Entertainment
Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith would ‘ban cake in schools’ to promote healthy eating for children
Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has admitted she would ‘ban cake in schools’ to encourage children to follow healthier diets.
On Thursday March 4, the government announced that it is launching a new £100 million scheme to help children, adults and families ‘achieve and maintain a healthier weight’ in an effort to tackle obesity.
While speaking to Matt Chorley on Times Radio on Thursday morning, Prue, 81, expressed her worry that there is a lack of ‘focus on children’, emphasising the need for education on healthy eating and nutrition in schools.
‘I’m very extreme about this,’ the celebrity chef said, ahead of the return of Celebrity Bake Off next week. ‘I would have no food allowed in school except school meals, because I think the trouble is, the children won’t eat a healthy lunch if they’re full of chocolate, because they’ve brought in a whole lot of junk into school.’
When asked by Matt whether she is saying that she would ban cake in schools, Prue responded: ‘Well, yes, I’m afraid I am.’
While Prue added that she ‘wouldn’t mind a piece of cake and custard for pudding’, she said that she worries about children ‘eating all day’.
‘You know, snacks,’ she stated. ‘You see parents offering children in supermarkets, they’re offering them snacks all the time. As if kids aren’t complete unless they’ve got a chocolate bar in their hands.’
Prue explained that she believes that children need to be educated about healthy eating from a young age, because ‘we haven’t been taught to love a healthy diet’.
Commenting on the government’s new initiative, she said: ‘I’m totally in favour of everything they’re talking about, because the main thing is that we do need to have a healthier diet, but the one thing that sort of worries me, and that is missing from this is the focus on children.
‘There’s a bit of me that just feels, you know, we all go on diets, and they never work or very seldom work, and then we go back to our old ways. And the trouble is that we haven’t been taught to love a healthy diet.’
Prue added that it’s ‘much easier’ to teach school children about nutrition ‘because they’re young, and they are still learning and their ideas aren’t fixed’.
The GBBO star recently shared her experience of receiving the coronavirus vaccine, urging others to take up the offer if they are invited to have the jab.
‘I think everyone should get the jab the minute they get the chance,’ she told Good Morning Britain.
Celebrity Bake Off returns on Tuesday March 9 at 8pm on Channel 4.
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