Jamie Oliver’s wish: Teach every child about food
The prevalence of obesity, especially in children, keeps Jamie Oliver up at night. He questions how it can be that people aren’t more outraged that people are dying from a preventable condition. He works with individuals and government alike to create workable solutions to remove fatty and sugary foods from people’s diets. And now he wants you to work with him.
Tonight Jamie Oliver receive the 2010 TED Prize and unveiled his “one wish to change the world.”
I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.
A plan (detailed below) has been created to help Jamie’s wish become a reality. Everyone is invited to share your offer of support and we look forward to working collaboratively to combat obesity.
THE PLAN:
Set up an organization to create a popular movement that will inspire people to change the way they eat. The movement will do this by establishing a network of community kitchens; launching a travelling food theater that will teach kids practical food and cooking skills in an entertaining way and provide basic training for parents and professionals; and bringing millions of people together through an online community to drive the fight against obesity. The grassroots movement must also challenge corporate America to support meaningful programs that will change the culture of junk food.
THE NEEDS:
- Help to establish the organization, with funding, office space and facilities.
- Find partners to equip and run the community kitchens, and food suppliers to provide the fresh ingredients.
- A partner to build and maintain a fleet of food theatre trucks.
- Education experts, graphic designers, artists and writers to develop and produce creative, fun teaching materials.
- Communications experts to create messaging for the movement.
- Web designers and developers to create and build the website.
- Establishment of a food line that generates a sustainable income for the movement.
- Corporate partners to invest in cooking and food education for their customers and champion honest food labelling.
- Your names added to the petition to challenge our leaders to make change now: www.jamiesfoodrevolution.com/petition
Photo: TED / James Duncan Davidson
The Akron Cooperative was conceived in the fall of 2008 and establish in February of 2009 to do exactly as Jamie has described: to educate people on how to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food through backyard (“Recovery”) gardens and community gardens. We use the gardens as our classrooms. Our program is geared for urban populations, often those most in need of healthy, locally-grown food and who often live in food “deserts”.
And, yes, we are in great need of partners to help us to meet the needs of the participants (gardeners-to-be) who contact us every day.
We are building the infrastructure and the partnerships in Appalachian Ohio to support Jamie’s dream, please work with us, and don’t look down on us! Find whats working on the ground already and support that!
I think it is lovely that the TED prize went to someone who is promoting better food and health.
My concern is that we will try to improve this without addressing the fundamental causes of the problem, which are varied, complex and connected. e.g.
1. Corporations now control most agriculture and food production. They produce a lot of food that we did not evolve to eat (grains, simple sugars) and they use chemicals and genetic modification that we also did not evolve to consume. i .e. Corporations select for short term profit and over consumption – not what is good for humans / life on earth.
2. We spend far too much time indoors sitting – not enough time outdoors exercising / walking.
3. Out television and media is dominated by crap – and it is this mass consumption of crap (both food and knowledge) that is harming us.
My point is that to be healthy requires a substantial change in how we think and act on earth.
I am pleased that TED is leading the way in this area.
Cheers,
Geoff Haselhurst
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/health/index.htm
Jamie is doing an incredible job in getting the message out there. My concern is how do we overcome the power and influence of the major players in the “food” industry. Monsanto, Cargil, Pepsico, Coca cola and the like are in it for the money, and couldn’t care less about the health of the nation. Unlike the average citizen and groups like TED, these corporate entities can easily afford to buy congress and advertising like never before, especially with the latest Supreme Court decision regarding corporate political advertising.
You must start in the schools and teach the next generation about real food and the consequences of eating processed and fast food. They should be taught the basics of metabolism and how too much sugar, high fructose corn syrup, coloring agents, GMO foods, MSG and other factors upset this process and lead to poor health and disease. They should all be required to watch “Super Size Me” and “Food Inc.”. Maybe by doing this they will change their eating habits and have a positive influence on thier parents as well.
If congress would put as much effort into educating themselves and the public regarding healthy eating habits as they do into political infighting and stupidity over health reform, the cost of medical services would plummet.
The food processors, drug companies, insurance companies, congress and the FDA are not on your side, so it will be an uphill battle, but keep up the good work, as continuing education of the masses will win in the end.
To Good Health,
Dave
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place
I commend Jamie for voicing this and coming up with a solution. Being a parent and a big proponent of home made meals, it breaks my heart to see how many people simply don’t care. Kids bring snacks from home at preschools/schools and the food that comes out is again – flavored milk, juice, crackers, prepackaged fruit or yogurt, muffins, just to name some.
Hope Jamie’s initiative will help solve this global issue before it gets completely out of hand.
Urban growing provide a great way to produce your own food and preserve the environment. Plus, it’s a fun hobby. Who doesn’t like watching giant vegetables growing in your tiny living space?
