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Food minister under fire for ‘banal’ nutrition tips

TheCopenhagenPost
April 24th, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

Opposition parties think Jørgensen’s tips are expensive hot air

Food minister rejects criticism (photo: Ministeriet For Fødevarer, Landbrug og Fiskeri)

“Learn to make food – and teach someone else. Use raw ingredients – and shop with consideration for people, animals and the planet. Eat together with others – and enjoy being together and the meal time.”

It sounds like the beginning of the rules of ‘Fight Club’ (if the film had been about beating eggs instead of other people to pulp), but they are actually the result of a half-year, million kroner think-tank initiative to strengthen Denmark’s food culture.

Just a day after proudly announcing the results of the think-tank’s work and Denmark’s new nutrition tips, Dan Jørgensen, the food minister is on the receiving end of criticism from Liberal Alliance and Venstre, DR reports.

Hot air
“Totally ridiculous,” is Liberal Alliance MP Mette Bock’s assessment of the project.

“The three pieces of advice are completely banal and just another example of Dan Jørgensen wanting to put himself out there.”

“It’s a waste of money to come up with such hot air,” Erling Bonnesen, Venstre’s agriculture and food spokesperson, chimed in.

“Give me a million and I’ll find out whether soup is best eaten with a spoon,” Twitter user @DanmarksFremtid wrote to the minister.

But Jørgensen completely disagrees with the criticism.

“I’m happy with the meal-time think-tank’s dedicated work, which has now resulted in simple pieces of advice and concrete ideas for how we can put the advice into practice in our everyday lives,” he said.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”