Jamie Oliver is on a mission to get more nutritious meals into schools and to infiltrate the homes of Americans to change the way they cook, or rather, reheat frozen and processed garbage as “every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food.” Will this British celebrity chef be able to change the way America eats?
Oliver exchanged words with Oprah over his new television show on ABC Food Revolution. In the new series, he takes on this challenge in the nation’s most unhealthy city – Huntington, West Virginia. “People don’t want to change until the pain of staying the way they are gets worse than change,” Oliver tells Oprah. According to the CDC, Huntington has the most alarming rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
As anyone would have expected, he was not greeted with open arms. Rod Willis, of Huntington, publicly questioned why people should listen to him, of all people. His skepticism transformed to support when Oliver presented to him a jumbo-sized casket from the local funeral home. The man learns the business for these caskets has tripled over the past 10 years. This is the future.
A future of fork lifting peoples’ bodies into the ground gets this man onboard to support Oliver’s efforts.
Oliver has his work diced out for him. David Letterman slapped him in the face with some very cynical comments, most of which represent the opinion of the American majority. Letterman states that the reality happens to be that we live in a culture that is dominated by the business of selling inherently unhealthy food. It makes it difficult for an individual to lose weight on their own. He jokes that as long as there are “160 different kinds of cookies… I don’t know how much ground up sea grass you eat or wheat germ or stuff you find in your pocket, as long as they are selling 160 cookies, what hope do you have? Oliver throws out his arms and says, “See, my challenge is big.”
Letterman prospects that 1,000 years from now we will all be 600+ pounds and “it will be okay.” The audience laughs.
As this is the first generation of children who aren’t expected to live as long as their parents because of childhood obesity and diabetes, Oliver is committed to getting parents to realize that they can change the way they cook and feed their families. Oliver also explains that there are plenty of unhealthy skinny people. “It comes down to real food,” and he has entered the homes of families to ensure they understand that. With Michelle Obama and her Let’s Move initiative, the problem has the attention of the country and there are people who have already started to change. I look forward to the rest of the episodes of Food Revolution to see how his efforts pan out. Check it out on ABC Fridays at 9/8c!
Hear straight from Oliver himself on ABC.com
Watch his interview with Oprah.
Watch his interview with Letterman.
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