When children understand how important “real food” is and where the natural ingredients of our food come from, they will increase the general population’s appreciation for preserving our natural environment and limiting toxins and polluting processes in our world. We may even trend back to the time when people stepped outside their homes to interact with family and neighbors in home and community gardens and block-party barbeques. Does anybody even remember how nice those days were?
Hi, where did you get this information can you please support this with some proof or you may say some good reference as I and others will really appreciate. This information is really good and I will say will always be helpful if we try it risk free. So if you can back it up. That will really help us all. And this might bring some good repute to you.
The only messages you will post are pollyanna ones, so why should I make suggestions?
The diet of human beings prior to the arrival of agriculture, technology and civilization is known as the Paleolithic Diet. This Stone Age diet, in short, consisted of mainly lean red meat and vegetables. In this type of diet animal meat is consumed in large quantities and 45 to 65% of the energy needed by the body is derived from it.
The amazing fact is that the people who used to survive on this diet till the early centuries had extremely low rates of cancer, obesity, arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart diseases till they shifted to our modern diets. Thus, many scientists and nutritionists feel that Paleolithic diet is a very good tool for fighting against obesity, cancer and many other modern ailments.
The foods included in this diet are generally lean red meat, eggs, fish, fruits, nuts and vegetables. Items like breads, pasta, milk, refined sugars were excluded from this diet. This diet used to vary region and culture wise in different countries.
The specialty of this diet is it is rich in protein, fiber, minerals, iron, vitamins, mono unsaturated fat, omega3 fats, antioxidants and phyto-chemicals. On the other hand the diet contains lower quantity of saturated fats, salts, and enzyme inhibitors.
Experts feel that the Paleolithic diet have many health benefits and since foods taken are mostly natural they have no side effects. Since milk and dairy products are excluded in this diet it is safe to have some calcium to protect from rickets, osteoporosis, etc.
Learn more about the best ways to lose weight by reading reviews and health tips at http://paleolithicdiet.com
Concerning HauppyAdary’s advice for eating 45-64% of one’s energy from dead animal meat scientifically shown to be healthy… here’s the truth: “Historical records of extremely high protein intakes in humans show that daily intakes of protein above 45% [of energy intake] in adults are associated with weakness, nausea, diarrhea and ultimately death.” “A high protein diet has been shown in human and animal studies to increase calcium excretion…From these findings the authors suggest that excess protein…in habitual diets [frequent consumption] may augment calcium excretion in the urine, particularly in the elderly. [As] high protein diets lead to increased urinary calcium loss [this] could be hazardous particularly for females due to its involvement with bone health.” From: The Journal of Nutrition, vol. 133, 2003, Official Pub. of the Amer. Soc. for Nutritional Sciences.
In 1958, when he was 41, Nathan Pritikin was diagnosed with heart disease with a cholesterol level of 280. He created an eating plan rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and moderate amounts of lean meat, seafood, and nonfat dairy foods. He also began exercising. His cholesterol plummeted to 120 and two years later a new electrocardiogram showed his coronary insufficiency had disappeared. Emboldened by his new life, Pritikin launched several research projects over the next 25 years that validated the efficacy of his program. Pritikin was so vocally opposed to advice like HauppyAdary’s – coming at the time from Atkins that Atkins (who died weighing 258 pounds at his death but who book sales continued at over $100 million a year afterwards) filed libel lawsuits in 1983 against Pritikin. The American Heart Association has also long been at odds with HauppyAdary’s advice (as have ALL respected health organizations from the American Dietetic Association to the American Institute of Cancer Research). And, nutritional supplementation is HIGHLY recommended for such diets (including for the Zone, the Sugar Busters, or the Protein Power).
Over and over again, life expectancy studies related to diet, including by the World Health Organization (WHO), have concluded that Americans and Europeans would do better to eat more like third world peoples as the options provided by their additional wealth have most often lead to poor nutritional choices. This is the same basis for the USDA based their popular food pyramid in 1992. Researchers at Harvard have only suggested perhaps tweaking the food pyramid by replacing some dairy products and read meat with more fruits, vegetables, and fish while also emphasizing the importance of improving the ratio of “good” to “bad” cholesterol. Plus, exercise not only makes weight loss much easier, but also lowers blood glucose levels, decreases blood pressure, improved circulation, and increases one’s metabolism. Good regular sleep patterns are also just as important. Diets based on USDA recommendations include DASH, American Diabetic Assoc, Weight Watchers, and Jenny Craig.
