Jamie Oliver

is a chef from England. Now, as a general rule, I don’t typically look to the English for tips on how to eat, but he’s taken on trying to get Americans to eat better. And he decided to start by going to Huntington, West Virginia (which someone has labeled “America’s unhealthiest city”). Of course, all of this is recorded & available on the teevee for your entertainment (or of course, on Hulu). And he’s kinda adorable – he used to do a show in England called “The Naked Chef”. I think the Naked had something to do with the food rather than with him, unfortunately. Although, it might have been distracting if he was swinging his man bits around while chopping up food.

He starts off by going to an elementary school and tries changing the food that’s being served to them in the cafeteria. Much (oy) hilarity ensures when the caf ladies (one grumpy one in particular) are resistant to chopping veggies rather than serving pizza & french fries to the kids.

There’s an exchange between Jamie & the (grumpy) caf lady about the fact that they don’t provide knives for the children – because they don’t know how to use knives. He tells her that children in England are taught how to use knives in school – that the teachers help out – and she asks if he has an documentation to prove this!?!?!

My “favorite” part of the show is when he brings in vegetables to the kids (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant – which he thankfully does not call aubergine, turnips, etc) and asks them what they are. Shockingly, the kids have absolutely no idea what these items are. Seriously – they didn’t know what a tomato or a potato was. And they had no idea that french fries were made from potatoes. It was frightening.

It (plus a blog post from my friend Peter) did motivate me to download Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food to my Kindle & start reading it immediately. He says you should eat real (not processed) food, mostly plant based. I have been struggling with food for a long time and have gotten into a rut where I get all addicted to sweets and crap (it literally is an addiction for me – I will get obsessed with eating ice cream or something else bad for me and it’s incredibly difficult to resist the urge. When I stop eating sweets for several days, the obsession leaves). I like veggies & fruit (I was a vegetarian for a long time) and I’m hoping that as I educate myself more that it will make it easier for me to make that step to treating myself better by giving up the processed stuff because I know it’s horrible for me.

And, while you're at it, sign the petition to improve school food in the U.S. because it’s disgraceful what we’re doing to our kids.

Updated at 8:30am to include this article that talks about the scientific support about being “addicted” to fatty foods.

And at 8:33am with another article.