Kefir Kommunity

We admit it, our DVR is filled with about ten too many reality TV shows with the words “runway,” “love” and “bachelor” in the titles. But we have also picked up a good TV viewing habit lately: Watching chef Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution  on ABC Friday nights. The Naked Chef has traveled from his British homeland, where he has been credited with helping revolutionize the school lunch system, to Huntington, West Virginia, named the nation's unhealthiest city by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Half of Huntington’s population is obese, including the children. On the premier, when Oliver played Vegetable Show-and-Tell with a class of six-year-olds, they thought tomatoes were potatoes and an eggplant was a pear. When he attempted to work with elementary school kitchen staff, he was stunned – and appalled - to learn they have never given the kids forks to eat with…because the foods they receive can be eaten with fingers (burgers, pizza, chicken nuggets.)

Speaking of chicken nuggets, Oliver attempted to perform an experiment with some of the elementary school students involving a raw chicken. After slicing away the breast, thighs and wings, they were left with a sad carcass. “Who wants to eat this?” Oliver asked, hoisting the remains up. “Ewww! Gross!” they replied. Then, Oliver placed the headless, meatless skeleton, plus some chicken skin, in a blender and pureed it into a heap of connective tissue, fat and cartilage. “Now, who wants to eat this?” Again, the children voiced their disgust.

But then the experiment went horribly wrong. The chef added some flavoring and bread crumbs, shaped the chicken leftovers into a giant patty and started cutting out small, easily-recognizable nugget shapes. As he fried them in an oiled pan, he once again asked which of the children would dare eat this. The typical answer has always been, “No way!” Except in America, apparently, where every single kids raised his hand. Once the garbage took the shape of something familiar (and salty and greasy and yummy,) their young, immediate gratification-seeking minds no longer cared whether the ingredients were wholesome or not.

“We've brainwashed kids,” Oliver said, staring into the camera. His look of utter defeat betrays a less polite take: We are so screwed.

One would hope the town of Huntington, or any city up to its beer bellies in Type 2 Diabetes and high cholesterol, would welcome the help of a celebrity chef, but that is not the case here. The children, of course, are resistant to change -- who wants to eat broccoli when you can have burritos? The parents are largely uneducated and seem to take offense at having a rich Brit infiltrate their town and tell them how to take care of their kids. And when a few of his statements ruffle some feathers (He calls the residents "anemic with information." A radio announcer replies, "We don't want to sit around and eat lettuce all day. I don't think you should come in here and tell us what to do. Who made you the king?"), he realizes how much American obstinacy he’s up against.

It’s not just a stubborn determination to continue the Dominos and Taco Bell status quo; money is an issue. It costs more to eat well. Never mind the fact that spending money up front will undoubtedly save much more in reduced health care costs down the line.

Watching Food Revolution got us thinking about childhood obesity and the role parents play in keeping their children healthy. In Huntington, Oliver spent time with the Edwards family -– the homemaker mom, truck driver dad and three children are all obese. Oliver took the family to the hospital for a checkup, something the kids don’t typically have access to

All of the children were found to have signs of Type 2 Diabetes. The daughter is only four, but looks eight, as her body has matured early due to increased estrogen levels. The doctor told the parents their 12-year-old son, Justin, is at risk for high blood pressure, arthritis, heart attacks, blindness, amputation and having his life shortened by 40 years. Mom and Dad were mortified; the mother cried, explaining that she feels responsible.
 

What do you think? We don’t believe the Edwards fed their kids maliciously, intending to make them obese and unhealthy; they simply lack the education to know better or the financial means to do anything about it.

But does that excuse them? If you saw a parent in a mall slapping her child, you would call it abuse, right? But if you saw her buying a Happy Meal for her obese daughter, would that be any different? Children rely on their parents to pave the way to a healthy future. What’s the answer?