I don't get why they just couldn't make healthier versions of what the kids already like? I used to be a person (before I had kids!) who was all, "if you just feed them healthy foods from birth they will eat that" --- HA!!
I was a mama who's babe never got rice cereal - she got avocado, and mashed (cooked from fresh) apples, sweet potato, pureed greens etc. Oh, wasn't I the proud mama? MY child wasn't fed junk so MY child wouldn't want the stuff YOUR unhealthy child liked LOL....
Well, now my daughter is nearly 5 and she won't eat a veggie unless it is hidden - which I do well
My point is, instead of Jamie removing the pizza and replacing it with like, roasted chicken with marinade, why couldn't he use a whole grain crust, tomato sauce full of pureed veggies, and all natural part-skim cheese pizza? Or instead of taking the fries away cold turkey, make some baked sweet potato fries with light dusting of olive oil and spices (no partially hydrogenated oils or additives etc). Or instead of mashed potatoes as a side, mashed cauliflower seasoned like mashed potatoes? It certainly couldn't be more expensive than what he is doing already with the foods even 'healthy' 5 year olds probably wouldn't devour.
Instead of partially hydrogenated sugar-filled peanut butter and high fructose corn syrup PB&J, he could have all natural PB no sugar added and all fruit jam on whole grain bread...
My point is, you can serve "kid" foods that are healthy, it is not mutually exclusive. Even our mac&cheese around here has pureed squash, pureed cauliflower, natural cheese, and whole grain elbows.
(FWIW, dd is very healthy and not a bit overweight)
I think the kids would make the transition a heck of a lot easier. Even though my daughter eats traditional 'kid' fare, she at least is developing a taste for real, whole foods and veggies (even if they are mostly hidden)... free of artificial flavors, colors etc.
But overall, I do like him and what he is trying to accomplish. I didn't mean this as a long criticism lol I just meant that it doesn't necessarily have to be an either/or situation.
?y point is, instead of Jamie removing the pizza and replacing it with like, roasted chicken with marinade, why couldn't he use a whole grain crust, tomato sauce full of pureed veggies, and all natural part-skim cheese pizza? Or instead of taking the fries away cold turkey, make some baked sweet potato fries with light dusting of olive oil and spices (no partially hydrogenated oils or additives etc).
Because, I think, that they don't make the pizza - it comes frozen in a box, so it is a lot less labour-intensive than making a pizza from scratch.
I watched the show a week ago - the first 2 hr episode - and I plan on watching in the future. In the past, I watched the "food revolution" in the British schools but not all episodes so I was not sure how it ended. I am glad Amanda posted the links.
In a way, it does not surprise me at all that the kids prefer to eat the crap. We all know that sugar-fat-salt combo makes the food very addictive (by the way I recommend reading "The End of Overeating") and as a kid I probably was not all gung-ho on eating steamed veggies either. I am lucky because our school cafeteria served lunches made from scratch EVERY DAY - but that's because I grew up in Eastern Europe and there was no fast food industry and I had no idea what a pizza was until I was a teenager).
Like Mindi said, it's all about the numbers although I would have expected (hoped) that the authorities would be interested in serving the kids a healthier diet (but then again, they make think themselves the current menu is just fine - they most likely live on it themselves).
I was shocked when Jamie went to visit the one family - the mom was quite overweight and in need of losing some weight - but what shocked me most was how HUGE the kids were. They were obese in a very young age and unless the mom changes the way she cooks they are facing bleak prospects in the future. One of them was on the verge of diabetes.
I hope Jamie succeeds. I did not like him a whole lot (when he became a celebrity) but over the years I warmed up to him. I know he means well but it's a David versus Goliath type of a battle.
I didn't mean 'they' as in, the food ladies, I meant Jamie. Certainly homemade pizza that is healthy (whole grain thin crust, natural cheese, pureed veggies in real tomato sauce) can't be more labor intensive than roast marinated chicken and hand-shredded cole slaw?
I hope he succeeds too, I like him a lot and what he's trying to do. All I was asserting was that it isn't a mutually exclusive thing - as in, you *can* have (things like) pizza and it *can* be healthy.
This is the first and only reality show this season, that I've been interested in seeing. I've enjoyed the first three episodes. I do think that some of the emotional reactions are staged, because I find it hard to believe that the lunch ladies weren't coached to be so resistant. From what I've read, it's standard practice for reality shows "behind the scenes" to say or do things for dramatic effect. The one cafeteria worker (who is always scowling) and the radio show host don't ring true to me, because their attitudes are so mystifyingly extreme. I strongly suspect they're "acting," either for screen time or because they've been asked (and possibly paid) too.
The motive of the radio show guy is obviously his own ratings, though I wouldn't be surprised if he's cooperating with Jamie's Staff behind the scene. It sets him up as a great "villain" for Jamie.
Even the scene of the kid having to go to football practice (the only kid who was described as already being "a good cook") for part of the dinner prep. This kid is shown to be uber-responsible and very committed to changing the schools, and seemed to be one of the natural leaders, and we're supposed to believe that he didn't tell anyone that he would have to leave for a short time. I wasn't buying it.
I also think half of the stuff HAS to be set up. Jamie's crew has access to the governmental guidelines for schools (because all of us do - just a few mouseclicks away), so they knew that the pasta stir-fry did not have enough vegetables, especially since they've been criticised in previous episodes for not meeting the vegetable guideline in previous episodes.
Actually for the high school, the requirement for 1 1/2 cups of fruits and vegetables would be a great guideline - if french fried didn't count as a vegetable. And it's sad that the vegetable has to be offered, but the children don't have to take it (like the "optional" salads).
