Say what you want about Jamie Oliver, but it’s as obvious as the nose on my face that the guy is passionate about food and his fellow mankind.
If you sat down and seriously watched his program on tele last night “Eat to save your life”, you would have seen that. I looked at the title, observed the length of the program, instantly dismissed it as more celebrity chef ‘pap’, and made the resolution not to bother watching.
I accidentally switched channels later in the evening and happened on it. I started watching idly, then got really engrossed. I am so pleased I did. The way the whole subject of food, eating, obesity, fitness, body shape etc was handled was excellent. There was no holding back when it came to realistically watching the post mortem of a bloke (who had given prior approval to this before his death) who had died, simply, of overeating.
The straightforward, non-sensationlist way the surgeon pointed out the facts there in front of us was brilliant. We graphically could see the huge amount of fat on his heart, and in his liver, and how displaced his lungs and ribcage had been inside his body because of his overeating and fatness.
The testing that was done on the variety of differently shaped volunteers was also most enlightening.
To be quite frank, I really don’t give a shit about my food intake. It seems to me that my diet is varied enough, and I’m happy with my body (such as it is), and that’s an end to it as far as I’m concerned. But last night has made me re-examine what, when and how I eat. I, like many on the program last night, have had the wake-up call, and have seen quite clearly how directly what goes in will directly affect your length of life, and quality of life. A rather obvious thing to say, but I’ve generally found in life that even though we might intellectually know a fact, we don’t automatically apply that very fact to ourselves and our lives! If we did, there would be no car accidents, or rapes!
It all added up to the fact that we all have different metabolisms; different habits; different bodies, but we all need to eat wisely. We need the fast food industry to pull back with the addition of salt to all their food. We need to know why we need to chew our food longer. We need to know this stuff from someone we know has no staked interest in us knowing this stuff!
Jamie Oliver’s previous issues with school lunches, and kid’s cooking, added to this nearly 2 hours dealing with our food intakes demonstrates to me the guy is doing his best to address something really important, in the best way I can think of that takes into account the fact that we all filter information given to us in so many ways. Well done Jamie!
Thursday, 17 July 2008
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28 comments:
Dont get me wrong Rita, I do admire that he is bringing this to the attention of the masses and maybe sometimes people neeed to see the worse outcome to do anything. I just found it a little dramatised and kept waiting for some really good tips on how to change which never came.
And reccomending that red wine and dark chocolate are healthy for you is a little misleading (though I love and partake of both- often). Information like this can be misinterpreted - my uncle for example now has a few glasses of red every night as he thinks he is doing his body good. Really a glass every now and then is good but surely not every night! (though i do the dark chocy every night ;P)
The most interesting moment of the night was when he cooked the fois gras to show how fatty peoples livers could become!
Oh yes - that truly was gross, wasn't it?
I agree with you about the follow-up, and would have been happy to see a light and breezy cooking show after it (if I could have stayed awake that long!) suggesting many ways we could address these issues we'd just seen in the doco.
I think the latest thoughts are a glass of red wine every night is good Ran.
But you're right to be cautious. That's one glass and taken WITH your evening meal, just like the French.
Apparently the wine and say a steak are mutually beneficial. The wine acting as an antioxidant and the steak conferring it's vitamins, whilst its excess fat is helped on its way out of the body. Or something like this.
But too much wines is bad, as we unfortunately know, scientists are saying.
And choc is best had through plain old cocoa powder. I sprinkle this on my cereal and get my omega 3s from a handful of walnuts.
Lecture over, class dismissed!
If you found that gave you a shot to the arm wait until you see 'Jamie’s Fowl Dinners' where he shows how inhumane the mass producution of birds for consumption is. He even gasses chicks on the show - it got a huge negative reaction from the British public and like last night's show typically there were comments like this: "Stop this nanny-state telling us what to eat. A part of our freedom is the personal liberty to chose what we put in our mouths." For me though although it's one compelling argument for better diets and ethical eating some people will bury their heads in the sand or lay the blame for their poor health elsewhere.
I appreciate what Jamie was trying to do, albeit with a rather clumsy presentation of the message. He puts himself on the line for causes that could blow up in his face and I admire that tenacity, over his limited cooking ability. I really hoped that his message would make an impact on some people. But inevitably I think that many of the public are set in their ways and would not have sat through the whole show.
many of the public dont KNOW any better Sticky. honestly, the number of people I know who think they have healthy diets because they plan their meat laden meals in advance and only have KFC and Maccas twice a week. then wonder why they are putting on weight.
sir grumpy, my concern is that one often becomes 4 -during the week! I thought dark choc with over 70% cocoa solids was the way to go?
I had a girlfriend who was trying to enter the prepared meals market with healthy meals and salads as an alternative to pies and sausage rolls and the like, for people who couldnt or wouldnt make their own meals. After a lot of research it turned out to be too hard!
A good thing about the show was showing some of the skinnier guys had the worse cholestrol levels etc. Hubbie can eat anything and remains a stick (admittedly he eats pretty well in general) and doesnt believe he can have too much salt or fat. Hopefully this show showed him he could.
Sir G - you really are a fool! Thank heavens you weren't my teacher at school! I may well have believed you back then.
I agree totally Sticky. I don't believe for one second that the general public who are, as you say, set in their ways and in all likelihood didn't sit through the whole thing anyway, will not adopt or take on one single thing from that program, but even if just one person got something out of it, or learnt something they didn't previously know, then surely it wasn't all totally in vain?
