Chew on This TED Talk: Jamie Oliver
Chew on This.TED Talks. Performed by Jamie Oliver and others
Starting off the talk by discussing the statistics, Oliver highlights that in his relatively short time on stage 4 Americans will die as a result of what they eat.
He believes that the power of food has a primal place in our homes, 'that binds us to the best bits of our life.'
He discusses that the past few generations have 'blessed' the current generations with the statistic of them living less time than their own parents and he says the result of this is down to the 'landscape of food they have built around them.'
Here on the display Oliver highlights
the fear that American's have surrounding homocide and by putting this in perspective with the biggest killers who happen to be diet related murder seems insignificant. He says how we may be aware of our bad health but not realise how many people actually die from diet related diseases. Homocide is on the front page of all newspapers, yet where is diet?
This is not just limited to America but is sweeping the world, particularly Western countries and is increasingly becoming a global problem.
He goes onto discuss the factors of modern day life; main street, school and home. Fast food has overtaken many countries and these companies are becoming increasingly powerful. The landscape of the food industry was very different 30 years ago which was selling largely fresh and local food.
Labelling is a massive problem. 'The industry wants to self-police themselves .. how can you say something is low fat when it's full of sugar?'
He believes that the fundamental problem is the lack of education in schools from a young age companied with a busy life at home with no education either. He illustrates this fact by going to a classroom and showing a variety of vegetables to a bunch of young children all of whom did not know a single one; he says that if they don't know what it is then they won't eat it and there lies the problem. Not only that but the food they eat is highly processed usually fast food with countless amount of additives and ingredients. Included in this is one of the most basic fundamental products - milk - where here he discusses that even this has been pumped with additives so that one glass of milk is equivalent to a can of their favourite fizzy drink. This lead me to think that is a double edged problem - a lack of education about food at the most fundamental times leads to uneducated people who have no idea about food allowing the big food companies to exploit that - foods that they may even perceive as healthy no longer hold that title.
We hold a special place in our hearts for supermarkets (will link well with the content analysis) - a place where we spend a lot of our money and time on a regular occasion. Oliver believes that there should be ambassadors on hand to educate people in these places about how to cook - after all it's like going to a school without any learning materials. If people are educated at the point where they purchase, they will make more informed decisions.
Having uncovered a lot about the fast food industry he believes that there is a 'weaning off' process that should be orchestrated by the government in order to get us off the high amounts of fats and sugars that they hide in their food to keep us coming back for more. This could be seen as the same as having a free from diet or being vegetarian - these brands have become part of our lives and therefore there is a necessary wean off process as we are so used to the taste of these items it takes a lot of hard work. This is a similar concept to drugs - those who are on it don't realise the effect that it has on their lives and to a certain extent look at those who aren't included as being disillusioned and have negative connotations of it, leading to stereotypes and judgement (link well here to the survey I want to do)
It is the school's responsibility to educate our young people not just in English and Maths but what food really is. Oliver says that these are fundamental life skills, something I also strongly believe in. 'If you can cook, recession money doesn't matter. If you can cook, time doesn't matter. '
I think the fundamental problem here is that the government don't provide their people with the tools and food that they need to properly survive and I believe this is largely due to the impact that these massive corporations have on our society that, in the greediest means possible, they line their back pockets so don't try to change a system that they believe works but one that works for the few and not for the many.
The concept of cooking should not be seen in a negative way, rather a way that people can share their knowledge and love to other people and turn creating a domino effect that can eventually influence a whole nation.
Starting off the talk by discussing the statistics, Oliver highlights that in his relatively short time on stage 4 Americans will die as a result of what they eat.
He believes that the power of food has a primal place in our homes, 'that binds us to the best bits of our life.'
He discusses that the past few generations have 'blessed' the current generations with the statistic of them living less time than their own parents and he says the result of this is down to the 'landscape of food they have built around them.'
Here on the display Oliver highlightsthe fear that American's have surrounding homocide and by putting this in perspective with the biggest killers who happen to be diet related murder seems insignificant. He says how we may be aware of our bad health but not realise how many people actually die from diet related diseases. Homocide is on the front page of all newspapers, yet where is diet?
This is not just limited to America but is sweeping the world, particularly Western countries and is increasingly becoming a global problem.
He goes onto discuss the factors of modern day life; main street, school and home. Fast food has overtaken many countries and these companies are becoming increasingly powerful. The landscape of the food industry was very different 30 years ago which was selling largely fresh and local food.
Labelling is a massive problem. 'The industry wants to self-police themselves .. how can you say something is low fat when it's full of sugar?'
He believes that the fundamental problem is the lack of education in schools from a young age companied with a busy life at home with no education either. He illustrates this fact by going to a classroom and showing a variety of vegetables to a bunch of young children all of whom did not know a single one; he says that if they don't know what it is then they won't eat it and there lies the problem. Not only that but the food they eat is highly processed usually fast food with countless amount of additives and ingredients. Included in this is one of the most basic fundamental products - milk - where here he discusses that even this has been pumped with additives so that one glass of milk is equivalent to a can of their favourite fizzy drink. This lead me to think that is a double edged problem - a lack of education about food at the most fundamental times leads to uneducated people who have no idea about food allowing the big food companies to exploit that - foods that they may even perceive as healthy no longer hold that title.
We hold a special place in our hearts for supermarkets (will link well with the content analysis) - a place where we spend a lot of our money and time on a regular occasion. Oliver believes that there should be ambassadors on hand to educate people in these places about how to cook - after all it's like going to a school without any learning materials. If people are educated at the point where they purchase, they will make more informed decisions.
Having uncovered a lot about the fast food industry he believes that there is a 'weaning off' process that should be orchestrated by the government in order to get us off the high amounts of fats and sugars that they hide in their food to keep us coming back for more. This could be seen as the same as having a free from diet or being vegetarian - these brands have become part of our lives and therefore there is a necessary wean off process as we are so used to the taste of these items it takes a lot of hard work. This is a similar concept to drugs - those who are on it don't realise the effect that it has on their lives and to a certain extent look at those who aren't included as being disillusioned and have negative connotations of it, leading to stereotypes and judgement (link well here to the survey I want to do)
It is the school's responsibility to educate our young people not just in English and Maths but what food really is. Oliver says that these are fundamental life skills, something I also strongly believe in. 'If you can cook, recession money doesn't matter. If you can cook, time doesn't matter. '
I think the fundamental problem here is that the government don't provide their people with the tools and food that they need to properly survive and I believe this is largely due to the impact that these massive corporations have on our society that, in the greediest means possible, they line their back pockets so don't try to change a system that they believe works but one that works for the few and not for the many.
The concept of cooking should not be seen in a negative way, rather a way that people can share their knowledge and love to other people and turn creating a domino effect that can eventually influence a whole nation.
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