See, I like his approach a lot more than that one (in general, I'm not a huge fan of the whole "make brownies with spinach in them/deceptively delicious and then serve them to your kids knowing they're healthy" movement). The reason being, he isn't looking to change eating habits in the SCHOOL for that MEAL, he is looking to change them for life.
Hmm. If he's looking to change eating habits for life, then....I know a couple of things:
1). It was counterproductive for all those people (all those years!, lol!) getting in my face and pointing out that everything I was doing about eating was wrong, wrong, wrong and that if only I would do what they said I would be nice and thin! lol!
And if was counterproductive for me, it was probably counterproductive for you. And Alice, the lunch lady? The one with the big chip on her shoulder? Was is counterproductive for her?
Orrrr....Do we think that Alice was innocently defending "first ingredient ground beef" and slamming the box back on the table...because she couldn't read the rest of the print? (in which case, we're guilty of thinking her stupid, lol!) or maybe....she was so adamat because she already was bothered by stuff going on, but she didn't like being backed into such a public corner and she *sure* didn't like the posh accent in her face telling her she was wrong wrong wrong (even tho she maybe deep down inside sort of agreed with him).
2). Change comes in all sorts of ways.
I've hung around this site for about a month now, and the one thing I see over and over (and over, lol!) is people saying that everybody has to find ways to make the kinds of changes in their lives that will result in change over a lifetime...in their own way.
So---some people have made radical changes very quickly...others have made incremental changes.Slowly, steadily, making real improvements, but not at a blistering pace.
And I'm slowing reading my way through the maintenance library right now? Thin for Life? And all that stuff practically shouts: makes sustainable changes you can live with. Make sustainable changes you can live with.
Make sustainable changes you can live with.
So...what if the object really is for that lifetime change and Jamie's hobby horse is that the school's supposed* to cut fat by 50% and calories by the same---but the Alices of the school system end up *only* willing to cut fat and calories by 25% with a combination of processed and better foods, and they do so whinging and moaning---but they stick to it...is Alice an agent for positive change over the course of a lifetime?
In my experience (and probably more to the point, Jamie's experience with the school lunch program in England), teaching kids to eat healthy whole foods can be sustainable over a lifetime, particularly if you involve those kids in the entire lifecycle of the food (like some of the programs in Berkeley/Bay Area that have "pizza gardens"...kids plant the tomatoes and basil and peppers at the end of their school year, then harvest when they come back (obviously someone cares for them over the summer!) and learn how to cook with those whole ingredients). Those kids leave those programs with a variety of skills (they work math lessons into the recipes, science into the planting, etc so it fits with educational objectives), an idea of where food comes from, and at least according to the parents of kids in those programs, a greater openness to trying new foods and recipes.
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1). It was counterproductive for all those people (all those years!, lol!) getting in my face and pointing out that everything I was doing about eating was wrong, wrong, wrong and that if only I would do what they said I would be nice and thin! lol!
That's not the approach I see him taking at all with the kids (and if I do see that, I'll be disappointed). With the ADULTS he does talk about what is wrong and nutrition and all that. With the kids, he's very "Look at this lovely tomato! OMG, there's a pea pod running through the school yard! Healthy food is exciting and tastes good!".
I do think he came on a little strongly with the cooks in the cafeteria, who are essentially powerless against regulations and school boards and etc to change what is served, so directing "Wrong" at them was all talk and no ability to resolve anything, which I think is really what the issue was...They have no choice about what they are feeding the kids, they do their jobs, and he is telling them they are ruining the health of future generations...of course they're going to get defensive, the only alternative is to admit "Yes, I am, I can do nothing about it, by doing my job I am hurting children" (particularly hard because most people who work in schools are passionate about and love the kids A LOT...and sometimes have to do things that aren't helpful for those kids due to policy/law/budgets).
The fat/calorie content of the food won't change too much...those things are regulated by the USDA in the Nutrient Standards for school lunches (there's a minimum calorie allowance, a maximum calorie allowance, and acceptable percentages of calories from fat). It's the INGREDIENTS he is looking to change, to get kids excited about healthy foods so that they can continue that passion as they grow up and hopefully go onto live healthier lives that incorporate real, whole foods.
