Jamie: Stop your kids buying sugary energy drinks
We have to do this. These drinks are akin to drugs, turning our kids into addicts JAMIE OLIVER LAUNCHING HIS FIGHT AGAINST THE ENERGY DRINK FIRMS
Astressed- out teacher looks around her class and tries to decide which of three lesson plans she will deliver. First she must work out how many of the pupils downed an energy drink for breakfast. And then whether they are still high or crashing.
If over a handful are still high, there is little chance she will be able to teach them anything and they’ll be too disruptive for their classmates to learn either.
“It’s horrific. And it’s just wrong. But it is happening in hundreds of schools in Britain every day,” says Jamie Oliver, describing a scene in Norwood, South East London, as he goes into battle with a new foe – energy drink manufacturers.
Father-of-five Jamie, 42, has spent the past 20 years of his career on a war to improve the eating habits of the country – particularly children. Battles along the way have included the successful campaign to tax sugary drinks and to improve standards of school dinners.
He believes this latest skirmish – for a total ban on the sale of energy drinks to under-16s – is very winnable, too.
Only yesterday Waitrose voluntarily banned their sale to youngsters in their stores. The teachers’ union, NASUWT, has also called for a ban.
Energy drinks such as Red Bull, Relentless, Monster Energy and Rockstar are among an ever-widening range.
Many brands contain 160mg of caffeine per 500ml. A 10-year-old should not consume more than 99mg per day.
“We have to do this,” says Jamie. “Because these drinks are turning our kids into addicts. Their use is, to my mind, akin to drugs.
“You’ve got kids doing the secret buying and paying for them, then there’s how they hide it when they get a low, how they take it again at lunch to get up again, drinking it before bed so they have broken sleep.
“Then they’re like a bag of s**t in the morning, and they have another one then to get them up again.”
But while some parents are oblivious to their children’s addiction, as the youngsters buy drinks on their way to and from school, it appears other parents are their children’s suppliers – popping them into lunch boxes. “When I first did the school dinner campaign I would stand at school gates and I had dinner tickets in one hand and I’d say to the kids, ‘Can I look in your bag?’ and then I’d swap the energy drinks for dinner tickets. The banter was, ‘ Would they or wouldn’t they let me?’ “Back then I’d say I was finding energy drinks in about one in four lunch boxes of primary school kids. But since then their use has become prolific.” He says it is now a £1.5billion business and has grown up to 155% between 2006 and 2014. Tins of the drink usually bear a message saying “Not recommended for children”, but Jamie claims the colours and