Oprah Inaugurates a Food Revolution in America!

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We made it a point to watch Oprah today (Friday). Why? Oprah interviewed Jamie Oliver and discussed his latest venture/obsession/mission: The Food Revolution!  (Cook more meals at home, buy fresh food, eat together as a family, get healthy as a result.

Jamie is so focused on this new venture that he has a new TV  show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. This  is  6, 1-hour shows filmed in Huntington, West Virginia (Airing on ABC Fridays).

Why this town? According to Jamie and the CDC (Center for Disease Control), this town is the most un-healthiest spot in the United States. From what we can piece together, Jamie arrives in the town to challenge them into breaking away from their usual meals and try to eat healthier. Many of the previews we watched this afternoon, focused on Jamie’s work at a school in the city (talking to the kids, working with the staff etc…)   Naturally, Jamie’s show contains some drama as the local DJ tries to “run him out of town” and is initially resistance to this British guy showing up to tell the locals what to do.

The show will debut tonight (Friday March 26, 2010) in the United States on your local ABC station. Here in Tucson, it will air from 7-9pm. Thank goodness we checked again, as we originally thought it would be on at 9pm tonight- eeks! THAT would have been disappointing!!

There were quite a few clips to view on Oprah, but there were two parts that really stood out for us.

1. Golden Brown Food

Oprah aired a clip of a home visit that Jamie makes to a family, and piles up a weeks worth of food on their kitchen table. The food mound is composed of pizza, French fries, corn dogs, chicken nuggets, burgers, nachos, you get the idea- everything was brown, bready and high in fat!

The comment is made that all the food that this family is eating is “golden brown” from the fryer! Eeks!  Most of it is breaded or fried, looked greasy and seemed soggy by the end of the shots.

It was sorta shocking to see that much “golden brown” food at one time. Yuck!

Truthfully we are sure that we have eaten such a meal in the past, but every day for a week? Wow that mound of food looked impressive, but in a negative way.

2. The Coffin for the obese

In another part, Jamie brings the radio DJ along to a local funeral home, and then we all get a view of what the “end of life options” are for the obese. This we will admit was shocking to us.

The coffin was as large as a full or queen sized bed!

The Morticians noted that a coffin of this size required many “un-dignified” adjustments in order to be moved and buried. These included tipping it up on it’s side (to get through a door), transportation in a pickup truck and/or by fork lift, and the injustice of having to pay for two plots at the cemetery. These huge coffins are also super heavy (reinforced steel side beams etc…) as they have to hold up with contents that weigh between 600-700 pounds.

The most shocking news of all? These huge coffin sales are on the rise in the United States. We sat shocked and silent at this news as the show went to a commercial break.

Wow, maybe Americans do need a Food Revolution after all??

Jamie and Oprah were able to lighten up the mood of the audience when the show returned by cooking.

As most of the clips and shots of the show focused on kids eating chicken nuggets, what does Jamie make? Breaded chicken strips, of course.

Only his chicken “nuggets” were homemade, cheaper and quicker than the kind in the box that everyone is used to. Jamie comments that his homemade chicken nuggets will cook up in the pan in 6 minutes and that those frozen nuggets take 12-15 minutes to cook up. Also his nuggets are cheaper and you know and can identify all the ingredients in them.

To round out the meal, He serves mashed potatoes and some steamed greens.

We are looking forward to watching the 2 hour special tonight to learn more about  Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and how it changed this small town.

Links:

  • Oprah’s website CLICK HERE
  • Oprah’s recipes from the show CLICK HERE
  • Jamie Oliver’s website to join Food Revolution  CLICK HERE (Goal is 6 million supporters!)

What do you think about the food revolution? What questions or help do you need to start a revolution in your home today??