I do think that as Alice and the other cooks will come around, but only after Jamie demonstrates a way that they can a) do their job including meeting all regulations AND b) provide healthy meals from whole ingredients. And then, yes, they will all be agents for positive change. Right now, they can only listen to him saying "you're bad", they do not have the district approval or flexibility to do anything about it (and I would guess that because this is television, a lot of this was either contrived or orchestrated to make them angrier...because if Jamie isn't "fighting" the school system, what sort of TV will that make? We have no idea how the idea was presented to the staff or what sort of coaching Jamie got on interacting with them, or how it was edited).
In my experience (and probably more to the point, Jamie's experience with the school lunch program in England), teaching kids to eat healthy whole foods can be sustainable over a lifetime....
That's not the approach I see him taking at all with the kids (and if I do see that, I'll be disappointed). With the ADULTS he does talk about what is wrong and nutrition and all that. With the kids, he's very "Look at this lovely tomato! OMG, there's a pea pod running through the school yard! Healthy food is exciting and tastes good!".
I must have missed the pea pod episode...the one I saw, he had little interaction with the kids and masses with the adults---and I agree, I didn't understand why he went for the powerless lunch ladies, but I *would* point out that MATTERS how we get across the "this has got to change" message to adults----because adults---parents, grandparents and yes! lunch ladies,lol! are the food gatekeepers for our (very young children), who basically eat (or not eat!) what adults give them.
And I guess my approach is different: I'd bend and scrape to get every ounce of good will and enthusiasm generated in every single adult I came across who had the power to influence what my community's children were eating: I'd rather have lunch ladies who said to the principal/school board: yeah. Carrot sticks. WE can do that, easy. Let's give them a whirl....
It's the INGREDIENTS he is looking to change, to get kids excited about healthy foods so that they can continue that passion as they grow up and hopefully go onto live healthier lives that incorporate real, whole foods.
Then he has to get the gatekeeping adults excited about the changes and willing to do the work. He mentioned that he had a vision of Alice going into other schools and showing those lunch ladies how to change....he obviously recognizes Alice's skills and knowledge and technique---so at this stage, he ought to be picking her brain for all the tools/information/abilitlies that are in the average midwest lunch lady so he can see what she knows that will work with fresh food and sailing ideas by her, presenting her with ideas to incorporate...not the other way around.
Wouldn't that make sense as a first step? To cover common ground? Agree on basic stuff?
Right now, they can only listen to him saying "you're bad", they do not have the district approval or flexibility to do anything about it...
(and I would guess that because this is television, a lot of this was either contrived or orchestrated to make them angrier...because if Jamie isn't "fighting" the school system, what sort of TV will that make? We have no idea how the idea was presented to the staff or what sort of coaching Jamie got on interacting with them, or how it was edited).
Oh, I agree. And I have to wonder----what's exactly on the plate right here (har!)? TV ratings or the food revolution?
I am watching the Jamie Oliver show now and I am horrified at what the school children on the program were eating. And it is incomprehensible to me that they don't know the difference between an eggp0lant, a tomato, and a potato. And how to use silverware. Good grief! Wherever will we find the rocket scientists of tomorrow? Will we have to import them from third world countries? Very sad to me to see the state of our children.
I found this show great to watch too. I didn't think of the lunch room ladies as being rude, they just felt overwhelmed and didn't think they could cook like Jamie was asking them to. I found the school's food disgusting and would imagine most schools serve the same food. It made me think about my food, too.
Last night's show was a real eye opener. I was stunned that the kids couldn't identify vegetables or use a knife and fork. That gives you the impression that none of them are eating "real" meals at home, everybody just eating McDonald's and pizza. The family he is helping from the church I believe is already cheating, fast food drinks, the little girl said they had pizza, vegetables left in the fridge. This shows how hard it is to get people to change their habits.
I watched both episodes online this morning with my 9-year-old son, my husband was listening in as well. Very fun and educational. At one point I made a comment about kids eating "white bread," and my son piped up, "What's white bread?" LOL!
One of the most dangerous diet myths (and unfortunately one of the most common) is that early "cheating" is a sign or proof of failure and unwilliness to change.
I think too much is being made of the family "cheating already." It makes good television to ask a family to drastically and suddenly change their diet, but it doesn't make good sense psychologically or emotionally. Even if they prepared and ate only half of the meals (heck if they only prepared and ate the food for two days out of the seven), that would likely be enough to see some major health improvements over the long haul. It's not ideal, but it really is a gopod start.
I hope that IS being communicated, because if only their failure at being perfect is stressed, the family may assume the situation is hopeless, rather than feeling they're making progress and can build on that.