It was in 1948 when Dr. Ancel Keys proved that diet and not genetics is the overriding factor in causing heart attacks. Dr. Keys found the Japanese in Japan, who ate a healthful diet of rice, fish and vegetables and had an average cholesterol level of 120, rarely had heart attacks. The Japanese living in Hawaii, whose diets were somewhat Americanized and included more red meat and dairy products, and whose cholesterol levels averaged 180, were at much higher risk of heart attack. Japanese living in Los Angeles, whose diets were completely westernized (lots of snack foods) and whose cholesterols rose to an average of 213, had the same risk as other Americans. For every one heart attack in Japan, the Hawaiian Japanese had four, and the Los Angeles Japanese suffered ten! We like to think that a cholesterol level below 200 is good, but research continues today in demonstrating a direct relationship with even ultra-low levels and reduced heart disease. Smoking has also been linked with increased cholesterol levels plus caffeine and alcohol reduces the net availability of iron in the body and may encourage gout.
Okinawa in Japan boasts the highest percentage of centenarians in the world and the average Okinawan eats at least seven servings of vegetables daily and an equal number of grains in the form of noodles, bread and rice. Elderly Okinawans have been found to have impressively young, clean arteries, low cholesterol, and low homocysteine levels when compared to Westerners. Extensive research of the population shows their healthy arteries are mostly due to their lifestyle; diet, regular exercise, moderate alcohol use, avoidance of smoking, blood pressure control, and a stress-minimizing psycho-spiritual outlook. These factors help reduce their risk for coronary heart disease by up to 80% and keep stroke (and cancer) levels low. Okinawan elders are lean, with average body mass index (BMI) that ranges from 18 to 22 (lean is less than 23). The Okinawans stay lean by eating a low-calorie, unrefined-complex carbohydrate diet, practicing calorie control in a cultural habit known as hara hachi bu (only eating until they are 80% full), and keeping physically active (usually in the form of dance, soft martial arts, walking, and gardening). Okinawan elders have higher levels of sex hormones, including natural DHEA, estrogen, and testosterone than similarly aged Americans, suggesting that the Okinawans are physiologically younger. Higher endogenous levels in men increases muscle mass and body hair, deepens voices, and controls libidos, among other functions.
Okinawans also have about 20% fewer hip fractures than do mainland Japanese, and Japanese have about 40% fewer hip fractures than Americans (see Ross PD, et al. Am J Epidemiol 1991;133:801-9). Protective factors that may play a role here include high calcium intake by Okinawans in both their food and their natural drinking water, high vitamin D levels from exposure to sunlight, increased physical activity, especially at older ages, and high intake of dietary flavonoids (estrogenic compounds from plant foods). The government’s DASH diet, for example, targets several specific nutrients believed to improve blood pressure in the form of whole foods including calcium. A 2,100 kcalorie DASH-compliant diet, for example, targets 4,700 milligrams of potassium, 500 milligrams of magnesium, as well as 1,240 milligrams of calcium. These micronutrient values are believed to be as much as two to three times higher than the average American currently obtains. The following guidelines represent recommended intakes for the DASH diet: Grains: 7-8 servings per day, vegetables and fruit: 4-5 servings per day (each), low fat dairy: 2-3 servings per day, meats/poultry/fish: 2 or less servings per day, nuts: 4-5 servings per week, fats and oils: 2-3 servings per day, and sweets (plus sweetened soda): only 5 per week. The best place to start is cutting out the sweets. Other studies show more fruits and vegetable (whether one is healthy or has cancer) is always better up to 11 servings a day (alas, such research results are often found in the media as “getting crazy about vegetables – over 12 servings a day – shown not to help”).
I don’t see the biggest problem being the food industry using pesticides or GM foods, but that, like the drug and banking industry, that they use predatory practices to market their products (at least drug pusher still get greater punishments than users)… as Jamie Oliver points out, to allow high-sugar foods to be labeled “low fat.” In similar fashion, HauppyAdary misinformation is just as bad and derails the “revolution” for eating smart. And so, I want to have ingredients identified when GM primarily not to avoid the food but to avoid the companies using such business practices. I’m also not a big fan of “organic.” The best example for me is when the guy in the movie Food, Inc stated his chicken was twice as clean. Don’t label it “organic” – instead, I want to see the level of contamination on the label (which would require testing, a practice which our government is sadly getting out of) and not some meaningless organic label.
The organic movement is based on the belief that nature knows best and science is dangerous. It is regularly claimed that organic food is more natural and that its reliance on natural chemicals makes it safer than food grown with the help of synthetic ones. But, there is nothing wholesome about natural chemicals like ricin or aflatoxin or botulinum toxin, or especially dangerous about synthetic chemicals like the sulphonamides, isoniazid that cures TB, or the painkiller paracetamol. Moreover, there are no known deaths from pesticide residues (or GM foods). Even a cup of coffee contains natural carcinogens equal to a year’s worth of carcinogenic synthetic residues from a normal diet (and blind tests have shown fresh organic food tastes no better than fresh food grown conventionally) not to mention that coffee represents a sizable trade deficit (none of it is American grown) that hurts our economy.
