Msfoodiegrl's Blog

No To Golden Food In School! (Part I) | March 28, 2010

What happens when one altruistic chef encounters one very resistant “lunch lady”? Except that calling her lunch lady is the first in a series of serious faux pas that Jamie Oliver makes among the, ahem, Food Service Directors of Huntington, West Virginia. The second would be to suggest cooking chicken that has never been frozen. The third might be to encourage more white milk and less of the pink. Who knew cows were so fruity?

What you get is Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution that premiered Friday, March 26th at 8 p.m. The show aims to spotlight the obesity epidemic and to help reverse the trend toward shortened lifespans; as of now, American youth are expected to live shorter lives than their parents and that is a direct result of increased rates of diabetes, heart disease and other complications of obesity. Huntington was chosen because 50% of the population is obese. Obesity is defined by a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or more or 32% or greater body fat for women and 25% or greater for men. He plops down in the most obese place in the most obese country in the world hoping to “plant a seed” to change the way America eats. . While Oliver probably anticipated some degree of complacency, he is surprised by the antagonisms of a few of the town’s local personalities.

The show opens with an interview with Oliver and Roger the Radio Personality. Roger’s program is the most listened to program in the area so it is important that Oliver get him on his side. The Q. and A. session quickly becomes a confrontation during which Roger says, “We don’t want to sit around and eat lettuce all day.” Oliver exits the session and remarks, “I thought there were only miserable bastards like that in England.” Then there is Alice the Food Service Director who he has mistaken for a lunch lady. While he is encouraged with her bread-making skills–federal requirements stipulate two servings of bread at every school meal– he is less enthused with her continued resistance. ”I’m not getting a good feeling about this,” she says. But Oliver is not deflated… yet.

For those of you not obsessed with the Food Network, you may not be familiar with Oliver. He is the charismatic, happy-go-lucky, doe-eyed young chef from England who started buzzing around our television screens first as the Naked Chef about 10 years ago. More recently, he can be seen on Fifteen, where he tries, according to his website, “to open a top class restaurant and to give disadvantaged youngsters the chance to gain professional training that would set them up for an independent, inspired and productive life.” The show was a success and now Oliver has several restaurants of the same name with the same vision. Oliver also successfully transformed the school lunch program in Britain. In his latest crusade, he brings his experiences to a curious American audience.

Which brings us back to Food Revolution and the crying. What we see on the playground is not  red-faced blubbering, but it definitely could not be mistaken for onion-cutting wetness. Oliver becomes emotional because he had been trying so hard to convince the people of Huntington that he was on their side. Unfortunately, the local paper took a few of his quotes out of context–something about their being ignorant and lazy–displeasing all the Food Service gals, the school principal and the head food service coordinator. With hand on heart, Oliver swears on his children’s lives that he was defending the town and that he is there to do good. Alice is not buying it. The rest of the gals fall in line.

Things are not looking good for our crusader; his revolution mired in the golden deliciousness of school cafeteria food. But he finds a friend in Pastor Steve who is happy that someone may be able to help his diminishing congregation.  ”When winter comes, every other week I’ve got a funeral to go to,” he says referring to those dying due to complications from obesity. Next we are introduced to a family that needs Oliver’s help. He cooks everything they would eat in a week. Upon dumping all the food onto the table and admiring the food’s varying tones of yellow, the mother Stacey begins to cry. His lesson is learned–Stacey wants her and her family to change. The deep fryer is buried and we are inspired by a simple pasta dish and salad that Oliver helps them make.

But our hero of the Food Revolution is Stacey’s son, Justin. Justin is one of 23 million American kids who is overweight or obese. Aside from the obvious health problems there are a slew of issues that kids like Justin face every day at school, namely teasing. A recent study polled 4,726 middle and high schoolers who fit the criteria for overweight or obese and consequentially, suffer weight-based teasing.  Half of those teased reported contemplating suicide compared to 24.7% who were not teased. I am not sure what is more alarming: that half of teased kids think about killing themselves or that 25% are thinking about it even without harassment by their peers.  As for the boys, teenage boys who reported teasing by both their peers and family members were three times more likely to attempt suicide than those boys of a normal weight.

Oliver takes a liking to the soft-spoken Justin and we see his personality shine when Oliver invites him to cook in his kitchen and they make Chicken Chow Mein together. Justin has low self-esteem but is open to Oliver’s suggestion to stand up straight while he walks.  Justin shows us the potential, that the desire is there; what the people lack are the tools to help themselves.

Oliver has set up a kitchen in Huntington where everybody is invited to come and learn how to cook inexpensive, healthy meals, though he will insist that you use a knife and fork. More than anything else he was horrified that most of the kids did not know how to use a knife and fork. Watching Oliver and the principal show the kids how to use a knife and fork was telling. After all, what use does cutlery have when all your food groups are dipped.  We finally see our revolutionary make some progress when he uses his gross-out technique on the parents. He loads up all the saturated fat consumed by the school in one year into a dump truck and empties the truck into a giant bin. The masses of unidentifiable congeal effectively disgust the mothers who then promise to join his crusade.

Food Revolution hopes to be the top-watched show on Friday nights. For its Friday debut, it caught the attention of 18% of the market share–pretty good considering heavy competition from the NCAA basketball tournament. With knife and fork in hand, I look forward to next week’s show.

Check you BMI: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/?htf=5&hti=7&wt=160&bmi=24.3

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