Health on television

Jamie Oliver's new programme was on last night, in which he tries to provide some healthy eating education to schools in the US. In one memorable scene he holds up some tomatoes before the class and asks them what they are. Nobody can answer. He tries again, this time with an aubergine. Someone makes a guess: "is it a pear?".

While in the UK there's probably still some way to go before we're eating the way we should be, I'd guess that more people in a school class of that age would recognise the tomatoes, if perhaps not the aubergine.

But perhaps one of the reasons there was virtually zero obesity in my day (maybe one kid in the entire school) was because school meals were pretty much inedible. Every shop sold vegetables though, so anyone even going into a shop to buy sweets would still see tomatoes etc on sale.

These US school students will of course go on and learn a lot about the world as they grow up, and hopefully eat healthy as they do. As adults we have more than just a responsibility for our own health but that of our families as well. And there's lots that can be done - we can ensure that our intake of trans fats is as small as possible, we can try and get our five a day, etc.

I think the reality/ documentary style of show is a good way of doing health television as it shows how diet and exercise affect people's lives. It would be interesting to see how other celebrity chefs would have fared in this quest. Say, Gordon Ramsay or Marco Pierre White.

Posted in: healthy eating