Even Jamie Oliver has a hard time steering his kids away from eating unhealthy food.
During an interview with People published on Monday, the celebrity chef spoke about his family life and what it’s like being a father of five.
“All of my kids have got a confidence with cooking. I’ve taught all of my kids how to cook: planting things, growing things, picking things, coming to the market, getting to know everyone in the market, having conversations with people, realizing that naturally food is a delicious thing,” Oliver told People.
Even though he has instilled in his kids a genuine appreciation for food, that hasn’t kept them from entering a junk-food phase in their teens.
“When they start getting into 12, 13 years old, they start to go down the generic of all the predictable pizza, burger stuff — but they do come back,” he said.
Throughout his career, Oliver has been a prominent advocate for healthy eating.
The “Naked Chef” star has also led several public campaigns advocating against junk food consumption among kids.
In his ABC series “Food Revolution,” which aired from 2010 to 2011, Oliver drew national attention to “pink slime” — ground meat scraps treated with ammonia, which are often used by fast-food meat patties in the US. The show caused public outrage, leading several fast-food chains, including McDonald’s, to announce that they would discontinue the use of the meat product in their burgers.
In 2018, he also launched a social media campaign against junk food advertising aimed at kids, calling for the government to introduce a 9 p.m. watershed on junk food ads on TV, and for controls on what kids see online and in public. As of 2024, nine UK mayors have backed Oliver’s campaign and pledged to stop junk food advertising in public spaces.
However, in a 2018 interview with the Daily Mail, Oliver said that he would allow his kids to go to McDonald’s if they wanted to.
“Honestly? If they wanted to go, I’d let them. Because they get really well fed 95% of the time from us,” Oliver told the Daily Mail. “If they want to go out and have a fizzy drink I don’t care, because we have none in the house. My wife’s probably stricter. She’d say, ‘Oh please, don’t.’ But they’d only end up doing it in some other place.”
A CDC report based on data from the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that children and adolescents in the US consumed an average of 13.8% of their calories from fast food between 2015 and 2018. The previous figure, from 2011 to 2012, was 12.4%.
A representative for Oliver did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.
