Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Jamie Oliver, veggies, nuggets, and LA

I watched Jamie Oliver's show last year (that took place in the fattest city in America: Huntington, WV). Much of it was shocking (the scene where the children did not know what various veggies were). A lot of it was very touching and there was various 'breakthrough' moments as Jamie worked with the lunch ladies.

As it turns out, Los Angeles does not like Jamie. This was surprising to me considering how much Huntington resisted him (for those of you that remember the scenes with the radio DJ). Lately there has been a lot of press how kids that eat school lunch instead of home lunch are consistently fatter. I think back to the rare occasions where I would not take my own lunch to school. I would go to the line that was not hot lunch. Often I would eat a brownie and yogurt and call that lunch (sorry, Mom). More times than not I would bring a bagel with cream cheese or something like that.

I often dream about the tater tots and 'sticks of death' (those of you that lived in BU's West Campus in the 90s--pre student village--know what I'm talking about) from college. The funny thing is during my brownie and yogurt days and later mounds of tater tot days I was underweight. I did not go to the gym. These days I grow my own veggies, go to farmer's markets, and spend way too much at Whole Foods. Maybe the tater tots (in moderation) are not actually a bad thing if they are organic and made with olive oil? ;)

2 comments:

  1. It might be interesting to find out what giving a child some money for school lunch means about the family's eating habits however. If you spend cash for school to make lunch do you also spend cash for mcDonalds to make dinner?

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  2. Very good point! I know in some schools there's several different lines (in my case I gravitated towards the brownie yogurt line). I guess it's all about the child making their own choices. For many kids exercising their freedom means choosing their own lunches. I can't imagine I'd have time to make lunches for my kids (if I had them) since my own lunches for work are often dinner leftovers or a frozen meal. Tyler eats breakfast and lunch in the work cafeteria (and only spent $95 over 6 months--whoo hoo!). Work cafeterias are kind of the grown-up version of the school one (only there's an omelet man not a tater tot bin). :)

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