Jamie Oliver

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I don't know if any of you have seen any of this series. I'm just watching the first episode, and it's shocking on two counts. One .. on the actual food schools serve up to kids (I'm assuming the school in W. Virginia is fairly typical) and two .. that the adults are so resistant to thinking about changing things, let alone trying to change them

Comments

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What did they serve in W. Virginia? I can't watch it says it's not available in my area. I can tell you if it's true here or not though.

My first lady is trying to help with that and obesity levels/exercising but of course Republicans are somehow against changing things.

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Sorry you can't see it, because it was compelling. Maybe it will be shown there one day. Well .. from what I can remember, first of all nothing they served was fresh or not processed in some way. It all came out of a freezer or a packet. Pizza for breakfast, with chemical drinks and weird bread that you could crush into a ball as it had only air in it. I think the ladies who worked in the kitchen had never peeled a potato or a carrot before, or cracked an egg (in the course of their work). Lunch was reconstituted chicken nuggets .. with reconstituted mashed potato .. or pizza. When the kids were offered real chicken or real fruit, not many of them chose to eat it, some even spat it out .. and the waste was shameful as it all got thrown out (could have fed an indian village

[xoesotericox]

I can only say from my experience eating school lunches that not everything was processed like that. I remember in middle and high school that we had at least fresh fruit and salads for choices, but of course kids aren't going to pick those. We never had chemical drinks in the actual line of food except juice, water, or milk. In high school there was a sub sandwich line that had fresh ingredients, but it was more expensive than the regular line. However, we had soda and snack machines in the cafeteria eating area. I do agree though probably most of the stuff was not made from scratch in the kitchen. In college dining hall it was obviously better nutritious food with more choices. But I don't think anything was really made from scratch, but things that were frozen were not just heated up and served. They did stuff with it. I mostly worked in the baking/dessert area, and all the biscuits and cookies were pre-made/frozen then baked

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Just watching Episode 3 and it's so good. There is more choice at middle and high school level yes, but .. the kids rarely take the healthy choice. If the stuff wasn't made from scratch then no-one has much idea of the ingredients. There was an eye-rolling part in Ep. 2 where the kids preferred to eat 'chicken ' nuggets that Jamie made in front of them from a chicken carcass and a pile of chicken skin pulverised in a processor, sieved, mixed with a bit of breadcrumbs and seasoning and then fried in breadcrumbs (rather than real chicken). He was astonished as he says when he does that experiment in UK it always has effect .. but not in W. Virginia. Remember, it's the most extreme example you can get, which is why it was the place chosen for the prog. Those nuggets were made of bone, blood vessels, cartilage, the bits of meat that a knife couldn't get off when jointing the chicken parts .. and just .. ugh. It really had an effect on me and I will never eat cheap chicken stuff, that I can't see what it is, ever again