Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:20 pm Post subject: Jamie Oliver vs the United States
Jamie Oliver reduced to tears (and so are the Americans as they reject his healthy eating advice)
Jamie Oliver knew it wouldn't be easy changing the eating habits of the unhealthiest city in America.
But he was so shocked by the hostile reaction to his crusade that it reduced him to tears.
The celebrity chef crossed the Atlantic pledging a food revolution in a country where two out of three people are overweight.
Heading straight for the clogged-up heart of the problem, he chose a city where schoolchildren are served up pizza and chocolate milk for breakfast.
But there was little appetite in down-at-heel Huntington, West Virginia, for the cheeky-chappie Londoner.
At one point he ended up sitting in a school playground in tears, complaining: 'They don't understand me because they don't know why I'm here.'
The TV show following his efforts didn't go down very well across the rest of the country either.
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution drew a comparatively modest 6.1million viewers for its network premiere on Sunday night.
The locals in Huntington were already smarting over being branded America's fast food capital by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control.
And, if the first episode of Oliver's stateside reality show is to be believed, they certainly weren't happy about being told what to eat by a foreigner with a funny accent.
His first stop took him to a radio station where the interviewer made him about as welcome as a bowl of cold broccoli.
'We don't want to sit around eating lettuce all day!' said DJ Rod Willis, on the Rocky n' Rod morning show at a country station. 'Who made you king?' he demanded.
While Oliver's efforts to introduce better school meals in the UK met with some success, and led to a trip to Downing Street five years ago, he appears to have a much bigger job on his plate in the U.S..
Poor diet: Mother-of-four Stacie, surrounded by a week's worth of deep fried food, starts to cry as Oliver tells her her cooking will kill her children
He meets the lunch ladies at a Huntington primary school just as they are serving up 'breakfast pizza' smothered in eggs, sausage and cheese to 450 children.
Later, the same canteen lays on a lunch of chicken nuggets and instant mash. 'It's that kind of food that's killing America,' Oliver declares.
'You don't have processed food in England?' snaps back head cook Alice Gue. Oliver is also left incredulous when he holds up tomatoes on a vine to a boy, who thinks they are potatoes.
The next day, Oliver returns to whip up a healthy lunch of roast chicken and wild rice, while the school cooks provide a pepperoni pizza alternative, which proves far more popular.
It didn't help that Oliver was forced to apologise after the local Herald Dispatch newspaper attacked him for being rude about Huntington.
He said of Americans: 'When you meet these people, they are not stupid. They are not ignorant. It's just that they have never had food from scratch in their life.'
Swearing the remarks were taken out of context, Oliver ends the first show in the school playground in tears, upset that he is being judged so harshly.
He also visits a local family who live on fried food and pizzas and reduces the mother to tears by lambasting her diet. 'This is going to kill your children,' he tells the mother of four.
Don't cry Jamie! Now David Letterman lectures Oliver and says his healthy eating crusade won't work in America
Jamie Oliver's attempt to revolutionise America's unhealthy eating habits hit yet another stumbling block yesterday when his plan was dismissed by David Letterman.
In a move away from his talkshow's usual format, the TV host delivered an extraordinary five-minute lecture at the start saying why Oliver was doomed to failure.
While Letterman praised Oliver's idea, he said it wouldn't work in a country full of fast food chains and convenience food.
Oliver chatted to Letterman during a cooking segment on The Late Show last night as he promoted his new TV show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
The six-part series sees Oliver travel to the city of Huntington, West Virginia - known as the most unhealthy city in America - in a bid to overhaul their eating habits.
He actually bursts into tears of frustration as his message fails to get through.
Letterman started off the segment by outlining his thoughts on why Oliver's healthy eating plan wouldn't work.
He said: 'You know who was on the programme last week was Kirstie Alley and she has a kind of second career dealing with her weight and her struggles to lose weight.
Giant problem: Residents of America's fattest town, Kristin Cookson and Justin Peterson study in Starbucks between meals
'We got to talking about how difficult it is for people to lose weight and I maintained that try as hard as you might you are never going to succeed because we are living in a culture dominated by the commerce of selling food that is inherently unhealthy.'
Oliver said despite the dominance of fast food, he hoped to educate people about what they were putting in their bodies and the health problems they will face in the future.
However, Letterman fired back he had battled weight problems himself and controversially believes diet pills are the only successful way to lose weight in America.
