ABC, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution
Anyone else watch the premier of his show last night? The word diabetes is brought up a lot. The featured families kids (obese) A1c is checked, the family doctor suspected they might have diabetes.
I am shocked at the menu the elementary school offers. Pizza and strawberry milk for breakfast? The children do not know how to use silverware. Basically trained to eat “finger foods” such as nuggets and fries. The children (an entire classroom) could not identify what a tomato was.
It was a real eye opener to say the least.
I’ve seen another episode of his show. That one showed Jamie trying to make headway with the lunch ladies, talking with some school bureaucrat who approves the menu (man, that was eye popping–the children must have two starches at every meal) & working with an overweight family.
Yes. I was shocked as well. Had to hold my breath when they ran that A1c test for that boy because I know what was riding on it.
I couldn’t believe that the adults are fighting him. He did a similar show in Britain and the adults said, “Yes we know it’s bad to feed our kids these foods but we don’t have the time to prepare fresh foods and we can’t afford to give them quality food.” At this place, they’re saying oh, there’s some beef in it and that’s enough. The kids don’t like it, so they won’t make it.
Let’s take it a step farther, would you be willing to go to your children’s school or the school district in your town/city and ask about the food they serve? My husband is a cook, and so we visit many of the food shows that are in our area. I walk behind the “lunch ladies” and nutrition experts for the school districts and see what they order from the vendors. It is quite frankly stuff I wouldn’t feed my dogs. I don’t have kids in school anymore, but this is appalling to me, and being a child of the 60’s I’m ready to join the revolution. This is just plain wrong to feed our children like this.
Three cheers for Jaime Oliver!
I remember watching an episode a years ago, I think. He was doing some project with British grade school children trying to improve appreciation for “healthy foods” in the school cafeterias. When the children was shown a photo of fries, burgers, pizza and logo of KFC and McDonalds…they all knew what it was… But when shown an eggplant and a tomato., nobody does.
The show left me gobsmacked. Good lord, people have forgotten what real food is. Sad.
The episode I saw showed all the cooked food they ate in a week piled up. It was stomach churning!
The family buried their deep fryer in the yard. That was cool. The mother made homemade fried donuts for breakfast.
My daughter was diagnosed in December and was hospitalized at Dell Children’s, a great and brand spankin’ new facility in Austin, TX. (Dell Computers is located here, and the Dell family and many of the founding members of Dell are huge benefactors, especially in the arts.) It has the second largest private art collection in the city after the Austin Museum of Art and is the only LEED platimun-rated hospital in the US. Ah but the food - atrocious! The menu was basically the same as you’d see on the kids’ menu at any US restuarant. Fried fish, chicken nuggets, french fries, tater tots . . . a lot of crap! I asked one of the nurses about the food, and he told me that the last hospital he’d worked at in Houston had a McDonald’s that the kids could order from! If you can’t get optimum food in the hospital . . . . oh I just shake my head when I think about it.
I’m laughing now because if you piled up all the food in my refrigerator, one of the things you’d find was a baggie of grass - real grass from the yard - it’s for the guinea pigs, but still … that’s funny.
Hospital food is the worst. Unhealthy food, flourescent lights, no fresh air. What an enivornment for healing. Jamie should tackle hospitals next!
Hospitalized kids ordering from McDonald’s. That should be illegal.
I was reprimanded by nurses when I wouldn’t eat potatoes, rice & bread. My meals were considered diabetic friendly because they had sugar-free pudding & diet soda. Pitiful.
You’re a doctor, aren’t you?
Me? I’m not a doctor.
Oh my , Gerri you got me hooked here …as a Director of Food Services, in my province from 1971-1986 …we provided the best available food in the area hospitals …did lots of patients evaluations and outcomes were positive ; listened to suggestions .
Dietitian and I decided to serve in the hospital cafeteria some stuff prep’d with whole wheat flour …patrons literally ( staff ) in uproar …they wanted the " wholesome" white flour …same as when the decision came around : NO SMOKING …Good Lord …it was not pleasant having to cope…this the old gal’s observation 
Wish you had been in charge of hospital food where I’ve been.
