Thursday, December 29, 2011

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

 


[caption id="" align="alignright" width="245" caption="Image via Wikipedia"]Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution[/caption]

 I've just signed the worldwide petition to improve school lunches.  There are several testimonials on his website (http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/sign-petition), but some of them still talk about the food industry having to do "better."  I say, the food industry needs to be revolutionized, totally revamped, totally changed from its current cost-oriented processing to encouraging a far greater consumption of naturally grown foods.  Such a change is not likely to happen easily.  The food industry as a whole is very deeply entrenched in the minds of most Americans; their pockets are very deep; and our government is generally afraid of losing constituents.  How bizarre.  Our government is supposed to protect its population, do everything in its means to protect us.  Yet, it has put in motion conditions that encourage the opposite.  Even though the phenomenon of processing is relatively novel, it is deeply entrenched because it provides something which Americans have come to depend on: easy, quick and tasty.  And the food processing machines have obliged, creating packaged foods full of sugars, preservatives and food coloring.  Not only is buying something in a machine easy, that item is also addictive.  And just like cigarettes, the industry has learned how to keep us in bondage.  If you don't believe it, consider how successful we have been in controlling our expanding waistlines since the introduction of sugar-free and fat-free foods in the last 40 or so years.  Are we any leaner today?  On the contrary.  The average weight has increased by about 25 pounds!  How is it possible?  And with our healthcare out of control, how is the government not more intimately involved in trying to reverse this trend?  Are we, as a people, so dense?  It is not too late to reverse this trend, and we may have to do it one person at a time.  And Jamie Oliver is a recognized personality whose voice matters.  I am adding my own.

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