I'm a fan of the Food Network, and several years ago I fell in love with Jamie Oliver. At the time he was a simple young man from London, cooking simple wholesome food in his apartment for his show "The Naked Chef". Today he is a superstar on a mission. He wants to change the eating habits of our youth by changing what they are fed at school. To that end he has a new program on ABC called "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution." I saw it at 9pm on a Friday night, but I don't know if that is it's permanent time.
What an eye opener. Jamie has started his mission in Huntington, West Virginia, called the unhealthiest city in America. He started with one elementary school, revising their lunch program, going into the classrooms and talking to children, and demonstrating for both parents and children why most of what they are currently eating is unhealthy for human consumption. Jamie walked into a classroom and held up several vegetables, one by one, and asked who could name the vegetable. He showed them tomatoes, cauliflower, eggplant, beets and potatoes. Not one child in the first grade class could name a single one of these vegetables. To me that is shocking. It tells me these kids have not been exposed to even the most basic fresh foods. Do they carry these foods in the local supermarket? Even if their parents don't buy fresh vegetables, don't kids learn about these foods from going grocery shopping with mom? My kids used to always ask "what's that?" as we walked up and down the fresh food section. I guess these children don't have that exposure. In any event, they sure knew what chicken nuggests and french fries were. They did not even know where french fries came from!
Jamie did a demonstration with meat patties, showing that the meat they were being served came from the worst part of the cow, contained lots of fat and cartiledge and hormones and additives. Did they still want to eat it? Yes they did. They did not care that it was unhealthy and gross.
Jamie also visited a family, all of them morbidly obese, with children at 4 and 12 already pre diabetic. The parents seem willing to try to change the family diet, and this is what it will take for them to be successful. You can't put a 12 year old on a healthy eating plan if the rest of the family is not supporting him.
The meals Jamie made for the school lunch program were vastly different than what they were accustomed to. Regular milk (no flavored milk), fresh cole slaw with carrots and raisins, pasta with cheese and fresh veggies and yogurt or pudding. Most of the kids did not like the food in the beginning. They all wanted their sugar fix from the milk and more foods high in carbohydrates. The administration of the school is going to let him continue his food program for several weeks to see if he can turn some of the kids around. He realizes he must get the parents involved, so he is doing that too.
I commend him for his efforts to revolutionize the school lunch program. This is similar to what Michelle Obama is working towards. They really have their work cut out for them. I hope they make some progress.
If health care companies would come to their senses and realize that if they had their insured eating healthier from the get go, they would not get sick as much, would not develop diabetes and other life threatening diseases, then they would have options in their coverage for nutrition education and exercise. It's certainly cheaper to pay for nutrition education or part of a health club membership than it is to pay for lifelong chronic conditions like diabetes. Good luck to Jamie and Michelle, and let's all do our part to teach the youngsters in our life about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
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