Big appetitie: A Huntington chef prepares one of the town's specialities... a 15lb burger
He said: 'After five or six, ten or 20 years of trying to lose weight there is nothing in this culture you can do to lose weight short of medication.
'If you want to go to a doctor, no seriously, go to a doctor and they'll be happy to give you as many pills as you need.
'But as long as we are trying to feed this many people we are going to continue to eat bad food. And you think McDonald's is going to close down? No, they're not going to close down.'
Letterman then gave several examples of why Americans didn't like change: 'In the late 60s we were going to be changed to the metric system... well that didn't work, did it? And you know why? It was too hard for Americans to figure out metres.
'Soccer, remember soccer? Well that didn't work either.'
Oliver interjected how the smoking ban - in New York and several other U.S. cities - had been successful, despite the initial outrage from smokers.
Letterman replied: 'But again that was people making the decision. With eating it's not a decision. People have to eat.
'God bless you but here's what I think will happen. I think that the species will evolve to the point where 1,000 years from now we all weigh 5-600lbs and it will be OK.'
Oliver insisted the increasingly unhealthy lifestyles of today's children meant they would be living shorter lives than their parents, which Letterman agreed on.
But he blamed America's food industry for making unhealthy food so available: 'We'll go into any supermarket and there are 160 different kinds of cookies.
'I don't care how much ground up sea grass you eat or wheat germ - or stuff you find in your pocket. As long as they are selling 160 different types of cookie what hope do you have?'
Oliver appeared to become resigned to the fact he wouldn't convert Letterman to his way of thinking, turning to the audience and saying: 'As you can see ladies and gentlemen, my challenge is big.'
In Oliver's new show, he reduces an American mother-of-four to tears when he warns her that her cooking will end up killing her children.
Sitting in front of a pile of the family's weekly food intake, Oliver tells a weepy Stacie: 'This is going to kill your children.'
Her son Jamie, 12, admits he is picked on at school due to his large size and hopes to become a chef.
Oliver's new series sees him hoping to reciprocate his success in Britain, where he overhauled school dinners.
Oliver is shocked when he sees dinner ladies making pizza for breakfast and served instant mashed potatoes to children at Central City Elementary.
Amazed that they're not using real potatoes, he points to the mash, saying: 'It's that kind of food that is killing America.'
An incredulous Oliver is further stunned when he holds up tomatoes on a vine to a young boy, who believes they are potatoes.
The chef stands back as he watches the children eating and notices they are all drinking flavoured milk and are uninterested in fruit.
Using shock tactics to explain to the children and staff how much fat they're eating every year, they eventually are open to change.
During the series, a local newspaper claims Oliver has said several disparaging things about Huntingdon, which he insists was taken out of context.
An emotional Oliver is seen tearing up as he says: 'They don't understand me 'cause they don't know why I'm here.'
I seriously didn't even know the show was on here. I think Letterman was being a bit harsh as well since the show "The Biggest Loser" has not only shown that plenty of people in the states not only can but have lost weight without medication. Not just the people on the show but others have been inspired by it (I had one friend who lost 120 pounds! Not one pill was taken).
If anything, it may have been better for Jamie to do his show partnered with BL or something similar. He's not known over here, and that is probably his biggest stumbling block. Had it been Gordon Ramsey I think the reception wouldn't have been the same.
It is a shame though.
I watched the first episode last week. I think Jamie has a really tough job ahead of him. His comment about pizza for breakfast made me laugh though, since I have seen my husband eat cold leftover pizza for breakfast on numerous occasions.
There was a scene where Jamie was with the Mom whose whole family are overweight and he opened the freezer door. The whole freezer contained only one food item. Stacks of frozen pizzas - I couldn't believe it! I think he may have some success with that family though as they seem open to living a healthier life.
The dinner ladies in the school are a menace. Even the woman from the government needs lessons in what is deemed healthy food and only gave Jamie a week to convert the eating habits of the kids that have been eating this way their whole lives.
Jamie has to contend with a rule that says two bread items must be served with each meal. The look on his face when they said he had to serve two bread items with the rice he was serving was priceless.
Jamie Oliver's jam jar disaster as he continues his American food crusade
Jamie Oliver was left red-faced when a cookery demonstration went wrong on U.S. television.
The British star struggled to screw the lid onto a jam jar as he shook-up a simple salad dressing.
And instead of getting the lid on, Oliver instead shot it across the studio set.
As the camera crew began laughing the father of three joined in and covered his face with his arm.
