Has anyone heard about or watched the program on ABC about Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef) and his effort in Huntington W.V. We have watched the 5 episodes available on the internet and WOW. I never knew things were like this. We homeschool our kids so I never really thought about it much. I figured things were not good just by the statistics of child hood obesity and diabetes rates climbing here in the states but it hits home when you actually SEE it.
i suppose if one considers candy/chocolate (the real dark kind) processed, then i do eat processed food a couple times a week. but, in actuality, we eat no processed food. i do all the processing myself! yes gm, we've been watching jamie oliver's 'Food Revolution', too. quite an eye opener for many folks. we've learned a lot about reading the labels and the sugar and sodium in all processed food, even ketchup and fruit juice and such. it's a real good thing what jamie's doing! there's another good show PBS is airing several times this month, at different times, called 'Food, Inc.'. it is an eye opener about factory farms and our meat and poultry industries. there's info here on it.... http://www.pbs.org/pov/tvschedule/
I'm all for feeding our children healthy food but I found the program quite disturbing and not for the reason you might think. I watched a couple of the first episodes but felt way too manipulated by the whole thing to remain interested in it. You bring in a British chef, who, if you don't have cable TV and watch cooking shows, many people have never heard of. Put him in a southern town and he starts telling people what they can and can not prepare. That is a set up for the controversy they were looking for to bring in the TV ratings for the program. That first menu he came up with for the elementary school kids to eat didn't even sound good to me, how did he expect children to like it? The elementary school my youngest daughter went to years ago started serving baked potatoes and salads as an option and really underestimated how many of the kids would prefer that to the pizza or chicken nuggets. Anyway, if changes are going to be made in school food services it has to start with the parents and school boards and go up to the FDA which makes the rules school districts have to abide by in order to get federal funding. I think a lot of the problems is the school districts have taken the lazy and cheap way. Chicken nuggets and pizza do adhere to the FDA requirements so they don't have to pay more money for staff who actually know how to cook instead of just how to put the frozen food on a tray and stick in the oven for 30 minutes.
I love Jamie Oliver! I have not seen the Food Revolution in America one, but i did see the series he did in England. I was shocked how many of the English do not even cook! I can not vote on your pole, because we never eat anything that is processed. I make all of our dinners. Only one thing i can say is processed we eat for breakfast is caviar spread. And even that has no added ingredients other than what is supposed to go in it. Comes in a jar kind not the tube. Now if you really want to see a good show that Jamie does, watch his "Jamie at Home" series. Everything he cooks comes right out of his garden. He also does tips and tricks with his garden on how to grow and maintain raised gardens, how to grow all year round, and alternatives. Great show! And omg, i love his kitchen. I want that kitchen!
