Last year, a new TV show took America, or rather Huntington, West Virginia by storm: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Jamie Oliver is a famous British chef who changed around the British school food program. Now he has come to America, leaving his family behind, to help Americans change their eating ways by changing individual cities.
Jamie's first objective is Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington has a population of about 50,000 people and is home to Marshall University. It was also recently named The Most Unhealthy City in America. Jamie hopes to changing the health of Huntington, but knows he is going to be met with a lot of resistance. In a radio interview, Jamie laid his objectives down for the whole city to hear; telling them he wishes to plant a seed of change in the fast food industry, in the schools, and in the homes of America.
In Huntington, Jamie will be spending a majority of his time working with the school programs and helping in the kitchen of an elementary schools. He intends to show children how to eat well in order to set them up for a life of good eating habits. Jamie wants to prove that we can change the foods served in our school cafeterias while staying on budget and having kids like the food they are eating. If he can accomplish this, the American school systems will be willing to take a look at his changes and contemplate changing them for good.
Upon his arrival at the school, Jamie was immediately dissatisfied with the meals he witnessed being served; breakfast pizza, pre-cooked meats, fried foods, and tons of processed foods. While the cooks have all the proper tools to cook delicious healthy meals, Jamie learned that these wonderful appliances were only being used for reheating and the storage facilities (freezers) for storing precooked frozen meats, pre-scrambled frozen eggs, and other mystery foods! These school freezers were simply serving as a cave of processed crap. To Jamie's surprise, the cooks did make their rolls from scratch! Unfortunately, barely any of the children ate them, preferring to eat their processed, fried foods over the homemade items. Jamie was very unhappy with the food developments he witnessed in these schools and is further inspired to make changes. The cooks (mostly Alice), however, are still resilient to any changes Jamie suggests, seeing nothing wrong with the processed foods… as long as the main ingredient resembled the end product.
Feeling a little down on his luck and in need of a friend, Jamie went to talk to the local pastor Steve Willis who also wants to make a change in his people's lives. Pastor Willis has experienced the outcomes of the eating habits of his city, with the high rates of death and disease. Willis suggested that Jamie go into some individual homes to try and work with these families as well.
Heading Willis's advice, Jamie went to help his first family, the Edwards. Jamie mainly worked with the mother, Stacie, who worked hard each week to feed her three sons and one daughter. Jamie had Stacie read over her weekly grocery list in order to see the kinds of foods she buys weekly. Then he took her into the kitchen and together they cooked all the food they would eat in one week. By having all of the food they would eat weekly in one room, Stacie began to see the problems with her food; the high fat content and the mainly yellow and brown colors. After talking with Stacie about what would happen to her children if they continue to eat this way (knocking 10-15 years off their lives), Stacie decided it was time to change. Jamie recognized that Stacie is not a bad mom, she is just in need of some help to make the proper changes. Therefore, Jamie taught Stacie and her children how to cook a delicious, healthy meal and then gave them the recipes and ingredient lists for meals for the remainder of the week. Jamie promised to go back and see them in a week to see how they did.
Another part of Jamie's plan for Huntington was to build a cooking studio in the middle of the city, where people could come and go and learn how to cook healthy for free! In his studio, he was visited by a city representative who waked him through the USDA standards for school cafeteria foods. Using these standards, Jamie developed a meal that would satisfy the requirements but that also came from fresh food. He then was challenged to serve his meal next to the normal cafeteria food to see how it was received. At the last minute, the principle came to evaluate the food and to tell Jamie that he was one serving of bread short. He was required to have two sources of bread products. This further frustrated Jamie because bread served in excess to children will cause them to gain weight. They should have a requirement of multiple servings of vegetables rather than of bread!
As one would predict, the children chose to eat the processed crap rather than the made-from-scratch foods.
Jamie ended his first episode by reminding us that we live in a great country built on great values, but those values have become confusing. When all we need to do is to come together as communities and as families, to put a few ingredients together and sit around the table as a unit, we are more confused than ever about what we are consuming. We need to take a step back from our processed foods to look at our lives and our diets, to change these things so we can put what matters most first.
Join me next month in watching episode 2 of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution to see what happens next in Huntington, West Virginia. (Yes this show was on last year. I hear about it but never had time to watch it. Figured this was the perfect time to catch up… especially with Jamie signing on for a second season this year! You can catch up with me by watching the shows on YouTube.
Today's Workout: RELAX!! Today is Friday which means that it is relaxation day. Take a break from working out and enjoy your day off!
Today's Food Tip: If you are ever in need for an idea for dinner, log onto cookinglight.com and find a recipe that sounds good. Today I made a batch of Sausage and Chicken Gumbo. It was amazing! There is definitely enough to feed a few people and have some leftovers. Give it a try tonight if you don't know what to make.
Today's Relaxation Activity: Since today is a day to relax, find an hour when you are not doing anything to take a nap. It's a wonderful time for catching up on some shut eye to take advantage of the time you've got today!
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