Jamie Oliver's TED Award and, indirectly, his upcoming TV series, "Food Revolution" are interesting events. Whether unconsciously or not, he ripped off the title of one of the best books about food, diet, health, factory farming, ever written (particularly because of the copious statistics) by John Robbins. But then, titles of books can't be copyrighted.
Here's Oliver's TED presentation (he was awarded $100,000). His issue is helping children to learn how to eat better and cook their own food. The TED site shows Jamie holding a baby pig (in contrast to his many bacon and pork recipes on his website). In his emotional talk, he's spot on on citing statistics of diseases in his talk that are killing us that are diet-related, but he misses the real underlying causes. Lot of admirable frenetic passion, he's serious, he understands some of the key issues regarding obesity and children learning to cook, he's most convincing, but there's a lack of understanding about what we eat beyond avoiding fast & processed food that he seems to be missing.
Jamie, unknowningly with his own recipes, traffics in high fat, high sugar, and a lot of meat/dairy recipes as the "Naked Chef." He says he's been pushing this issue (of health) for seven years, but his recipes show that he's gone nowhere new. Six tablespoons of oil for a dressing for a 4 serving salad ("candied bacon green salad.") Awful. And check out this one: "delicious roasted white fish wrapped in smoked bacon with lemon mayonnaise and asparagus." He's got recipes for pheasant, veal, heavy cream, rabbit, and duck among others. There are vegetarian recipes that most seem to be high fat and high dairy.
I've no doubt that he means well in attempting to help children conquer obesity by eating better foods, but his solution misses the value of going vegan, low fat, and low sugar. Obesity and heart disease are still a likely end game if he introduces the same types of recipes as are in his books and on his website in his lofty, worthy goal to help children eat more healthy foods. His TV series hasn't been aired yet, but there's there's the obligatory cookbook:
"For a healthy food revolution, many of the recipes aren't actually so wholesome — like the pasta that calls for an entire block of Camembert cheese" --- from a review of his "Food Revolution" cookbook
So, was TED misguided in selecting Jamie for their highest award? I would suggest that there were many others in the arena of trying to get children and people in general to eat healthier, that have been at it much longer, with solid nutritional foundations, and dedicated efforts, that would have deserved the award and done much more productively with the money than he will (PDF: the organizations around his name!). Yes, Jamie deserves credit for lecturing on that which so many others in the Veg Community have for years now, and he's sincere. He at least trying to effect change.
Yes, he truly believes in what he's doing, and on some levels, I'm resonate. But there's this underlying inconsistency that he doesn't get, and perhaps that's my vegan bias. He promotes non-vegan high fat and high sugar FRESH meals. Sure, a step above Fast Foods and soda machines in schools, but, imho, he needs to go farther. Instead of "every child should know how to make 10 recipes," I'd rather know that every child "knows 10 nutritional principles of facets of a healthy diet." Teach a child to read a nutritional label and know why that's important. Teach a child about the dangers of high fat, high sugar, high sodium, and animal protein. Teach a child how to live longer, heathier, and happier, through the right diet.
IMHO, those at TED who made the decision weren't as much as misguided as ignorant. Ignorant of Esselstyn and Ornish (who've reversed heart disease, which kills near half a million US citizens a year) or Barnard (who's reversed Type II Diabetes) through a low-fat vegan diet. Or Dr. T. Colin Campbell on on history's largest study on diet, "The China Study" and how animal protein enables cancer. Wouldn't having them talk have been fantastic? Imagine the research Esselstyn could do with that money. Ironically, Ornish's talk at TED in 2008, imho, was much more important in implications than Oliver's. In fact, I think Oliver should be teaching what Ornish talked about to children.
Sure, Oliver is helping raise awareness of a serious issue, and may be doing good by emphasizing some serious issues and making heart-felt attempts to deal with them, but he's like a bandaid on a severed artery. He wails against corporate food, yet his own recipes are surprisingly unhealthy, and unnecessarily so. Still, he is inspiring, and his efforts to get cooking classes available for people most admirable.
However, I tend to think that in his efforts to help children eat healthier, he's neglecting the reality of what they clearly need to do to live longer and happier. Sure, it's shocking to see that kids don't know what an eggplant is, but when you get past that knowledge barrier, it's knowing what real food is that matters. Wrapping mecury-infused fish with smoked pig flesh and dosing it with mayonnaise (bovine mammary secretions and added oil), is not real food. He's got Nora recommending "panini with ham, ham and cheese, or cheese" as a mid-morning snack for his touted "School Dinners/Feed Me Better Campaign."
Jamie may be helping to raise a basic awareness, that's good, however rudimentary. But, unless he evolves a bit nutrionally, Oliver, imho, is ill-qualified to suggest how people make healthy meals. He just doesn't get it. Reduce the added fat, salt, and suger, and better yet, eliminate the meat, dairy, and eggs. A low fat, low sugar, low salt, and vegan diet is the healthiest diet. That's proven, fact, and not theory... and if he really knew what's healthy and ethical, naked baby pigs like the one Oliver was holding for the photo op wouldn't need to be slaughtered, abused, and/or fried or baked and eaten. That's the real food revolution ("from the Latin revolutio, "a turn around") and that's part of the real solution.
Which direction is this step? Forwards? Backwards? Sideways? I applaud Oliver's effort to get kids more actively engaged in their food, but I agree wholeheartedly with your criticism of the nutrition. To merely replace processed food food with homemade food that is nutritionally the same won't solve anything. I know, because I fell into into this gourmet, foodie trap for years. I thought that as long as I made it from scratch it was good. But a nutritional analysis would have shown it no better than fast food, just better tasting.
Posted by: vegpedlr | 2010.03.15 at 01:55