I suppose the show has to be run this way. If the school staff, the kids, the parents, and the community were 100% cooperative, it wouldn't be a reality show, it would be a documentary. Reality shows are popular, documentaries not so much, because conflict makes good television.
Still, I do feel that Jamie's motives are genuine. It does seem to be a personal passion of his, and you've got to admire that (well you don't have to, but I do).
The promo for the next ep shows Jamie taking a local radio guy who's skeptical of his program, to a funeral home and showing him a bariatric casket ...
I know much of it is "staged"...pretty obvious...just like all reality TV...we know a couple of reality tv "actors"...
but I know, skipping past the "drama" we all can see WE need to STOP THE BLEEDING!
At the middle school where my wife teaches and the high school where my son and daughter in law teach the food is provided by a company....
when I was a child...a long time ago....the ladies in the cafeteria cooked the food....
my mom ran the cash register when I was in 4-6th grade...she would bring home leftover food that would go to the trash if not taken (1964-66)...it was always good, or at least I remember it being so...but then I was 10-12...
I still need to go to Hulu and watch the third episode. TV schedules rarely match my own, lol.
Gary, I remember the lunch ladies and the food really was good. I swear I can still smell it! I even posted on a local forum to see if there were any surviving lunch ladies (sadly unlikely) that could share the recipes.
I noticed that Amazon has quite a few books written in recent years about the politics behind school lunches and the travesty it has caused.
What a great idea SUZANNE...I hope you get a reply back.
I have been very fortunate with the school lunch...as I mentioned I grew up in a time when the food was good! I'm not saying it was the healthiest on planet Earth...but good....if it wasn't when I was in jr. high and high school I would have brought my own.
I was blessed to be able (with many personal sacrifices) to send my children to our church school from pre-school through 8th grade....at the time my kids went there was hot lunch 3 days a week...on the other days we sent a lunch....by the time my step-d finished there was hot lunch 5 days a week...raising my nephew and sending him there, for 2 years after I became his guardian, I gave him the choices of hot lunch ~ make your own and I'll but whatever you want or eat at home when you get home...I remember him telling me..."Uncle Gary hot lunch is soooo good!"
It was and always has been sooo good...but that is because our cooks are all volunteers! Donating their time to do something for the children at our church school.
All of my kids went to public high school....they always ate at home and never in the cafeteria because they all had athletic P.E. which allowed them to come home after classes then go back for games and practices....since they all played year round I don't believe they ever ate at high school.
Now if we can only find a way to turn the public system around.
I saw the first show a few Fridays ago. The kids didn't know the difference between a potato and a tomato? What the **** is wrong with their parents? It's easy to just blame the school but . . . . why have parents handed over their children's nutrition to a school? Did you see the crap they feed the kids? And kids will always go for the crap vs. the good stuff . . . they're kids. Then again a lot of families probably eat fast food waay too much.
My kids think cafeteria food is gross. I always pack their lunches, make dinner nearly every night, bake from scratch. Yeah I know people are busy but too busy to feed your family right? Since when did that get shoved to the bottom of the pile?
I am utterly horrified. I've only watched the first two episodes but I'm practically in tears!
I feel so lucky to live where I live. Aidan's school lunch menu includes things like lemon flavored chicken with snap peas, carrots, and rice. We all make our fare share of bad eating choices but the family featured made me want to cry!!! My 5 year old was watching with me and when he saw them dump all that food on the table he said "Some of that is yummy but not that much!" If my 5 year old can have some self regulation why can't these adults?! If he can understand that eating nothing but deep fried brown food is horrible for you, why can't they get on board?
So so so gross.
ETA: I can't help but think. I never ate like this even when I was extremely overweight. I just ate TOO MUCH of the good stuff I was eating. I can't imagine what I would look like if I used the deep fryer 3 times a day...ack
I'm another who is just loving this show. (Staged or not.)
One thing that really is bugging me is the federal regulations that the schools have to go by. For instance, they need X amount of veggies - but for budget reasons, french fries and ketchup count as veggies. HUH?!?! That's just not cool.
I totally agree on the french fry thing! Brown rice isn't good enough for bread so we have to add enriched bleached buns?! WTH?!!!
Where my son goes to school any bread served is whole grain and there are no french fries served. It can't be that much more expensive to forgo to the fries and do brown rice and veggies. My son likes it just fine and so do his friends. French fries are starch+fat when I serve potatoes with dinner I serve them instead of a grain, not with one + the veggie. I hope this spurs some change in the school lunch system, it needs an overhaul!
In my home state (Queensland, Australia) the traffic-light system was introduced into school canteens a couple of years ago.
Basically your sandwiches, fruit, juice, milk are green foods. Things like sweetened fruit juice are amber, and soft drinks, chocolates, fried food etc. are red.
The kids are allowed unlimited green foods (this is for schools from prep to senior high). They can have one amber food per day. Red foods have been removed totally, and there is a red food day once per term, usually on the last day, where they do pizza, chips, soft drinks etc. Interesting thing is that the proportion of vege pizzas is now much higher than it used to be, so obviously some education of minds is happening.
Don't make it optional! If that's all there is to eat, they'll eat it. I can't watch the show (the clip isn't available here) but I get the gist. And I applaud what he's trying to do.
Don't make it optional! If that's all there is to eat, they'll eat it. I can't watch the show (the clip isn't available here) but I get the gist. And I applaud what he's trying to do.
I couldn't agree more! If healthy options are the only ones available, they'll eat them. It may take a while for the kids to get used to it, but they will eventually.
If you can't watch it through hulu, have you tried it at abc?