I liked the fact that a lot of the (for want of a better word) 'fat' people acquire on their bodies is due to the fact of eating the fast food they do which is made of easily eaten, soft food requiring little or no chewing, thus the message doesn't reach our brains so efficiently that we've chewed enough, ergo we are now full of food, so we don't need to eat anything more for the time being.
Simple facts like that made it really interesting and logical for me. I resent it when others try to tell me what and how to do personal things like eating or bathing or believing in god, but when I can see a logical reason for doing these things, then I am more than happy to oblige.
I read about the controversial gassing of the chickens on the next show and have already decided not to watch that. I honestly couldn't bear to see that, as great a realist as I claim to be!
Ran - just read your additional comments. I spent this morning at an Environmental Health food demonstration where school students were shown various ways of testing foodstuffs for hidden preservatives which can cause a severe asthmatic reaction to someone with allergies. Mince in burgers was tested, and the kids were horrified with the results!
Part of the testing also involved testing the pH level of a glass of Coke - it came up at the equivalent of acid! Not lsd-type acid but chemical acid! The students thought maybe Diet Coke might be better? No way!
The 3 staff from the Environmental Health industry tried hard to explain what it was they may well be eating with their Big Mac meals. Who knows what effect it will have?
Regarding your husband being like a stick - I too spent over half my life with the stick shape (and attitude to match) as well. It didn't matter what I ate, I always managed to retain my youthful skinny body! 17 roast potatoes with a roast lamb meal was my record! If I'd seen last night's program 30 years ago, there's no way I'd have tackled my food in the way I have previously done.
Well, I never, you try to pass on the received wisdom and get a blast!
What have I said now!
Sir G - you didn't get a blast. You should know Rita is SO not capable of giving ANYONE a blast! Even a waitperson who doesn't ask why she left all the soup in her bowl when they clear back the plates at a restaurant!
I hope you aren't genuinely affronted because if so, I'll have to send the dogs round to your place! Or Mr Ramsay.
No, Rita, I'm just wondering what you took issue with. Then I can respond. I merely mentioned some new stuff about red wine and chocolate I'd read.
So, what is the thought process here. I know I am merely a male...so I need some help.
I love foie gras.
It sounds like it was an interesting show, but I didn't watch it because I'M SO DARN SICK OF JAIME OLIVER!!!!!
Didn't see the show Rita. I do like jamie though.
What I dont get though is this: Is it such a revellation for the uadience of the show to understand that if your diet contains lots of fatty, highly procsessed, salt & sugar laden foods & you lead a fairly sedantry life, you'll health will suffer, most notably you get fat?
Might be the unsavoury truth but tough titty.
Interestingly have you ever noticed when you look at old photos or newsreel footage the scarcity of obese people?
Sir G - I didn't take issue with anything you said. Merely thought (obviously mistakenly) that you were taking the piss, as you have been known to do on the odd occasion! I apologise unreservedly if you thought I seriously had taken issue with something you said.
Lonie - I understand your pissed-offedness about overexposure to JO, but that's what my post was trying to convey - the fact that I was quite surprised to find something there in the content of the show other than just another PR vehicle to 'sell' to JO brand to us.
Gobbler - no, it's nopt a revelation at all. We have all known it from Day 1. But, speaking for myself, as previously noted, I retained my 'stick'-like figure for the first half of my life, and reasoned to myself that I was God/invincible and could obviously eat anything I wanted because it had absolutely no effect on my body shape at all. That, as I found out the other night, was totally wrong. My record-breaking 17 roast spuds (added to the rest of the roast meal) at one sitting proves how foolhardy I was!
Rita, I have just posted a little critique of RVL on Gobbler's site. It's number 17 on the first item.
You might be interested. Just in case, I'm not being a smartarse or anything....I'm really not very smart at all.
So, there you are, Rita. we were in the same place at the same time, but merely passing strangers.
I wonder if you can suss me from the mini-sea of faces in the RVL?
Oh so close Rita!
Sir G - I went to sleep last night puzzling over which out of that sea of faces was yours! I can't believe that you were there! And the crazy part was that I had just come from Bruny, where, along with other duties, I had done a cheesetasting at Bruny Island Cheese, along with 2 couples, one of whom during the course of the tasting, I suspected might have been you and your good wife! I paid more attention to them then, but came to the conclusion that it wasn't! Had I carried that suspicion to Cygnet, I might have been more attuned to the surroundings!
Christina - I'm about to slit my wrists!
Rita, I suggest you demand to view RVL's video surveillance tapes from yesterday.
Already done Curly! Trust Steve not to have replaced the tapes!
Rita, once a positive identification has been made your next move will be to post the video on youtube, thereby blowing Sir Grumpy's cover forever.
I'm there Curly! Now to try and tackle YouTube!
Youtube, what are you pussies talking about. I would be thinking nothing less that a "Hunting the Grump" blockbuster television series.
Rita, you could start by posting a Wanted poster for Sir Grumpy on your website with a reward of dinner for two at the RVL.
Brilliant idea Mehitabel! Mmm, "Hunting the Grump". Starring.....who, as Sir Grumpy?
Errol Flynn?
I was thinking more along the lines of Micky Rourke Rita.
Dearest Rita
It is my belief that Sir Grumpy is really a brilliant phantom and an impersonator who has been taking you for a ride for a long time.
He/she is in fact someone that you know very well- a real Jeckyl and Hyde! I hope this doesn't do your head in!
Rita, The only person who could possibly play the role of Sir Grumpy in "Hunting the Grump" is Hugh Grant.
That's a low blow, Pedro.
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