Free school dinners

‘Golden ticket to a healthier Britain’- Sharon Hodgson, guardian.co.uk, 03/10/08

In response to the Government’s recent plans to provide free school meals to the first 3 years of primary schools, the article explains that this is a good opportunity to promote healthy eating, and would make progress on tackling obesity and childhood poverty.

This article also refers to Jamie Oliver’s campaign, where we found that social class dictated diet for Rotherham’s people (as discussed in previous post).

With the government tackling the problems head-on, it looks like we would achieve our goals much faster.

 

The author of the article encourages the proposal and has been working together with Roberta Blackman-Woods MP towards it, thus giving a positive view to the reader. However, some readers who have commented to the article do not agree; they say food is not the reason but exercise is for obesity, they do not want to see tax-payer’s money put towards children’s school dinners etc.

It relates to other Jamie Oliver articles on the guardian website, and attracts readers interested in the topic.

Oliver!

‘Britain on a plate’- Felicity Lawrence, guardian.co.uk, 01/10/08

Relating to Jamie Oliver’s new TV series again, this article explains that the diet of a person depends on class, i.e. the poorer you are, the more you will try and fill yourself up with cheap food. It gives us a deeper understanding about why Britain’s problem exists.

‘ What may seem ignorant choices to others are in fact quite rational. Lobstein has calculated the cost of 100 calories of food energy from different types of food. The cheapest way to get your 100 calories is to buy fats, processed starches and sugars. A hundred calories of broccoli costs 51p, but 100 calories of frozen chips only cost 2p.’

 

The article starts by giving an insight to the dietary lives of people featured on the TV series, and talks about the history of the relationship between diet and social class. I was surprised to find that the working class’s diet of 1930s sounded healthier than of today’s… “The basis of their diet is white bread and margarine, corned beef, sugared tea and potatoes”.

The article gives facts and quotes from various sources, describing a grave situation. Although the article starts with a black and white picture at the top that attracts attention, the article is very long and many people will choose not to bother reading all of it. The fact that the picture is in black and white somehow adds to the negative outlook of our diets.                                                   

As well as Jamie Oliver, we the readers realise how ignorant we were about the reason of the present day situation.

The article has links on to the guardian food blog, inviting us to join the debate.

Ironically, the advert placed next to the article at the time I read it, was a McDonald’s one, although the burger looked somehow healthy.

The article was listed on the top of the Food and drink section of the Lifestyle page, thus exposing it to a large audience.