Organic food contains higher amounts of natural toxic compounds produced by fungi or plants that counteract any synthetic toxins from pesticide residues that conventional food may contain. For example, mycotoxins (fungus derived toxins) called DON (deoxynivalenol) and OTA (ochratoxin A) often contaminate wheat, whether grown organically or conventionally. They cause cancer, damage genes, and are harmful to the kidneys and the immune system. The levels of these toxins may be reduced by fungicides, or increased by nitrogen fertilizers, and are influenced by being kept too hot or wet as is often associated with organic production. A younger or older person (or weak immune system) faces real dangers from the increased toxins and bacteria destroyed by synthetic pesticides in normal foods (whereas compost and manure, the foundation of organic farm nutrients, are breeding grounds for bacteria and fungi).
According to Dennis Avery, of the Hudson Institute in Niagara, there is a greater chance of contracting the potentially fatal E Coli from eating organic food than normal food. And, according to Anthony Trewavas, Professor of cell biology at Edinburgh University, a whole host of bacterial infections, including salmonella, are more likely from eating organic food. Furthermore, according to Professor Bruce Ames of UC Berkeley, one of world’s leading biochemists, there is no evidence of any health benefits from eating organic produce. You are no more likely to get cancer from eating an insecticide-sprayed apple than from eating an organic apple because the level of natural pesticides produced by the apple dwarfs those of man-made spraying. And if you eat fewer organic apples, because they are more expensive, you will in fact be worse off as fruit contain chemicals which guard against cancer. In this politically correct environment it isn’t remarkable that consumers are well prepared to pay significantly more for food that is more dangerous (but organic producers must undoubtedly be laughing all the way to their, I assume, ecological bank).
Even if most claims made for organic farming could be substantiated, its main disadvantage is its inefficiency (the real meaning of “green”). Organic food costs more because average yields are 20-50% lower than those from conventional farms (and thus farmers have enormous incentives to ship the remaining unsafe crops). Its inefficiency, however, is highly relevant to the hungry and the poor. While there may be food surpluses in some areas, we need to triple food production in the next 50 years to feed 3 billion extra people and meet higher living standards at the same time. We face an increasing shortage of water and of good agricultural land. In many places the only way inefficient organic farmers can feed an expanding population is by cutting down more tropical forest. Every form of technology that increases efficiency in farming will therefore be needed to contribute to the production of more food. What contribution can organic farming make? In the words of the Indian biologist CJ Prakash, its only contribution to sustainable agriculture will be “to sustain poverty and malnutrition.”
I believe love means to nurture, which means to feed. So, when we fail to properly feed our children, we suggest we don’t really love them. Now, there has not been any real mention of how our “comfort” foods usually but mask psychological issues (for which most therapy has been shown to unfortunately only make matters worse), but that’s another issue / revolution.
I would like to wonder if it’s not putting the blame on the symptom and not the cause. Given all that America has to offer in the world of Activity (snow/water skiing, horseback, scuba, climbing – god the list goes on further than the eye could see).
That if we could campaign for a change of life style that allowed, easily, for various “channels” of opportunity to gain access to such activities, would be the real assault on the problem, no?
We still have a grasp on how important someone’s religious faith is (weekly) wouldn’t that be nice, if that respect was also given to our pursuit of happiness (in someway shape or form) right?
Why with all the modern conveniences are we yet putting in a forty hour work week, developed when? How long ago?
I mean do the demographics; go to resorts and places ware all these “pursuits of happiness” occur – who and how old are the people doing them and how often?
In closing, what I’m saying is: Americas pursuit of happiness is not taken to hart, and is not an integral aspect of day to day living. All work and no play; will have it’s consequences, no?
I recently lost over 60lbs and went from size 42 waist to a 34. Exercise was a huge factor, but I would have to say what we eat and when is a more crucial factor. I try to eat 5-6 smaller protein-rich meals with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Also, I eat my biggest meal of the day in the morning and taper off with subsequent ones throughout the day. This helps get the metabolism going and keeps the appetite under control. Obese people often eat less than I do, except they skip breakfast, chug sugary sodas all day, snack on greasy carb-laden junk food and then gorge before dinner and up until bedtime. By doing that, you are essentially telling your body to store fats and metabolize foods at a slower rate.
I whole heartedly agree with Chung about what and when we eat is a huge factor on how we lose weight. It’s not secret that in modern society that alot of people skip breakfast and then have their biggest meal of the day last thing at night right before they lie down to go to sleep. I changed not only what that I eat but also when to the following
1) I have a breakfast, never miss it
2) My lunch is the largest meal of the day
3) My dinner is the smallest meal of the day
So far I have lost alot of weight and it was not hard
Regards
Mark