Jamie Oliver and Australian politician in a war of words over obesity crisis
An Australian minister marked Jamie Oliver a “tosser” after the chef criticises the politician for denying claims of an obesity epidemic in the country.
Peter Phelps, a New South Wales Liberal MP, demolished the new healthy school canteen strategy of the state government, dispelling the obesity epidemic as a “myth”. As the Telegraph reports, Phelps said that “public health totalitarianism” was spreading across the whole country and “nanny state-ism” had reached an “insidious” level.
According to Fairfax Media, Jamie Oliver, who is on a tour in Australia, responded to the comments: “These bloody politicians that are like ships that pass in the night, they’re not necessarily expert in anything. They’ve possibly never even run a f—— business. If they’re entrusted with the responsibility to represent the community, the very least they can do is go and talk to a GP, a doctor, a bariatric surgeon, [or] a podiatrist that takes limbs off people because they’ve got type II diabetes.”
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Oliver has been pushing his Ministry of Food community programme across Australia since 2006. He believes that obesity and diet-related illness would cost the country $6.5 billion in 2017.
“It doesn’t sound to me like he’s quoting things based on science, it doesn’t sound to me like he’s spoken to a doctor or a pediatrician and the World Health Organisation is not saying that about Australia. It’s not a f—— myth,” Oliver said.
Phelps said that, according to the Government’s Institute of Health and Welfare, one in four Australian children were overweight or obese between 2015 and 2016, a statistic that has remained constant in the past 20 years. He also noted that obesity had risen from 5% to 8% over the years due to an increase in sedentary activities.
“The idea that there is now this new sudden crisis in child obesity is simply factually wrong,” Phelps told Fairfax.
“I think people are generally sick and tired of middle-class health professionals going around trying to tell working-class parents how to raise their children and that they should pull their heads in until they see the true statistics from NSW and Australia.”
When asked if his criticism was aimed at Oliver, Phelps responded: “It’s directed to him and to all other tossers, and you can use the phrase tossers because he will understand that.”
This conflict is not the first for Jamie Oliver. He was previously criticised when he accused Theresa May of acting like a politician rather than a parent due to her attempt of attenuating the government’s obesity strategy.
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