A True "Food Revolution"

Brita, my foodie friend in Germany, told me about Jamie Oliver a year ago, after having had the joyous experience of eating at his Fifteen Restaurant in North London. And now I find him on TV and am learning about what makes his food a joyous experience.

Until I heard about Food Revolution I didn't think too much more about him, though. I'm singing his praises now. The TV show is brilliant, though sobering. I prefer watching reality TV without the staged drama.

Jamie has moved, for the first season of this show, to Huntington, WV, a city of about 50,000 people, because it has been deemed -- by the Centers for Disease Control -- to be the US's most unhealthy city, with over 50 percent of the population being obese. He wants to teach them better eating habits to help them improve their lives.

ABC's TV show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, chronicles Jamie's efforts to change the citizens of Huntington. He's taking a variety of steps to connect with people and make changes. For starters, he opened Jamie's Kitchen to the community as a free place to come to get cooking lessons, menu planning, and budget guidance in creating a healthy meal.

He is facing huge challenges. It's depressing. It's disgusting. Here are some of the actions he's taken so far.

He adopted a family to teach them better nutrition, and its benefits. You watch him work his way through one elementary school's kitchen to the high school's kitchen. He started a cooking team at the high school to help start training young cooks to be peer leaders to help influence the other students, and their families, about healthy eating. And he made a bet with a local DJ, his biggest detractor, that he could teach 1,000 people in 5 days to cook a meal. He did it! It was amazing to watch. And he won Rod, the DJ, over to his side in the process.

Lessons Jamie offers to the viewers include:

• green beans lose half of their vitamin C in one week
• frozen vegetables are often more nutritious than fresh because they are flash frozen within hours of being picked, preserving the bulk of their nutrition
• obesity doesn't affect just the person, it hits their friends and family too
• obese kids have low self-esteem
• morbid obesity leads to diabetes and other health issues
• obesity shortens your life span because of the way it affects the liver, heart and other vital organs
• federal guidelines require that for schools to get reimbursed the lunch costs, the school must serve 1-1/4 cups of vegetables
• according to federal guidelines, french fries are a vegetable
• salad is an optional vegetable in Huntington schools (and not taken often)
• obese people can't be cremated, need oversized caskets (which don't fit into a hearse), and often need a double grave site

Watching the school district administrator talk about meal mandates was watching "zero tolerance" in action. Zero tolerance in our house means zero thinking. How can an educated adult frown on lovely stir fried vegetables in favor of french fries? Is zero tolerance driving our children's eating habits at school?

My Bigger Half sees it differently. His take is that she was frowning on the amount -- according to federal guidelines, the amount of veg has to equal 1-1/4 cups. The amount of veg in the stir fry didn't reach that volume per serving.

I guess it's after-cooking volume that counts.

In contrast, I loved seeing him using Green Giant frozen vegetables during the teach-1000-people-to-cook bet. And Green Giant is an advertiser, promoting the healthy aspects of frozen vegetables. Given that frozen vegetables are easier for busy people than keeping fresh vegetables in stock I was glad to see that promoted. That's the kind of information that will sway people who might be tempted to choose fast food over fresh food to cook and eat healthfully.

In talking to friends about this program I see what different perspectives everyone has on Jamie's challenge. We all agree he's doing wonderful things for the people of Huntington. We don't agree on how it's going to end.

• the elementary kids are the most easily swayed to healthy eating
• if a school cook doesn't like Jamie they'll undermine his program
• high school kids can apply peer pressure to get their friends and families to change
• Jamie is way over budget, they'll shut the program down in the schools. Good food costs slightly more than the garbage we feed kids in schools, which means they'll go over budget.
• they can't like him telling them how to eat better

It seems to me the citizens of the US are in a food crisis. There are numerous resources to help you change your understanding and thinking about the food you eat. This is the most tangible and entertaining education I've had on the subject. I was a believer before starting to watch this program, though I didn't always act on my beliefs; that's changed for me.

There have been lots of entertaining bits. Don't miss the others. Watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution too. Friday nights at 8 on ABC.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6263498

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