Food Revolution!

How many out there caught Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution Sunday?

If you did not, here is a rundown of the show. Jaime is a celebrity chef that happens to have a goal to change the way America eats. This reality show is his way of making baby steps towards this goal by visiting different cities in America and going into schools and helping them change the menus and one on one interaction with families that have been making bad food choices and help educate and change their eating habits. Eat healthier America!

His first project had the title last year of "Most Obese and Unhealthy Town in America" and this is based on national death statistics. It also just happens to be my hometown where I was born and raised, Huntington WV. I live here so I completely understand why we most likely had the title. You don't really have to look too deep, there is the visual of every other person walking around here obese. I was one three years ago.
Like any disease or addiction, the first step is to find out "why". This is a very financially depressed town partly due to the lack of stable and gainful employment and the fact that the health care for adults here...well..it just sucks. Who can afford insurance if you don't make enough money but to make ends meet and live from paycheck to paycheck. There are many stereotypes and jokes about this area. But as we all know, stereotypes are based on many truths.

Unfortunately, when a person is depressed and stressed about work and money or lack there of, we eat sometimes. Or here...alot! And it is not like we want to be this way, we just can't help it. We are not the only town in America with these struggles, we just have been like this pretty much in the whole history of our state.

For many here, entertainment and recreation is the food. Many sit at a restaurant with friends waiting anxiously for the yummy deep fried appetizers (yes more than one), then the main course, and then the unbelievable irresistible dessert. Not to mention my fellow Huntingtonians order many alcohol beverages while waiting for the food. It is sad, but there is also a reason that our local hospital is one of the top heart hospitals in the nation. Think about it, the hospital gets funding based on statistics to buy the newest equipment and hire the best Doctors. It is a vicious cycle.

The only way to fix this is changing our bad habits and undoing all the damage that fast food and sedentary lifestyle has bestowed upon us in the last couple of decades. Plus with the aid of preventive health care, I think we can make major changes, eventually.

But where to begin? Whom does it start with? I believe it is us parents that have the responsibility to lead by good example. I say this all the time, but it is so true. Kids are great followers. That is why they eat the bad stuff. They watch us doing it, they see friends doing it, and the schools (most of them) give them that garbage to eat daily. You can make any healthy food unhealthy vice verse. Unhealthy food can be made healthy.


Enter Chef Jaime Oliver

He came to my town so excited and thinking, why wouldn't we want to change our title or at least pass it on to someone else. Oh, how he was wrong. What he met in the beginning was a resistance that could scare the fur off a bear. All people heard was a stranger was coming to make us look bad, once again. Now, Jaime did not know that we had many opportunities in the past to bring the positive spotlight to us and every time , we got burned and ended up the butt of a joke. So, for many here in Huntington, I think they assumed this was the same "dealio". Here this foreigner was storming in with crazy ideas saying we "was" fat and our kids were too and it was ALL our fault...how dare he! What they were not hearing was..Hi, my name is Jaime. I helped my own country of England and its children change many of their eating habits and saved who knows how many adult and child lives because of this and now, I really want to help you! At least that is what I heard.

If you want to watch the show, it will be on again Friday (March 26th) on ABC. The first two episodes, you will see exactly what I am saying. Our local paper and radio were absolutely jaded by the fact that he was a celebrity. It is funny though, I have to wonder, if we had, say a person that was picked to be on Biggest Loser, I bet my left arm that it would be the opposite reaction. We even have a local Biggest Loser show here on our NBC station. I think the difference is that those people chose individually to come out and ask for help. Jaime came here telling Huntington...you need my help.

I loved the fact he came here. You will see in the following weeks of the show, he does make steps that have changed my town hopefully permanently. Time will tell. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for implementing positive changes to this community.

I hope to do the same at my small level and work individually with my fellow townspeople, especially the kids. It all starts with them. If I can help one parent and that parent changes their families habits, and their kids carry that on to the next generation...before you know it, I have helped an small army. Yes, an army of fit and healthy kids and their parents.

I hope you get a chance to watch the show, it does not look like it in the beginning, but it really will have a happy ending : )

Have a great week and get fit and eat healthy!

Email me with any questions or comments: getfitwithartistmom@yahoo.com

Jennifer