Jamie Oliver: Champion of the People or Fatphobic Mansplainer?

I confess, I haven't seen an episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

I've heard two very contradictory opinions from sources I trust.

One point of view says that he's addressing a very real problem about the quality of food in schools, the growing dependence on pre-made meals, and worse, the growing ignorance of basic cooking skills.

The other point of view says that he's a privileged wankadoodle who thinks money and time grow on trees, and what is it any of his business what people eat or weigh?

Not having seen the show, but having opinions about this sort of topic, I imagine the truth is somewhere in the middle.

On his website, there is now a petition.

In one box, it has this message from Jamie: "If you care about the health of your children and the food they eat please sign this petition now."

In a box next to it is has this message "from you" for the petition: "Sign Jamie's petition to save cooking skills and improve school food.

I support the Food Revolution. America's kids need better food at school and better health prospects. We need to keep cooking skills alive."

I feel like those messages are contradictory.

Jamie's message conflates weight and health, which is a HUGE issue.

"Our" message demands better and more healthy food at schools, and to improve education on how to cook. That's kind of important.

Not to quote a truly bizarre source, but uh...did any of you ever see the movie Heavyweights?

It's about a kid who goes to a fat camp that got sold to a fitness madman (played hilariously by Ben Stiller in an obvious precursor to his role in Dodgeball), the kids stage a coup, and run the camp their way.

In their renewed vision of the camp, they have a fucking blast being kids in a warm, positive environment, and one of the clips in the montage includes a cooking class. Not a "how to cook low fat meals" class, but an honest to goodness class on how to cook food that tastes good.

I've seen with my own eyes people eat more healthfully once they start to learn to cook because they're caring about the quality of the components they're using, not which frozen meal is on special that week.

I realize this veers back into the "money and time don't grow on trees" category. However, I get the sense that part of "The Food Revolution" is a movement to bring better food options to underserved neighborhoods.

Anyway, I hope that the good intentions of this show and movement aren't paving a certain road. I hope that there's an understanding that weight and health aren't one and the same. I hope that there's an understanding that sometimes living off of canned and frozen items is all a person can do.

But I really hope that this show isn't all the bad that I've heard, and none of the good.

Yeah, I Don't Know About This

Queen Latifah is the new Jenny Craig spokesperson.

I...what?

1) When I think of the words "gorgeous" and "glamorous," Queen Latifah is one of the first women who comes to mind.

2) Jenny Craig is one of the programs that require you to buy their food. That has never made sense to me.

In both the linked article, and her TV spot, "...a healthier lifestyle, not on getting onto a specific dress size" are the focus.

Call me cynical, but that's no better than Weight Watchers' "Diets are Mean" ad campaign. You can spin it all you want, but it's still a diet! (And one that worked very well for myself, my mother, and many of my closest friends. I want to emphasize that, because I realize I've come across as very anti-WW lately, and I need to fix that.)

Seriously, though. If Queen Latifah wanted to raise awareness for diabetes or "a healthier lifestyle," I feel like there are better channels through which to work. Even Weight Watchers, if associating herself with a weight loss program was her aim. That being said, I can understand feeling that this would be a more accessible conduit for her message. If that was her reasoning, then excellent. If not? I'd be very, very surprised.

One Burrito Should Not Contain My Entire Day's Worth of Calories

This is the scariest website I have ever been to.

Mexican, or in the case of the North East, Tex-Mex food CAN be healthy. Burritoville succeeds quite well at giving its customers healthy substitutes on its menu. Brown rice, soy cheese, and soy sour cream can go a long way to reducing the caloric value of a meal. Not to mention the fat content. Other similar restaurants offer low fat or fat-free yogurt in lieu of sour cream.

People have had their backs up this week with the 1,000 calorie appetizers, entrees, and desserts at places like The Cheesecake Factory and similar. Let's also keep in mind that a fast food restaurant that purports to be a healthier alternative that's made to order, and then has 1,000+ calories and almost 50 grams of fat is really misleading.

If I eat at Uno's and get the pizza skins, I know I'm eating something that's bad for me, and I'm okay with that. However, if I order a Burrito Bol, and the only non-vegetable items I order are rice and guacamole, and there's still 30g of fat in there, something is wrong. How much guacamole are they putting in there, anyway? Are they putting butter in the rice? Are they frying the lettuce?!?

Mmmm...fatlicious...

It's becoming increasingly difficult to eat well, especially on the run and inexpensively. We have become accustomed to eating over 2,000 calories in one meal, and it really needs to stop.