Food Revolution

If you haven't had a chance to see Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution yet, please go to Hulu.com and watch it (you can also find it at abc.com, but it starts playing video immediately, so I didn't want to link it). This show is truly showing what the major problems are with the food system in America and offers a glimmer of hope for the future of one American town.

For the last few years, I've been trying to bring more real foods to my family, cutting out the processed junk and preservatives and I've seen the pizza for breakfast in the public school system. Every day when I look at the choices my daughter has for lunch (usually one healthy-ish and one not so much), I realize she's more likely to pick the worst one if given the choice. So I pack her lunch most days and try to include fruit, veggies, and real food, not chemicals.

Some days I succeed and some days I resolve to do better, as I'm sure we all do sometimes. But just seeing the resistence of the people Jamie is meeting while trying to help them gives me chills. Because I know that I could be just like them. It's easy to justify pulling the frozen nuggets out when there isn't enough time to cook something from scratch. But I also know that I'll be paying the price with my weight, my health, and ultimately my life.

With classes like Home Economics being phased out of schools due to funding, many people graduate and go out on their own without the knowledge of how to prepare a healthy meal or shop for a week's worth of groceries without hitting the freezer aisles. People don't know how to cook a pot of rice or beans, some of the healthiest, lowest-fat foods there is, or even know what all the things in the produce section are.

While I don't know much about Jamie Oliver and what he stands for, I do appreciate this show spotlighting some of the very issues I'm concerned about and I hope the show will open a few eyes to the health concerns that are sweeping our nation.