Revolting Food!
Did anyone watch Jamie Oliver’s ‘Food Revolution‘ last Tuesday? I don’t believe that this is considered reality tv. The is more a documentary of life as we know it. This season, Jamie is focusing on the LA school system. And it appears that he’s up for a HUGE fight. And a challenge. For example, the amount of sugar and the ‘food’ fed to LA school children is outrageous and criminal. He showed some sample meals being served up to the kids (all in plastic, of course). I really had no idea. 
Tame them with sugar they say! No wonder obesity is an epidemic in North America. Flavoured milk contains at least 4 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Drink this sugar-laden milk daily and that adds up to 2 gallons of sugar per year per child! Now, who is thinking that milk is so wholesome and beneficial in our schools? Give any kid and option over plain unsweetened milk vs flavoured, and see how many choose the latter. A high percentage I am guessing. According to this article in the New York Times, “71 percent of the milk served nationwide is flavored”. Flavoured milk is just soda in drag, IMO. Now who is suffering from a calcium crisis (Sugar has been implicated in upsets to the calcium / phosphorus balance which in turn depletes bone density — next to calcium, phosphorus is the most abundant mineral in the body)! This is a complete and total nutritional booby trap with an excess fat and sugar. Where the schools are teaching children “that they don’t have to drink milk unless it is sweet, that foods aren’t good unless they are sweet, and that schools think flavoured milks is good for them“. How backwards is that??!
Why does it appear to be (to me, anyway) that Jamie Oliver (a foreigner, no less) is the only one who really seems to be the one headlining and taking a huge stand on this issue within the school system? If you did watch the show, I’m hoping that you were inspired enough to spread the word, eliminate ‘pink slime’ from your diet and cook healthier more nutritious and whole-food meals. Click here for some of Jamie’s recipe ideas. Healthy doesn’t have to be hard! It does however take effort. But don’t all the worthwhile things in life?
By the way, what exactly is pink slime, you might ask? This yucky goop added into the school lunches of America’s children is a homogenized mix of the vilest dregs and runoff of the meat processing industry (think sludge and slime). This basically comes from all the fat, tendons, sinew, skin, pieces of meat that can’t be sold (think roadkill, aka not fit for human consumption). The remnants are spun in a centrifugal force machine, washed in a water and AMMONIA solution (to kill all the salmonella, e-coli, bacteria), rinsed, drained and then ground into mince. The pink minced result is considered now to be fit for human ingestion (before this process, it would have been used in dog food or chicken feed). Legally, 15% of this pink slime (considered a thinner or filler) can be added to school food or sold to fast food chains and all the big chain grocers. Think hot dogs, hamburgers, tacos, etc. Pretty disgusting.
I’m grateful that we weren’t fed in school and I brown bagged it for the duration of my youth. Simpler is better. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches ruled my world (when peanuts weren’t really an issue or allergen). Thanks Mom!!
America’s children need and deserve better quality food in their schools. Teach children about whole foods and the effects of the rubbish being fed to them through the media and the school system. Teach them how to cook and support their own well-being. You can make a difference as well. A start would be to follow this link, signing the petition in support of Jamie Oliver’s the Food Revolution. : http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/sign-petition.
If you are really interested in where your food comes from and what implications food has on your health, I would highly recommend that you watch these documentaries. They will change your life and your beliefs and understanding around the food you consume: