I was excited when I first saw the trailer to the new network television series about healthy school lunch programs, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. “Yes!” I thought, as I’m an advocate for healthy school lunches. “Now Americans can see how much of a positive difference can be made by changing school lunches!” But after watching the first episode, I was kind of disappointed.

The Reality Is, It’s Reality TV.

Here we have a witty Brit going into a town in West Virginia in the middle of the school year to try to change things over night. It’s hard enough for anyone to go to small-town American and instigate change, let alone be a foreigner and do it over night. Next, trying to change anything while in mid-stream is much more challenging than starting from the beginning. It’s common sense. I’m thinking that the network wanted some drama and figured there would be some nice dramatic resistance to film (and there is). And finally, giving grade-school children a choice between the junk food they know and like and healthy food is a set-up for failure. No matter how delicious and nutritious the healthy food choice, kids will pick pizza over it. Be real.

Junk Food Shouldn’t Be An Option

The USDA considers french fries as a vegetable choice in school lunch programs. It's wrong.

The bottom line is this: children should not even have junk food as a choice. We are the adults. We are responsible for what they eat and should be making that decision. The “powers that be,” whether the school or the government, should make a healthy school lunch program available for our children. If you provide them with only fresh nutritious food, they will eat it. Give them green beans that are bright green, not grey. Give them fresh ripe fruit; not some syrupy, overcooked, cubed, mystery fruit  that comes in a cup. Give them brightly colored lightly cooked or fresh vegetables. Give them real unprocessed food — and they will eat it — eventually. If they don’t like it at first, they will grow to like it within a few weeks. I guarantee it.

Good Intentions, But Wrong Execution

Don’t get me wrong. I think Jamie Oliver has good intentions and really wants to make a difference.  And because of all the publicity, I think he will (hey, I’m talking about him, right?). But I think the network got in the way of something that could have been really great. The good thing is, even if this experiment doesn’t go as well as it could (I know it doesn’t because I know of the outcome.), at least the masses can get a good look at the crud that is being served in the majority of the schools and maybe start being proactive in making a change themselves, either at their local school or even at their own dinner table. French fries should not count as a vegetable.

Make A Difference: The Child Nutrition Bill

The Child Nutrition Bill is up for a vote with the Senate in mid-to-late April. Many organizations are petitioning. For more information see the Time for Lunch campaign at www.slowfoodusa.org, Chef Ann Cooper’s Lunch Box “One More Dollar A Day For Healthy School Food” campaign to our elected officials, or sign Jamie Oliver’s petition to save cooking skills and improve school food.

BTW, The Revolution Began Over A Decade Ago

There have already been successful changes to school lunch programs in certain areas of the country. One such place is in Wisconsin at the Appleton School District, which started back in 1997. Chef Ann Cooper, a.k.a. The Renegade Lunch Lady, has made some great strides in improving school lunches in several schools as well. Two Angry Moms is another group that is making a change. I guess the food revolution is just “new” to the masses. And bringing it to the masses is where Jamie Oliver succeeds.

We happen to be living in a hotel for a couple of days while our home is being tented for termites. So basically, we are eating out for every meal, with the exception of snacks brought from home or purchased. And with all this eating out, we are discovering our tastes have changed quite a bit since we have been making our own food.

Once Tasty Food, Now Not-So Great.

It seems that restaurants that I once liked, are now disappointing to me — even unappetizing. These are mostly national chain family restaurants (think Chili’s, The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Changs etc.) The food tastes over salted and sugared. Today we went to lunch at a local family restaurant chain. I guess it is along the same lines as The Olive Garden. Pizza, salad, and pasta dishes were their fare. The garlic bread tasted sweet. The caesar salad tasted like dressing on tasteless wet crunchy lettuce (thankfully, the dressing was OK and the lettuce was at least crunchy). The broccoli tasted salty, although it was cooked properly to a nice al dente texture with a bright green color. The mac n cheese tasted like macaroni in a bland cream sauce. Although it was orange, there was no taste of cheese. The angel hair pasta had a cream pesto sauce, which was decent, but it could have used half the sauce and no cream. The grilled chicken salad had decent veggies, decent clean white chicken, but again, the lettuce had no flavor. The chicken nuggets were nice pieces of breast, but the coating was thick and salty.

So this meal could have been really good if they used less “stuff” and better ingredients. Broccoli is actually sweet when naturally cooked. Lettuce has a nice flavor if nice green quality lettuce is used. Garlic bread should not have sugar added to it. Mac n cheese should taste like… mac n CHEESE. Pesto is good in it’s simple state of basil, garlic, parmesan and olive oil. The chicken nuggets could have had a lighter coating with less salt. Now I’m not one for mac n cheese or chicken nuggets (my disclaimer) in general (they were not what I ordered) but my husband ordered them.

Change Your Food, and Your Taste Buds Will Follow

I was really pleased to hear my husband complain to me about the meal. It was good to know that his tastes had changed for the better since he used to eat a lot of junk food. Granted, to most people, this meal would have tasted just fine. But since we eat at home and prepare most of our meals with mostly fresh quality ingredients, our taste buds have become sensitive. Unless it is a restaurant that uses high quality fresh ingredients and doesn’t drown the food in cream sauce, cheese, sugar, salt, or deep fry it, we don’t really care for typical restaurant food anymore.

Generally, it only takes two weeks of eating healthier food for a person’s tastes to change. People note they feel and taste a difference in food a couple of weeks after they switch their eating habits. They really notice a difference after eating junk following a change to a healthier diet. Junk food no longer tastes as good (or good at all), and they physically feel poor (fatigue, bloating, headaches, congestion, etc.).

Just Add or Change ONE Thing In Your Diet

I recommend to everyone who wants to change their eating habits to do it slowly: just add one healthy food to your daily intake to start, whether it is fresh fruit in the morning, or a side salad with lunch, or some veggies as a snack. Once that is habit, add something else, and so on. This is a great, no stress way of changing your diet gradually and it will most likely be a permanent change.

“Huh?” You may ask, “what does that mean? It sounds like a contradiction.” Simply put, if you are going to eat something that is deemed “bad” for you (I’ll leave you to decide who is doing the deeming), at least make sure you are eating real, high quality ingredients, free of anything artificial. If possible, use whole foods, rather than processed ingredients.

Let’s take lasagna as an example meal — meat lasagna. The reason I specify meat lasagna is that I want to acknowledge that it is different from a veggie lasagna. I could say substitute a veggie lasagna as a healthier lasagna choice. But honestly, it’s different. A veggie lasagna does not taste like a meat lasagna. I’m not speaking of a vegetarian or vegan version of a meat lasagna. I’m speaking of a lasagna made with vegetables, such as spinach, mushrooms and other veggies. So back to what I was saying…

Use High Quality Ingredients

Make your own sauce, or at least buy an organic sauce. In fact, use all organic ingredients if you can. Stay away from canned tomato products, as the liner has BPA that leaches into the sauce. Instead, use jarred tomato products. Use grass-fed beef, which is high in essential fatty acids (omega-3’s) and free from hormones and antibiotics. Use high quality cheese. If you don’t use organic ingredients, at least make sure you are not consuming anything artificial or may contain herbicides, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or genetically modified ingredients.

The same goes with any “once-in-awhile” food choice that is not exactly the healthiest.

Remember, food is to be enjoyed, but not over-consumed. If you are, for the most part, healthy and not suffering from a major disease, it’s OK to indulge once-in-awhile. It’s good for a sense of well-being. Since you may not eat this “bad” food very often, make it really good. I always say, if it doesn’t taste really good, then it is not worth it (“it” could be my stomach space, or extra calories, sugar, fat, etc.). Another example is popcorn. Pop it on the stove in high quality oil and put real butter and sea salt on it. Don’t eat that microwave garbage that’s over-salted and contains artificial stuff that your body doesn’t know what to do with. You’ll be amazed at how much better it tastes! If you want a dessert, don’t eat cake made with gmo high frutose corn syrup, transfat and artificial crap. Make your own cake with real, whole ingredients. Or, have an organic blueberry pie, or a hot-fudge sundae made with organic vanilla bean ice cream, organic hot fudge, and organic whipped cream.

We’re all human and we want to indulge. So at least do it right.

Go Do It

Now go give yourself a treat and be “bad.” Indulge without guilt. You deserve it. Just do it right with REAL, whole, good tasting, ingredients. And as I said earlier in so many words, eat good “bad” stuff.