Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution is a new reality tv show set in Huntington, West Virginia. In Huntington, nearly half the adults are obese and the incidence of diabetes and heart disease are the highest in the nation. British chef Jamie Oliver has come to Huntington to turn around the health of this city, beginning with revamping the food served in the school system, and teaching anyone who wants to learn, how to cook.Perhaps most shocking was a scene in a first grade classroom where he held up various vegetables and the kids couldn’t identify a single one. We are not only talking about less common veggies like eggplants or brussel sprouts, we are talking about simple things like tomatoes and potatoes. They had even less idea that French fries came from potatoes.
This becomes a little more understandable when Jamie Oliver walks into the school freezer, looks around, and describes it as “an Aladdin’s cave of processed cr**.” In typical school systems where chicken nuggets, pizza, and other processed foods form the bulk of the meals, it isn’t suprising that young children lack the ability to be able to tell where their food comes from. It also doesn’t help that processed foods are more economical than fresh, for families as well as school systems.
Chef Jamie Oliver advocates a healthy diet of whole foods, foods that are minimally processed and as close as possible to how they are found in nature. While initially facing opposition from the kitchen cooks, school administration and the local radio station, through gaining the support of the parents and kids, he is slowly but surely making a difference. Stay tuned as he dresses up as a pea pod in an effort to increase the kids’ enthusiasm for eating vegetables.
Will his food revolution succeed in an environment where regulations place French fries on equal footing with other vegetables? Watch episodes at hulu to find out, and post your feedback below!