I think it is ironic that the "fattest" people on the show are the least resistant to the prospect of change (even seen in the shots of the parents reactions to the schools tarp o' crap and the truckload of animal fat. It's the fat folks that are nodding, and it's the thin folks who are shaking their heads, rolling their eyes). If you watch the fattst folks, you see them nodding, and paying attention, whereas the thin and only moderately overweight folks are the most (or most portrayed as being) hostile and argumentative. It's as though they feel that because they're not morbidly obese, the advice doesn't apply to them, as if they're immune to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure stroke because they don't weigh 300 lbs.
I think there's still a strong tendency for people to believe that if a food is bad for them, they would immediately feel sick. If they're near or at a healthy weight, have no obvious health problems, and don't feel sick all of the time, they must be healthy (and of course they're not going to doctors so there's no evidence to the contrary).
It's an interesting show. One of the first "reality" shows that I've been tempted to watch in a long time.
I know the lunch ladies, didn't like being called that, but I can't help it. Growing up (and even now) that's all I've ever heard them being called, even when my mom worked in my sisters' school cafeterial. When asked what she did, she said "I'm a lunch lady at my daughters' school").
I found it incredibly odd that the lunch ladies reacted in such shock to the suggestion that the kids, especially the kindergarteners be given knives, and their disbelief that knives were given to school children in Brittain. I found it really crazy that they usually weren't even given forks - only spoons.
When I was a kid, we did have real silverware and there were butter/dinner knives, forks, and spoons of real metal. Heck I remember my mom would send me to school with a paring knife or steak knife in my lunch box sometimes. I'm pretty sure it was no later than second grade (I had a long lunchbox in third grade, and I remember that a steak knife fit, but only the paring knife fit in the previous year's square metal lunch box).
I was helping in the kitchen and using a "real" knife very early, because I was making full meals for the family, by myself by 9 or 10. I remember in 5th grade taking a "cooking class" in school, and I was very didsappointed, becaue I knew how to make everything that we were going to learn (except a pie crust from scratch).
Then he has to get the gatekeeping adults excited about the changes and willing to do the work. He mentioned that he had a vision of Alice going into other schools and showing those lunch ladies how to change....he obviously recognizes Alice's skills and knowledge and technique---so at this stage, he ought to be picking her brain for all the tools/information/abilitlies that are in the average midwest lunch lady so he can see what she knows that will work with fresh food and sailing ideas by her, presenting her with ideas to incorporate...not the other way around.
I think my point was that the whole thing with the cooks was overblown, because they really aren't the gatekeepers...the school system/administrators are. The menus come down from higher up.
It will be really interesting to see how this progresses as the show goes on!
I watched this morning and was so grossed out by his chicken nugget demonstration to the kids that i almost puked. I can't believe that after showing them what went into a chicken nugget and how they were made the kids still ate them. On the bright side, I had my 7 year old watch that part and he told me he would never eat another chicken nugget unless I made them for him with real chicken.
I watched both episodes last night. I loved the show, I can clearly remember loving chicken nugget day at school. And I was very much like the processed food family not all that long ago. Although I was still in shock at how often she fried things, I mean she was making donuts in her home on a regular basis, that was shocking to me.
I think the concept is a good one, people should be eating more whole foods period. I think the movement pushing towards that way of eating should be a big one.
I am disgusted that they have a great show like this one, teaching people about eating healthy and then the commercials for fast food come on. That makes no sense, during this one show could they not sell ad time to other companies.
The one that KILLS ME the most is Friday lunch. Uncrustables. Those FROZEN things in the breakfast freezer section of the grocery store. Seriously? For lunch?
This was a main dish "choice" at my daughter's previous school EVERY DAY!!! Would it really be that difficult to whip up a few pb&j's by hand?
I find the school lunches disgusting. But unfortunately, my family is one who depends on the free lunch program...
I love what Jamie is doing, and I truly hope that he opens the eyes of those in charge of this country's school lunch programs.
I am watching the Jamie Oliver show now and I am horrified at what the school children on the program were eating. And it is incomprehensible to me that they don't know the difference between an eggp0lant, a tomato, and a potato. And how to use silverware. Good grief! Wherever will we find the rocket scientists of tomorrow? Will we have to import them from third world countries? Very sad to me to see the state of our children. 
On the bright side, I had my 7 year old watch that part and he told me he would never eat another chicken nugget unless I made them for him with real chicken.
