Jamie's Food Revolution USA

[Jenny]

Umm.....the producer picked foods to be served in the cafeteria is all I'll say.

Why won't you say more? Because I can't imagine that Jamie didn't pick the foods he made and served, and the regular cafeteria menu comes from the school board's guidelines.

Kids have no idea what's processed food or not, nor do they care.

Obviously. When kids are brought up with nothing but crap at home and at school, of course they don't know, and of course Jamie's efforts didn't go over well. The point was that Jamie was trying different avenues to get healthy food into those kids.

I don't get why that's "" to you.

[Anita18]

I wonder if part of it is the way kids are raised these days. It might not be so much that they hate the vegetables it's that they are testing their parents when they refuse to eat this or that. The parents cave and give them what they want. I've heard of families that cook two or three different meals when they do cook at home because this one does like this and the other doesn't like that.

It was kind of sad in a way to watch.

Or they could work the way my family worked - if I didn't like what was served, I didn't eat.

I was a very skinny kid. (It also didn't help that I had a teeny appetite to begin with.) I was a very picky eater pre-puberty and now I'll try almost anything once. I think to get over picky eating, you've got to let the kid decide when s/he wants to try something, not force it down their throats or beg them or make it a big deal in general. I don't think normal kids are headstrong enough to actually starve themselves to injury just because they're being picky or want to be difficult.

I also wonder about the "cooking two meals because the kids are picky" thing. What's the issue about letting the kid go hungry if they're going to be difficult and not eat what you cook them? Aren't kids getting more overweight nowadays anyway?

It turned out my sister and I liked different things, and we matched perfectly. Example, thick-stalked greens like bok choy. She liked the stalks, I liked the greens, so we'd trade. When it came to chicken, she preferred white meat, and I liked dark meat.

[Anita18]

Why won't you say more? Because I can't imagine that Jamie didn't pick the foods he made and served, and the regular cafeteria menu comes from the school board's guidelines.

Nondisclosure agreements? The principal could get in trouble if it gets out that s/he (I haven't seen the show) is talking about the show. Dunno if it's as secretive as contest reality shows though. My sister knew a contestant on The Amazing Race and he signed a multimillion-dollar nondisclosure agreement to not speak at all about the results until it aired. And he was good at it too, since it turned out he won.

[skatingfan5]

I'm sure the dumping of all that fat was staged and maybe the scenes where they are teaching the kids how to use utensils, but what else exactly was staged? The part where they are eating pizza and nuggets and pink milk? The part where most of them choose the processed food over the real food? The part where they don't know what the different vegetables are? (If that was staged, then give those first graders some Emmys.)

Umm.....the producer picked foods to be served in the cafeteria is all I'll say.

Kids have no idea what's processed food or not, nor do they care.

If the producer did indeed picked the foods to be served in the cafeteria, I'm pretty sure that they were all likely on the "approved" FDA list. Were the bottles of chocolate and pink milk just brought in for dramatic effect and something that was not previously served to the kids?

Sure most grade school kids have no idea what's "processed food" -- but I agree with Allskate that those 5 and 6 year olds certainly deserve an Emmy for their convincing display of non-knowledge of what a tomato, potato, beet, or cauliflower was. Major acting talent there! I'll give them a pass on the eggplant, because at their age, I wouldn't have recognized one if I had ever encountered one.

[Habs]

snip
but I agree with Allskate that those 5 and 6 year olds certainly deserve an Emmy for their convincing display of non-knowledge of what a tomato, potato, beet, or cauliflower was. Major acting talent there! I'll give them a pass on the eggplant, because at their age, I wouldn't have recognized one if I had ever encountered one.

My husband was disgusted by the kids' lack of knowledge of vegetables until Jamie held up the eggplant. Hubby turned to me with a blank look on his face and shrugged.

[HisWeirness]

My husband was disgusted by the kids' lack of knowledge of vegetables until Jamie held up the eggplant. Hubby turned to me with a blank look on his face and shrugged.

This reminds me of when I go to the supermarket and have to identify certain veggies like beets or cabbage to the checkout clerk. They like to ring me up for lettuce whenever I buy cabbage.

[skatingfan5]

This reminds me of when I go to the supermarket and have to identify certain veggies like beets or cabbage to the checkout clerk. They like to ring me up for lettuce whenever I buy cabbage.

And your post reminded me that it's not just 1st grade kids who don't know their fresh produce. I was when I had to tell a checkout clerk what a nectarine was (or maybe it was a plum -- whichever it was, I couldn't believe they didn't know).

[rfisher]

All I'm saying is the food served in the cafeteria is the same in the entire state, but there was a lot of tweaking and editing done. I watched some of the episodes being filmed. That's not to take away anything about the premise of many people's unhealthy lifestyles. Just keep in mind this is a reality show, however, the final product on TV was carefully crafted to produce a desired result.

