Nigella Lawson attacks public health chiefs who tell parents not to give snacks to their children

Nigella Lawson has attacked public health chiefs who warn parents not to give snacks to their children.

Public Health England recently told parents that they should be limiting the amount of snacks they give to two a day.

Speaking at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday, she said: "What are they proposing? To go to people’s houses and watch what they give their children. I don’t understand. I think it’s looking at everything the wrong way round."

She also said the new trend of eating seasonal, local produce is a "new form of elitism" and said that people should not feel guilty for shopping at the supermarket. 

Ms Lawson told her audience: "For many people eating every day and feeding their families, that is just not possible ... I know from when I’ve grown my own food, to cook with food you’ve grown yourself, that gives me a huge thrill, so where possible, yes it’s ideal [but] I’m always aware that it’s not possible always."

On the #MeToo campaign, the cook highlighted a generational difference, and applauded younger women for "standing up for themselves", saying that women in her generation were "encouraged to make men feel good about themselves."

She explained: "It’s also very good that young women are brought up perhaps to fight and to feel they must stand up for themselves.

"I think certainly women of my generation were always encouraged to make men feel good about themselves, and I don’t mean we were taught to acquiesce, but in perhaps shunning any overture, we were always told we mustn’t make a man feel bad about anything ... I think that it’s good that a generation of women who aren’t being brought up to think the most important thing is the man feels OK about having made a pass at someone and been rejected."