Yesterday was one of those days when it was just hard to get off my butt and do anything. That's not to say I didn't do anything, just that it was tough and I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Fearing the morning's heat and humidity, I had laid out my togs so I could roll out of bed, stretch a little, and go for my run. And so I did. Later, there was some resistance training on the schedule, and I did not get that done ... but I did do my killer abs workout.
Last night, I watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I've only seen it a couple of times, but I like this show. Now, we only get one side of the story --- Jamie's, of course --- but it's rather astounding to see the amount of resistance and open hostility he gets from school boards, parents, and authorities in general. Jamie is passionate, and no one wants to hear that they're doing things wrong, but the level of hostility some people have to his message and mission seems abnormally high. (I have to wonder if part of it is because he's a furriner comin' over here to tell us ignernt Murcans how we should eat. Hell, we kicked the Brits' ass over two hunnerd years ago; they ain't nothin' they can tell us).
People just do not like it when you start messing with their food, and I suspect that, in the case of individuals, they know they could do better but don't want to, are embarrassed, or feel that their one easily accessible and affordable pleasure is being taken away. In the case of organizations like the school districts, it's quite obvious that politics and power struggles come into play.
In the latest episode, the LA School Board --- specifically, the superintendant, who defensively insisted that LA schoolkids are getting "proper" food and that feeding kids was not a "bo-teek" operation --- shut down Jamie's attempts to cook for a school and ordered him to quit filming on campus. The school itself wanted him there. The teachers were thrilled both with the healthier food and the change in the students when they were eating it. Oliver was able to cook on a smaller scale and to work with individual classes for a while before the school board once again shut him down.
I didn't see the whole show, nor do I watch regularly, but tonight's episode was particularly moving. Jamie met with a single father and his two sons who eat fast food between seven and nine times a week. The father simply didn't know what else to do. Neither he nor his sons knew how to cook. The kids were really tired of fast food, and ready to make a change, but they just needed help. Jamie staged a sort of fast food intervention, dramatically showing them how much crap they were putting into their bodies in a month and a year. Then, under his direction, the boys cooked a meal with real food. They were all so happy. It was really moving --- it meant so much to the father to sit down at the table with his kids with food they had cooked. It was really sweet.
Meanwhile, back at the school, Jamie also met with a social studies class and introduced them to a number of people who are living with complications of diabetes and other issue stemming from not having taken care of their health in their youth. There were many tears as the kids made the connection between what had happened to these people and what was happening right then to their own parents and grandparents, and what could happen to them if they didn't start eating better and taking care of themselves. It was a graphic lesson, and one I'm sure none of those kids will forget.
And yet, when Jamie spoke at a school board meeting, the superintendent was openly hostile to him and insisted that he himself visited school cafeterias regularly and that the food was "clean" and "proper".
Out of curiosity, I went to the website of West Adams Preparatory School, where Oliver filmed and worked with students. Their menu for the week features a lot of unusual items for a high school cafeteria. The typical pizza and cheeseburgers are there, but they seem to be healthier versions. There's a vegetarian entree (the same one every day, but there it is), the milk is nonfat or 1%, the breads are whole grain, and desserts are mostly fruit. Nutritional information is available for every food item. I wondered if this is a post-Food Revolution change; but then I visited the LAISD Food Services site and found the menu is district-wide. Here's a list of food items to choose from. IAt a glance, it does seem better than most --- contrast it with this randomly chosen menu from a school in Texas. What's really missing is fresh veggies. And maybe it's just really hard to get kids to eat veggies, but then, that's what educating them about food and nutrition is about.
If we're training kids from a young age to eat processed crap, that's what they're going to like and demand. If they are fed fresh, healthy food and sugary, fat-filled treats are limited, they'll grow up liking healthy food.
We didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid. My mom did her very best to feed us healthfully on a tight budget. She paid attention to what the USDA said was nutritious. So we always had veggies on the table, but they were frozen or out of a can. And let me tell you, it's no wonder kids don't like canned veggies, because they're usually gray and limp, they have no texture, and they taste like shite. Frozen veggies have come a long way since I was a kid and are the next best thing to fresh these days; but back then, they were just as bad as canned. For us, a salad was a head of iceberg lettuce, a tomato, some imitation bacon bits, and a whole lot of Thousand Island dressing. We ate grocery store white bread and margarine. We ate potted meat and Vienna sausages and weenies. We ate "mashed potatoes" from a mix. We kept a big ol' Maryland Club coffee can of bacon grease on the stove top to cook with, and Crisco for baking. When Mom started trying to lose weight, we started getting a lot of diet products filled with artificial flavors and sweeteners, that never were as good as the real thing and never worked very well because we didn't do any better on portion control than we had with the real thing. In fact, because it was "diet", we ate more.
There simply is no substitute for education about real food and real nutrition. There's no substitute for eating right. Cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, pizza, ice cream, doughnuts, candy --- all that stuff is yummy, and it's fine for an occasional treat, but it should NOT be every day fare. And our schools should be helping educate kids on real nutrition instead of grooming them to be good little consumers of big industry food products. Teach them where food really comes from. Expose them to good food, real food. Teach them the basics of cooking, for heaven's sake!
In other words, you go, Jamie Oliver. You can come educate this Murcan any day.
I LOVE Jamie's show. I think you do an excellent job summing it up for people who perhaps haven't seen it. I agree with your point, "There simply is no substitute for education about real food and real nutrition." All those diet foods are just masking the issue of how undereducated we are about food in this country. Anyhow, good show summery.
Been flipping through your blog some (even skipped back to Jan 2009 a bit) and it's interesting how you're so focused on habit changes (learning to eat well vs. dieting) - that's smart. Plus your style is very engaging. Nice all around blog :)
Posted by: Jennifer | June 16, 2011 at 11:57 PM
I think your assessment of the 2 menus is a bit unfair. The Texas menu does offer fruit and vegetables every day. The main difference is the LAISD menu list all the fruits and vegetables it offers and I HIGHLY doubt they offer all those vegetables every day. Most likely, they are like every other school district and offer 1 fruit and 1 vegetable choice for elementary and 2 or 3 for secondary.
I have worked at many schools in Texas and in Hawaii. All school had the same basic food options just with different names. Although, Hawaii offered rice as compared to potatoes.
However, I do agree. All schools need to change their menu and I would be more than happy to join the revolution. If kids are brought up thinking this is healthy food, we are in trouble. Worse is we are feeding unhealthy food to our kids.
Posted by: Lindsey | June 15, 2011 at 02:47 PM
One show that best emphasizes moderation and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. It focuses on one person's journey to a better life through eating right and exercising regularly. I'd suggest checking it out. It's on Monday nights on ABC at 10pm/9c, or you can check it out online if that's easier. http://abc.go.com/shows/extreme-makeover-weight-loss-edition/
Posted by: Joel | June 12, 2011 at 08:31 PM