but one had chips for dinner, and that one had a pot noodle. Only one kid could recognise and rubarb and a leek, and no one got asparagus. Fair enough for young kids, but when they're guessing celery and kiwi I'm scared.
They follow each other. One fussy kids can put off the rest, and often does. The school dinner is often the main meal of these kids' days, and the most nutrition they'll get until the next school dinner. The kids are happy to eat turkey twizzlers (less than 30% turkey, and I've no idea what makes up the other 70% and I'm scared to know) but think plain turkey is disgusting. I don't get it.
The packed lunches are scary too. Four chocolate bars, a packet of crisps, a bottle of ribena and a sandwich that's promptly binned. Four chocolate bars? Ngh! And the parents are surprised that the kids are irritable and hyper. One of the reasons that ADD medicine is less commonly prescribed in this country compared with others like America is because doctors reccomend a diet change first, and it usually works. I thought it was common knowledge that the chemicals in processed food cause mood swings and so on, and not just in kids. Apparently not. The local doctor talked about a 'constipation clinic' for the kids. For some of them it's been more than seven weeks. If that's not an indicator of bad diet I don't know what is.
What happened to the parents? None of them are so young they can have been brought up on microwave dinners. Fair enough, being lazy or tired or cheap occasionally, but every single meal? I've met the odd person who thinks it's gross to eat stuff that comes from the ground or off a tree, but it never occurred to me there were so many. I'm scared. Is anyone surprised we have an obesity problem in this country?
The dinner ladies don't like working off 37p per meal. They're cooks, not microwave operators. There's no job satisfaction in reheating. Jamie has already proved it's possible to make food for several hundred kids in a few hours, though it was over budget. The budget is government funding. I'm pretty certain a few extra pence in the school dinners budget would save a whole lot of money for the NHS. No more constpiation clinics, for a start.
I just... I just don't get it. I wouldn't do that to a kid. Couldn't. I swear, if I ever have kids, or get hold of someone else's, there will be no squash, no crisps, no salt, no fizzy drinks, no microwave anything. Chips, pizza, even burgers are alright in moderation. By which I mean once or twice a week, not once or twice a day. I've been bad recently with my potato smilies, but at least I could pronounce the ingredients. I will do my best to avoid anything with numbers in. I haven't had crisps, fizzy drinks, or burgers for years. Raspberries are not blue, lemons are not pink and nothing on this planet is that shade of atomic orange.
Jamie spent his last day feeding the kids a healthy meal. In budget. It's popular. As he points out, "it's a big V sign to all those companies that say they're just giving kids what they want." You can feed kids healthily, you can feed them cheapily, you can feed them food they will eat. The companies are scared to give up 'popular' menus because customer will go elsewhere, or go without. Schools don't want complaints, so they go for popular. Give it time, I say. They're kids. They don't know what they like and don't like. Don't let them convince each other they only like what's sold in Mcdonalds and Dominos (both of which were recognised where leeks weren't). let them find out for themselves.
~~~
Jamie's accusing Bill Clinton and his mates of being 'plebs'. His restaurant had worked out a meal, confirmed in advance, for 16 people. 30 people turned up, and declared they were on the 'South Beach Diet' and they had to chuck away all the food, prepared over the last fortnight by Jamie's student chefs, and serve chicken, stakes and ketechup. Jamie refused to talk to Clinton. I think it all speaks for itself, doesn't it? (And Clinton's one of the few US presidents I admire)