I'm sure you've heard of Jamie Oliver. He's a 34 year old chef from England who has launched one of the world's more effective campaigns for healthy eating.
The crux of his message? Cook. Don't pick up takeout. Don't reheat boxes. Cook. Take actual whole foods, spend a few moments in your kitchen, and cook.
If you were only allowed to choose one intervention to make to improve your health there's no doubt it should be to cook.
Great chance too that it'd have a positive impact on your weight.
Are cooking classes mandatory in Canadian schools? Nope.
Are there free government sponsored cooking workshops? Nope.
Is the government considering a means to subsidize whole foods, the building blocks of cooking? Nope.
Would any of those measures be difficult to implement? Nope.
Should we hold our breath until they happen? Nope.
Sadly I don't think things have got bad enough to warrant our government actually taking food seriously. Yet Jamie's right to label this a catastrophe.
You know there is this bad habit of folks stepping back and saying that all of this is too complicated. That healthy eating is too complicated, that obesity is too complicated. That everything is too complicated to turn around. Consequently it seems public health efforts are paralyzed.
You know what, yup this stuff is complicated. How we got to this point is complicated. Food labeling is complicated. Nutrients are complicated.
Cooking on the other hand isn't all that complicated and its impact would be immense.
Combine Jamie Oliver's perfectly aimed recommendation to ensure every graduating high school student knows how to cook at least 10 healthy, affordable meals, with Michael Pollan's 7 word manifesto,
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."and we'd be saving innumerable lives.
Jamie's wish?
"My wish is for you to help a strong, sustainable movement, to educate every child about food. To inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity."Watch Jamie's speech from TED 2010. Set aside the 20 mins and if you don't have time today, bookmark this post and come back when you've got a moment.
Stay tuned tomorrow when I show you what we're up against in the schools.
Posts
Hi Yoni,
ReplyDeleteTwo points:
1. You're missing the underlying issue. It's not that Canadians don't know how to cook. It's that they i) do not have time to cook or ii) it is more expensive to cook than to purchase prepared foods. This is the food-away-from-home share has risen so rapidly. Oliver's focus, school lunches, is an issue of school board budgets and limited food choice. The barriers facing adults are insufficient income and lack of time.
2. In light of your "homework" post yesterday, you've made a few misstatements. First, Canadian schools do force students to take food preparation classes. As a student in Alberta, I had to take two full years of cooking/home management classes. Second, where is the money for whole food subsidies going to come from? Canadians spent $71billion on groceries in 2005. Let's say half was on whole foods (it's likely higher). If we want to provide a 10% subsidy on these foods, the cost would $3.5 billion. Where is the Canadian government going to get $3.5 billion (particularly now)? Moreover, many studies have demonstrated that fat taxes and thin subsidies should be large if influencing diets and health outcomes is the objective. In other words, 10% is not likely to make any difference at all. One option may be to tax unhealthy foods and subsidize fruits and vegetables, but this is much more complicated than you've indicated.
Brandon
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you on the time it takes to cook and the expense, but that's a whole separate post and for now we'll have to agree to disagree.
Regarding home economics, it's wonderful that in your school district you were forced to take food preparation classes. I don't know how many years ago that was but I can say that when I went to school we too had those classes. Mine were in elementary school and were readily barely memories by the time I graduated from high school. Given Canada does not have a national school food policy in place, your experiences are not applicable to the country as a whole.
Regarding taxation. I'm all for a penny an ounce per sugar sweetened beverage tax with funds going towards such things as the subsidization of whole foods. Personally I'm for a great deal of food tax reform but the beverage tax would be an easy enough place to start.
Oh, and just because something's complicated doesn't mean one should throw up their hands and give up.
Yoni
Yoni,
ReplyDeleteEducation is a provincial responsibility in Canada. So it should not be surprising that Canada does not have a national school food policy. The federal government can subsidize programs which teach students about food and health, but each province must first introduce its own policy. Your comments tomorrow should target provincial ministries rather than Health Canada. (Historically most provinces don't enjoy taking direction from the federal government.)
Perhaps you should look at inter-province comparisons of health outcomes and high school cirricula. Maybe this explains why BC has obesity rates that are lower than the rest of the country (the weather notwithstanding).
Regards,
Brandon
Brandon I'd argue that given the incredible impact of diet on chronic disease it is surprising Canada doesn't have a national school food policy regardless of how things have been set up to date.
ReplyDeleteYour mention of inter-province comparisions, while certainly interesting, would be unlikely to be workable given that there are many inter-provincial differences other than nutrition in schools.
Tomorrow's post will be highlighting a great blog focused on school food, not federal or provincial barriers to healthier eating.
Yoni
Canada food guide from elementary school stuck on fridge
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How-to videos on internet
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Mom/Dad to shop and break the news that no, we can't afford prime rib:
I find that's enough for a teenager to plan & cook supper.
Thank you for sharing an inspirational message. I thoroughly enjoyed Jamie Oliver's words and think it is something we need to be aware of worldwide.
ReplyDeleteI or my husband cook at home daily. Unless we are getting fancy, dinner never takes more than 30 or 40 minutes to get on the table. Who doesn't have 30 mins to feed their loved ones??? As for cost, you get much more value for your money cooking yourself. If you weighed the amound of actual whole food in the packages, you'd find the cost per weight is much lower in whole foods.
ReplyDeleteThe French are noted for avoiding obesity, and it has been attributed to their excellent cuisine using fresh food. There's another reason.
ReplyDeleteIn the book " French Women Don't Get Fat", the author speaks of returning home after a year abroad as a student. Her family was absolutely shocked at how much weight she had gained. She gained 20 pounds. That was shocking to her family. She gained a few more pounds, and her mother called the family doctor. He treated her, as he had treated her mother and aunts before. She learned, with her doctors help, to eat to maintain a good weight.
25 or 30 pounds extra was considered a serious issue for this teenager in France.
Here, the use of extremely obese people (Jamie's clip, The Biggest Loser) to show the problems of obesity actually has the reverse effect of letting people "only" 25 or 30 pounds overweight be complacent. Some doctors won't even address this much overweight because the people don't have any "real" health problems - yet.
To make a difference in their children's health, parents have to recognize overweight and do something something about it when it's only a few pounds. The perception of "normal" weight has been distorted. "Fat" now looks "normal"
Cooking at home, healthy clean simple dishes. That should be number one priority for our families! No excuses! We will all pay for it later if there is no change!
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