Breakfast–French toast made from thick slices of white bread (called Texas toast here) with sugar-free syrup. Sure it was a frozen product. I tried, but couldn’t get plain eggs. The other choices were oatmeal or cold cereal with milk & toast.
Lunch–Grilled cheese sandwiches (also made with Texas toast). Heaven knows what oil it was grilled in because it tasted like motor oil. Ham salad sandwiches with macaroni salad. Meatloaf sandwiches w/ mashed potatoes & peas. EEEK! Other offerings were macaroni & cheese w/ salad, soup loaded with beans & corn w/salad.
Snack–cold cereal w/milk or sugar-free ice cream.
Dinner–spaghetti w/ meat sauce, some mystery meat with potatoes & a rubbery vegetable, chicken w/flour gravy & rice, stew (also thickened with flour) with potatoes, peas & corn.
I thought they were trying to kill me.
These starchy meals weren’t fit for anyone in a hospital, let alone a diabetic. I hardly ate a thing. My husband snuck in food.
And then I recall having breast surgery in the same hospital I worked …I could not eat the food either …I xxxxx everything up …I was so sick after surgery …decided then never to do a breast implant …it was not worth it to not be flat on one side ( did I write that correctly ??) . Actually any hospital one should stay away from, not just because of the food …taking blood by the Lab staff was not fun either …20 minute intervals !!! I complained about that then( now I am going off topic…apologies ).
News Flash!!
Where do I start!!! This is the South! People in the Southern part of the US equate food with emotion and being friendly. It doesn’t matter your ethnicity. Believe me food tastes great from the South for a reason. This is not just a nutrition thing. These people have been doing this for years and now they are being told that it is wrong. Rightfully so. I am sure it is shocking for them. I applaud Jamie Oliver trying to make changes…
I just got back from small town America…Jonesboro, AR. One of the startling differences between there and the SoCal, CA was that people had larger girths. I went to a “steak house” and they had a buffet or a “trough” as I like to call them. People piled the food on plate like they were going to hibernate for the winter. I understand it is a different type of living but it was surprising to see after such a long time from being away from a small town.
I am not a small girl. It still concerned me to see the number of larger people. I also noticed there were an abundance of buffet style restaurants. I use to think buffets were wonderful till I became diabetic. They are just places to encourage people to eat more food than normal. Since being in the Los Angeles area for several years…there is a lack of buffet style restaurants and people super health, organic and environmental conscience. I also noticed there were very few fitness clubs if any. There is nothing in these town telling them to balance exercise with nutrition and eating.
Most small towns and southern places think these things are foo foo.
SHOCKING and SCARY
yea, I have been watching this show. Its disgusting how unhealthy the food is, and how ignorant the people are about it.
I saw the first episode with the school cateferia. I missed this last one so I’ll have to catch the rerun. I couldn’t believe that families food - ew and how stubborn the people were to change at the school. The food reminded me a little of the pizza we had in grammar and high school - little squares that came in a box! And than you would buy your milk ticket - no strawberry though - only white and chocolate. Other foods were hoagie sandwiches - funny how I can’t remember the other ones but my mom normally made our food because we were poor. Cheese sandwiches with imitiation butter and white bread in my squeaky lunch box. But yeah, that whole school food thing brought back memories.
Proves how addictive junk food is - those kids wouldn’t even eat the fresh stuff - I couldn’t believe too that they were throwing out whole apples - unbelieveable. I figured there would be sometimes about diabetes eventually. I definatley want to start watching it regular!
my son was dx at that hospital in houston. the cafeteria is gross fried food. they also have chic file (don’t know how to spell that), a subway, and a pizza joint. I rarely ate subway cause the line was so stinking long, probably cause it was the only healthy thing there. the food that they gave my son was not much better, they argued that my son couldn’t have regular fruit, it was splenda fruit cups!