No, Jamie Oliver is not a dietician. However, he is a chef, and a chef always has an intimate relationship with food. A chef is an expert of food, and from many angles and aspects of food. But does that make him an expert on the field of food in relation to health? Well I say it does, but only if that chef has done his homework. Recently I watched a speech Chef Jamie Oliver gave on obesity in this country. I have always viewed Jamie Oliver as a bit a goofball and I don't watch almost any TV at all so I certainly haven't seen much of his food. Therefore, I have never really formed much of an opinion of him. However, I have always taken my role as a chef to coincide with the role of an educator very seriously, at least on the subject of food. In this way, after having watched his speech, I was completely impressed with him and his message. The speech was on "TED Talks: Chew on This", a series of speeches with very interesting food type people.
I have known for quite some time now that he has taken on the role as a spokesperson for healthier school lunches and anti-obesity campaigns, but after watching his speech I realize that he has done his homework and is delivering an astoundingly good message. It is hard to deliver such a message without sounding like a pious ass, which is what I imagine I sound like most of the time, but when you are passionate about something like this, you don't stop. You don't stop because you are saying something that people don't want to hear, you don't stop when it is a message as important as his.
We have known for a while now that the reason for almost everyone dying in the last 40 years is all diet related. We know now which foods cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and much, much more. However, the message has fallen on deaf ears. We know that the key to good health is diet and exercise, and we now have hundreds of venues and avenues to get us in the right direction. The truth is though, we don't use them.
The fast food companies are thriving. The first class gyms are popping up everywhere, but we are staying fat. Why, because we buy memberships justifying the cost by the results of a healthier life, but very few people have a healthy plan or goal they stick with. I hear every day about a new diet that guarantees to be healthy while letting you lose an obscene amount of weight. Or what about the fitness programs that are geared for pro athletes? P90 Cross-X Fit 2000 or whatever it is. We are willing to try small spurts of these extremes, but not willing to do the right thing on the day to day. Funniest part about those workouts is that at the bottom of the screen in the commercial. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. It says, in very small print, "results not typical". Even the commercials tell you that stuff doesn't work, but we still buy and try these things. When will we understand that the key to our destiny is so easy, so simple, that it is much easier than trying these extremes?
By not first understanding, preparing, and cooking our food properly we our robbing ourselves of the most basic means of human survival, and this is what is happening all the time. We do not provide any education for food in our schools; in fact, we feed our kids the worst foods possible while they are at school. People are amazed that I'm a chef and I can prepare meals from scratch, I'm amazed that people can't. In fact, if school is to teach us to grow up and have applicable survival skills for the real world, don't you think this should be part of a regular curriculum?
I think Jamie Oliver said it best in his speech. Roughly put, he said that if he was standing up on stage with the cure to AIDS or cancer in a vial, the world would be clawing at him to get it. However, he wasn't. He was standing up there with a cure to the leading cause of death in this country, and an end to 10% of American health care costs. He was standing up there with an idea, the idea to end heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other completely preventable diseases.
I will take this idea a step further. I believe in his message. I am by no means a health nut, but I do try to eat well and exercise, and I think that I am in great shape for being 30 years old and aging. I believe that we all have the means to do this to some extent. I believe that by dedicating ourselves to living healthier and eating right we can bring back a sense of community to the world. Not only will we be healthier, but we will be at the dinner table again. We will be at the table eating right and setting the example for our children, who in turn will grow up demanding that their food, be of quality, unprocessed, and actually grown from this Earth. I believe that food is the common thread that binds all man and civilization. In fact, it is how and why we became civilized in the first place, which brings me back to the point that the preparation of food is the most basic human survival skill. Not only is it a basic skill that we are missing out on, but it is a critical skill that gone without could lead to our demise.
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