Jamie Oliver in blistering attack on Michael Gove over poor school diet (Gove=UK education sec'y)

[alp227]

Jamie Oliver has made a blistering attack on Michael Gove over school food, claiming that some of the education secretary's flagship academies are lowering nutrition levels among pupils and profiteering from junk food vending machines because they have been allowed to ignore national standards.

The TV chef and food campaigner says the substantial progress made over recent years in improving pupils' diets risks going into reverse because Gove is allowing new waves of academy schools to ignore nutrient-based standards introduced by the last government in 2008.

"I have got nothing against him personally. He is a charming and energetic man," says Oliver, in an interview for today's Observer Food Monthly. "But the health of millions of children could be affected by this one man.

"When there is a national obesity crisis unfolding around us, I honestly think he is playing with fire."

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/apr/22/jamie-oliver-academies-junk-food

[freshwest]

1. Good for him. The UK does not need to go down this dumb (junk food in schools) road.

[patricia92243]

2. Oliver is fat. Needs to practice what he preaches. n/t

[RebelOne]

3. Why do you call him fat?

I googled images of him and did not see any overweight pics.

[laundry_queen]

4. You haven't gotten the memo?

If you aren't ripped, shirtless and doing a one-armed push-up, you aren't allowed to talk about nutrition even if your whole career has been based on food.

[patricia92243]

6. Double chin, big gut is fat in my book. I don't know about still pictures. When he is on

TV - Morning Show, etc. he is definitely fat. I watched him years ago - slim and trim.

[alp227]

9. Fat does NOT inherently mean unhealthy

[Fawke Em]

13. Again... I have a double chin and I'm most certainly not fat.

In fact, I hate pictures of myself because of the chin, even though the rest of me is fairly thin.

It's the round face and short neck (I have both, as well, but I'm a short woman), so I look fatter in face shots than I do in real life.

[obamanut2012]

16. He isn't fat

[CatWoman]

5. fat?

huh?

[joeybee12]

7. Double huh! Always looked fairly trim to me...nt

[Fawke Em]

10. Jamie is not fat - he's just more than 35 years old.

I am not fat, but at 42, I have a little "waddle" under my chin. People like Jamie and me who have round faces start sagging a little under the chin - it's not fat, it's older skin.

Does he spend every day in the gym and looks like a plastic surgeon's dream? No. He looks like a healthy 37 year old to me. BMI is a joke.

[fascisthunter]

12. Yeah.... um... that's not fat and I am thin

[Fawke Em]

14. Right... he has a round face and is aging.

Skin isn't fat.

[obamanut2012]

17. Exactly

[fascisthunter]

11. yeah well... this is for the kids

and I'm sure the parents who give a damn about their kid's health, see this as a good thing.

[obamanut2012]

15. He isn't fat, he just isn't 25 any more

He also is known to be a bit of a drinker, which has puffed up his face some.

[LeftishBrit]

8. Gove is a disastrous Education Secretary, and not just with regard to the school dinners

But:

'academies are lowering nutrition levels among pupils and profiteering from junk food vending machines because they have been allowed to ignore national standards'

somehow seems to be symbolic of this entire government and its beneficiaries: profiteering from junk food, both literally and metaphorically!