Jamie Oliver is on a mission to help America and the world change the way we eat. His new docurealitydrama, Food Revolution, aired this week. I caught the replay on Hulu and it is simply a great show. His personal brand of speaking direct truths may come off as a little harsh and abrasive to some, but once you see where his heart is, you’ll realize that it is in the right place.
The show takes place in Huntington, West Virginia. A middle sized town that has been determined to be the most unhealthy city in America (and therefore, probably the world). Jamie, an English chef known for his nutritious recipes, plans to take his message of healthy eating and proper nutrition to the good people of Huntington by addressing the diet of individual families, confronting public school systems, and also by opening his own cooking school within the heart of the city. Almost immediately, Jamie is faced with hostility. It turns out that some Americans bristle at being told what to do by cocky people with British accents (wars have indeed been started this way). However, Jamie’s determination to see lives changed for the better is evident.
Here are some painful takeaways that I gleaned from the first episode.
We are ignorant about proper nutrition. In Jamie’s battles with the public school system, he is faced with the strange dietary requirements forced on the school cooks. Jamie’s first attempt at preparing a meal for the students is thwarted when his dish of grilled chicken and brown rice is short one “bread item”. Frustrated by the faulty notion that students must receive two servings of bread per meal, he is forced to add half of a hamburger bun to every plate he serves. The school cooks and administration are blindly following the dietary guidelines handed down from on high regardless of what modern nutritional information suggests. We are eating garbage, dieing from obesity, and wondering what we did wrong.
We are very resistant to change. When he first enters the school Jamie encounters Alice “Don’t call me a lunchlady” Gue. Right from the start, she is suspicious of his motives and doubts anything he has to say about nutrition. Honestly, I don’t really blame her. She is just responding the way we all do when faced with making a major change. The decision to drastically alter the way we live has to come from within. Only when we understand the dire situation we are in can any true change take place.
We are killing our kids. In one scene, Jamie looks at what his project family, the Edwards, eat on a regular basis. He takes their grocery food for the week, helps them prepare it all (mostly by using the deep fryer) and dumps the entire load on the table. The mound of golden brown fried food brings tears to the eyes of the mom who realizes that she really is sending her four kids to an early grave. Now, we can point our fingers at Mrs. Edwards and question her parenting, but we all know that this is a widespread epidemic. I believe that this really is how most of America is eating and the problem is only getting worse.
I’m really excited about the Food Revolution and hope that Jamie really experiences the success that he desires to see. We all know that this is something that America needs. You can catch the whole first episode on Hulu here.
