Food Revolution

This Sunday there will be a sneak preview of British chef, Jamie Oliver’s, new TV show on the ABC network in America.  The show, Food Revolution, centers around Huntington West Virginia, the Nation’s unhealthiest city, as Jamie goes on the crusade in this 6 part series to expose the cities eating habits and drag them into the dawn of reality. 

The show neatly coincides with fresh concern in the US about childhood obesity, as nearly one-third of America’s children are overweight or obese and this figure rises to nearly 50% amongst the African American and Latino communities.  Michelle Obama, First Lady and young mom, is currently heading up the Federal Childhood Obesity Taskforce and she’s been in the trenches - hula-hooping, soccer practicing and getting her fingers dirty on the South Lawn, in a battle to raise awareness about the prolific problem that this country has with diet and how it affects the young, in particular.

Perhaps Jamie will be invited for tea at the White House.  In fact, I could see a nice bit of television and press here: camera pans in on Michelle and Jamie digging up some fresh vegetables at the White House and making them into a nutritious supper for the First family, but I digress.  The reality is, this TV show is likely to be a popular hit and a really useful piece of arsenal in the political fight to change the eating habits of America.  The new show, Food Revolution, is a mash-up of Jamie’s School Dinners and Jamie’s Ministry of Food which were two popular UK TV shows, one, exposing the truth behind school dinners and the other, the lack of cooking skills in Britain.  The outcome was that the whole of the UK was talking about Turkey Twizzlers and Mick the Miner and the government shelled out hundreds of millions of pounds to improve these issues.  Food Revolution goes into West Virginia and combats school meals and the eating habits of the city.  I’ve seen clips of the show and it’s heart breaking and shocking at the same time.  Meet for instance, Britney, a 16 year old who’s lived on such a poor diet her whole life that her liver has started to eat itself to death and she only has 6 years of her young life left to live.  Or the fact that this is the first generation to have a shorter life span than previous generations, thanks to the fact that it’s literally killing itself, one meal at a time. 

In a country that’s long lived by the mantra of, bigger is better, will we finally say, enough is enough?  Previous political attempts to deal with the obesity crisis have not made a significant or lasting difference but perhaps this time, a popular TV show, a Naked Chef and a First Lady can give this issue the full attention it needs. 

At the side of the page you can click through to Jamie Oliver’s official site and sign the petition to improve food and cooking skills in America, or, visit the Food Revolution website, click here.  

Food Revolution begins this Sunday on ABC at 9pm EST and then continues on Friday’s at 9pm EST.