Hands up if anyone else has been fascinated by the row between new Tory Health Minister Andrew Lansley and national treasure TV chef Jamie Oliver? Well the battle is getting even more interesting, thanks to the release of data from a YouGov survey, which suggests more people are influenced by TV cookery programmes than they are by government initiatives. Well, well.
When Tory boy slammed our Jamie, I had a sudden squishy sensation for the naked one, something I hadn’t felt since he first appeared on our TV screens. I blame those Sainsbury’s ads, but somewhere along the line, Jamie lost any cool factor he may have had in the beginning. But you’ve got to admit, the boy done good with the whole school dinners thing. I mean, anyone who makes it his life’s work to ban Turkey Twizzlers from school dinners menus is okay by me. Even top Tory boss, David Cameron, has come out in support of Jamie, saying he’d done more to improve the diet of school children than the Department of Education. Well, that would hardly be difficult, would it?
So Andrew Lansley announcing that our Jamie had failed miserably just made me feel the love again. I’d like to see him spending his spare time bantering with dinner ladies in the nation’s school kitchens (has he ever even been to one, I wonder?). And now this YouGov poll is out, and the findings are hilarious.
The survey, a SixthSense healthy living survey that quizzed 2,151 adults in the UK last April, found that:
• Only 10 percent of UK adults say government healthy eating campaigns has any influence on them (in poorer areas, that statistic drops to just eight percent)
• Twenty-one percent said TV documentaries influenced their food choices
• Cookery programmes gave 31 percent ideas on what to eat
So that’s Jamie Oliver 1 – Andrew Lansley 0
In fact, the dismal failure of government healthy eating campaigns is highlighted by the finding that only 13 percent of people currently meet the government’s five-a-day target (portions of fruit and veg, that is).
Says YouGov SixthSense research director James McCoy: “If the government wishes to provide a viable alternative alternative to Jamie Oliver, then it would be wise to re-examine its own record thus far. There is considerable evidence in our report which suggests government influence is often marginal.”
Hah. Put that in your nicotine-free pipe and smoke it, Mr Lansley.