He then slumped to the studio kitchen floor before springing up smiling.
Oliver, 34, was appearing on Good Morning America yesterday when the mishap happened to promote his new U.S. show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
The star has been on a promotional blitz on a series of shows to plug the reality programme, which premieres with a two-hour episode tonight on U.S. network ABC.
He later appeared on Larry King Live with American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who is producing the reality series.
Oliver is hoping he can take his campaign to change American eating habits all the way to the White House.
His efforts to overhaul the diet of Huntington, a West Virginia community, are unfolding on US network television.
The British celebrity chef will also be stumping for national reform with an online petition calling for better food in the country's schools.
Watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution should make people angry about the state of the American food system, Oliver said in an interview.
And he hopes the the show moves people to channel that anger for change.
'If you can create an environment in which the public expects more, all the cogs in life as we know it fall into place,' he said.
Once the series ends its run on April 23, Oliver plans to take the petition to the White House, where first lady Michelle Obama made reducing childhood obesity a priority.
Despite the sometimes chilly reception he got from Huntington locals in early episodes of the series, Oliver said he is convinced this is the right time for a food revolution in the United States.
'I'm starting to see a difference now in America that I've never seen as a foreigner in 12 years,' he said, noting a confluence of pressures for reform from the White House, Congress, industry, health and parent groups.
By yesterday afternoon, about 50,000 people signed on to Oliver's petition, which was launched in early March.
Oliver's series airs as Congress considers legislation to toughen the rules that regulate the nation's school lunches. The measure would create new standards for all foods in schools, including vending machine items.
The series is based on a similar programme Oliver did in the UK that did result in the reform of school food. The American version is set in a town the network calls the nation's unhealthiest city.
Mmm, cold pizza for breakfast is the best. I used to order a particular pizza from Dominos just because it tasted so good the next day. Wasn't great hot though.
Jamie Oliver's healthy school dinners campaign 'boosts exam results' and has more effect than Labour's literacy hour
Jamie Oliver's healthy school dinners campaign has dramatically improved test results, a study has shown.
The TV chef's nutritious meals are more effective than the Government's daily literacy hour at raising standards of English in primary schools.
Scrapping junk food lunches led to a rise of 4.5 per cent in English SATs results in the first schools where the scheme was tried, academics from Oxford and Essex universities found.
Success: Jamie Oliver serves up a healthy dinner to pupils from Ealdham Primary School, Greenwich. The schools he worked with had improved exam results
This compares to a 3.2-point rise linked to the introduction of structured daily literacy lessons.
Pupils who were served Oliver's healthier lunches also did better in science and took less time off sick.
For his Jamie's School Dinners series in 2005, Oliver visited a school in Greenwich, South-East London, and insisted it scrap Turkey Twizzlers and chips in favour of nutrient-rich foods such as fish and broccoli.
This spawned the Feed Me Better campaign with the wider goal of improving school dinners across the country. Ministers soon introduced tough school lunch standards.
Oliver said yesterday: 'The research results are fantastic as it's the first time a proper study has been done into the positive effects of the Feed Me Better campaign and it strongly suggests we were right all along.
'Even while doing the show, we could see the benefits to children's health - we could see that asthmatic kids weren't having to use inhalers so often, for example. We could see that it made them calmer and therefore able to learn.'
It came as a poll of teachers yesterday showed that many still have concerns about food served in schools.
Seventy-three per cent of members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers are demanding tougher legislation to curtail further the sale of fried foods, crisps and sweets.
More than half of teachers said they had seen a significant deterioration in behaviour after pupils consumed fizzy drinks or high-sugar snacks.
The study into the effects of Oliver's dinners looked at the SATs results of pupils aged 11 in Greenwich primary schools. The proportion of children reaching level four - the standard expected of the age group - rose by up to 4.5 per cent in English between 2005 and 2007.
In science, the proportion of pupils reaching level five, one above the expected level, increased by up to six points.
There was also a 15 per cent fall in 'authorised absences' - usually when a pupil takes time off due to illness. The costs and benefits of Oliver's campaign were 'comparable' to the literacy
hour introduced by Labour in 1998 to improve literacy teaching standards, the study found.
The report by Michele Belot, of Nuffield College at Oxford University, and Jonathan James of the Department for Economics at Essex University, said: 'One could have expected that changing diet habits is a long and difficult process, which would possibly only have effects after a long time.'
Jamie Oliver's healthy eating crusade for America gets a ratings boost after he appears on Oprah
Let's get cooking: Jamie Oliver rustles up some food as his biggest US supporter Oprah Winfrey helps him promote his healthy eating campaign
He's made frustratingly little progress so far in his efforts to get obese America to adopt healthier diets.
But last night, Jamie Oliver, who was reduced to tears on his new TV show, was given a boost after more than seven million Americans tuned in to the first episode.
The celebrity chef - who this weekend recruited Oprah Winfrey to help fight his battle - has been working across the States to promote Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
In the series, he tries to persuade families in Huntingdon, Virginia, to ditch the pizza and fried food for healthier options.
And despite facing serious opposition from local citizens, wider America is at least showing an interest in his battle.
A total of 7.5million people watched the first of his six-part series on Friday night, just hours after he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
And it would appear that getting one of America's national treasures to help promote it worked a treat for the celebrity chef.
He even managed to pull in higher ratings than cookery rival Gordan Ramsay, whose Kitchen Nightmares got just 4.3million viewers.
Jamie, 34, took to his Twitter page on Saturday to thank everyone who watched.
He said: 'Thanks for tuning in last night guys we got best slot ratings of the night & 4 the past 3 years!!! & beat mr ramsey oops...thank u all jox x.'
And after clashing with chat show host David Letterman and coming under fire from the residents of Huntingdon - which was which was officially named by the government as America's fattest city - he can always count on Oprah to back him.
The TV host, who has battled with her weight for years, has been a huge supporter of his work over the last few years.
Appearing on her show on Friday, Jamie blamed the lack of response from America on 'humans being creatures of habit that don't like change'.
And he admitted that he almost caused a riot in one high school in Huntingdon after taking chips off the menu, even though he just wanted the pupils to understand that he 'meant business'.
But he said he hoped that the campaign would eventually make a difference.
He told Oprah: 'I don't think I'm Superman, however, I've got hindsight on my side. Four hours of TV back home got a billion dollars from the British government, got rubbish in vending machines taken out, got new standards, fresh produce, local food and we're on the beginning of transition of change.
'And I pray and hope that with the six hours of TV I'm doing on ABC, that I want to inspire the parents of America to have an opinion for themselves and support me because the standards in this country are not protecting your kids.'
Oprah was also joined on the show by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest who revealed that he got involved with Jamie to produce his show because he was overweight as a child.
He told Oprah: 'I became very aware and self-conscious of my physique. I didn't like spring because spring break was imminent, and I didn't want to go to the pool.
'I would swim with my T-shirt on. And when you have that feeling as a kid, that lives with you for a long time.'
Meanwhile, Jamie's attempts to get through to the residents of Huntingdon may have taken a promising turn after turning round the opinions of one of his biggest critics.
Local DJ Rod Willis accused him of exploiting the town just to 'put a few bucks in his pocket'
But Jamie took him to a local funeral home to show him a fast-growing line of XXL coffins, sales of which are believed to have more than tripled in the past 10 years.
Funeral home owner David told them he often has conversations with grieving families about the burial process for overweight corpses and said the casket has to be transported in the back of a cargo van, cremation is not an option and the coffin requires two grave spaces.
Jamie said: 'It's basically a massive great human candle. It's hard for you to have dignity.'
Willis has become one of Jamies top supporters and said: 'I went out and got myself a Crock-Pot [slow cooker] for the very first time. All it takes is just putting in some healthy ingredients.'
However, the younger members of the community are still going to take some convincing even after Jamie dressed up as a pea to to try and change the eating habits of the children of Central City Elementary school.
He said: 'There's nothing worse than bolting into a room dressed as a pea into an army of six and five year olds and they're not impressed.'
And his second attempt to shock them into eating better was also thwarted when he tried to show them how a chicken carcass can be made into chicken nuggets.
He said: 'I showed them where all the nice cuts of meat came off the chicken and then you're left with the carcass with all the ribs and the little bits of giblets and blood and skin and stuff like that.'
He then ground the carcass in a food possessor to create a puree that he shape into chicken nuggets and asked the kids who would eat it - and saw every hand raised.
He said: 'That was literally the opposite to the response I had back home, which is shocking. What's scary is that we've brainwashed our kids so brilliantly so even though they know something is disgusting and gross they'll still eat if its in that friendly little shape.'
I watched episode 3 of this last night - it was pretty well done. The emotional impact of the young people helping him could have been really cheesy, but I think they managed to get it across well.
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