Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

It started with ketchup packets. A's school cooks will only let the children have one ketchup packet per meal. Which sort of make sense, except that ketchup loving kids (like A) really need another one. So the teachers run around stealing packets from other kids who dislike the stuff to give to the kids who want some more. The teachers tried discussing this with the school cook who was apparently very stubborn on the issue. A rarely eats the food provided by the school. I have several reasons why. Mostly it is because the food is commercially over processed and I wouldn't eat it, so why would I feed it to my children. I was discussing this and the ketchup situation when the wonderful Mrs. B (A's kindergarten teacher) asked if I had watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I hadn't. She then described the project quickly (Mr. Oliver is in W. Virginia trying to change a public school's approach to school lunches) and then shared that it was the school's lunch ladies who were giving him some major flack. Well, she sparked my curiosity. Last night Dustin and I watched the first two episodes.

SHOCKING- to be completely honest, Americans should be mortified, embarrassed and frankly, pissed off. (sorry about the cussing) We live in an advanced society where we have so much food, our kids just throw it away. We are so smart, our kids don't even know that french fries come from potatoes. Our kids are so cool that they refuse to drink white milk. Guess what, MILK IS WHITE!!!

To be fair, there are a lot of Amazing American families out there cooking and eating ridiculously awesome and my kudos goes out to them. However... they are small in number. I would even go so far as to point out that many of these families claim outcast status because they choose not to eat fast food, serve brown rice and their children request soy beans for snacks.

I have been told that I spend way to much time reading and gathering information about food. I am an individual that doesn't believe in the quest for cheap food. I believe that cheap food is killing our country, our economy and our ourselves. I have been told that I put too much time into my food, I say to all you skeptics and accusers, I can't afford not too. When I think about what food does for me and how immensely essential it is, I discover that putting time into my food will keep me healthy, provide more stability in my life and allow me greater physical freedoms.

Somewhere along the way we walked away from all our food sources. We no longer know what is in "season" or what a food looks like in it's virgin state. For example, I was at the children's museum making a craft with my kids and the little girl next to me was drawing some grapes underground with her carrots. Her father pointed out that grapes didn't grow underground and when she asked him where they grew, he answered her by saying, "I'm not sure, but I think on trees somewhere". What! Seriously? To make matter's worse, the little girl asked the educator over the craft project if she knew and (for crying out loud), her answer was, "Yeah, I think it's trees". Then I butted in and told the little girl that grapes grew on vines, which sometimes look like trees when they get really big and old. Again, we should all be embarrassed. Clearly it's not just the kids who are misinformed. The sad part is, that our lack of information is killing our children. Remember when we were young, it used to be call "adult onset diabetes", well, no longer, it's now "type 2 diabetes", why? Riiight.... our kid's aren't so healthy. Our children are a part of the generation who will not be living longer then their parents. Sad. Sad. Sad.

As you can see, I am passionate about food, but so should you be. Food is everything. Take some time to educate yourself about what you are eating. Is Kraft telling you how to eat? The government? Watch out for all the hype about organics as while. Read up, already. We are powerful individuals, pretty smart in fact. Build a bridge instead of a wall around your food. Think outside the supermarket. Watch Jamie Oliver's show. Maybe you will realize that you have gotten it all wrong this whole time or that you just need some slight modifications. Talk to your doctor. Luckily food is forgiving and everyone has the chance to start over, and over, and over. Chicken nuggets are not the enemy, ignorance is.