[Allskate]

All I'm saying is the food served in the cafeteria is the same in the entire state, but there was a lot of tweaking and editing done. I watched some of the episodes being filmed. That's not to take away anything about the premise of many people's unhealthy lifestyles. Just keep in mind this is a reality show, however, the final product on TV was carefully crafted to produce a desired result.

Of course there's editing. But you said that it was the producer who chose the food. You were suggesting that the food the school served wasn't what they ordinarily served and that Jamie did not select the food that he wanted to serve. I continue to find that difficult to believe. I'm sure they picked the scenes that were the most eye-opening and I'm sure the school doesn't ordinarily show huge mounds of fat consumed by the kids, but that doesn't mean that the kids aren't eating that kind of food in school or aren't that ignorant about real food, which is really the impression you left with your comment.

[Jenny]

All I'm saying is the food served in the cafeteria is the same in the entire state, but there was a lot of tweaking and editing done. I watched some of the episodes being filmed. That's not to take away anything about the premise of many people's unhealthy lifestyles. Just keep in mind this is a reality show, however, the final product on TV was carefully crafted to produce a desired result.

You have implied that there is something dishonest in what is being presented in the tv show. I don't think that taking what is likely hundreds of hours of footage and choosing segments and arranging them to tell a story is necessarily dishonest.

It's impossible to show everything that happened, so they've chosen what a) tells the story and b) makes for interesting tv. What's the problem with that?

[skatingfan5]

The program is hardly being presented as a documentary -- it bears as much relation to "reality" as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. They both take elements of real life and script and package them to be an entertaining program.

[silverstars]

"Reality" or not, I've volunteered in elementary schools and the problem that Jamie is calling attention to is most certainly a wide-spread, important issue. Of course there's going to be editing, but I'm glad that he's making people aware that in a lot of places in this country, there is a serious level of either ignorance towards or inability to follow nutritional standards. When it comes to children, this can lead to serious development issues as well as habits of unhealthy eating that are certainly contributing the US's obesity problems. Nonetheless, I'm sure that you'd find many more people who can talk to you about the wars that we're in than people who can talk at length about ways to solve nutritional deficiencies in school-aged children--or who are even aware of the problem, really.

So, basically, it's annoying when reality TV is staged, but I'd much prefer the impact of this show than, say, the discussions that arise after watching The Hills.

[PeterG]

I'm sure the dumping of all that fat was staged...

Ya think? And here I thought they had all that fat on hand not being used...

[skatingfan5]

Ya think? And here I thought they had all that fat on hand not being used...

I thought they just had it on hand for the next time they served fried chicken for lunch. BTW, I just loved the OTT theatrics of burying the family's fryer in the back yard. Also, the "out of the mouth of babes" answer about what her favorite meal was (supposedly from the healthy recipes Jamie had given her mother): "Pizza!"

[rfisher]

The program is hardly being presented as a documentary -- it bears as much relation to "reality" as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. They both take elements of real life and script and package them to be an entertaining program.

It was bought and paid for.This show was done for entertainment purposes. The people who appear benefited financially (some more than others) as did the city, so all is well. As I said, he had a state of the art kitchen installed in a local church and they were paid 250K for a new building. Needless to say, the pastor who appears on several episodes was quite happy to perform. People can take it for what they want.

Even documentarys are scripted. I well remember a friend who is a wild life photographer who wanted me to look at a film that had been picked up by Nova. There was a scene with a snake and a mouse. I asked how long they had to wait for that. He answered, uh none really. There was footage of a snake and footage of a mouse. They were edited to appear that the snake was hunting the mouse. I've never watched a wildlife documentary the same since.

[marbri]

But snakes do hunt mice?

[rfisher]

But snakes do hunt mice?

Yes. Just that that particular snake was not hunting that particular mouse. It was just edited to appear that it did and the narration implied that it was. Which illustrates that things are not always what they seem or are implied to be.

[Anita18]

Yes. Just that that particular snake was not hunting that particular mouse. It was just edited to appear that it did and the narration implied that it was. Which illustrates that things are not always what they seem or are implied to be.

The magic of editing.

[Allskate]

Yes. Just that that particular snake was not hunting that particular mouse. It was just edited to appear that it did and the narration implied that it was. Which illustrates that things are not always what they seem or are implied to be.

I don't get your comparison to the snake and mouse. You said that the producers chose the food and suggested that this food is not what they ordinarily serve and not what Jamie would choose to serve. That's like saying that snakes don't really hunt mice. Because the main premise of this show is that the kids are not being served great food in their lunches and Jamie is trying to change that because he wants to introduce healthy real food. You're pretty much suggesting that the central premise of the show is false. But you won't back up your claim with any details. If you're going to fundamentally call into question the core of the show with claims of inside information and being there when these scenes were filmed, then spill!

[Jenny]

It was bought and paid for.This show was done for entertainment purposes. The people who appear benefited financially (some more than others) as did the city, so all is well.

I still don't get why you think this is funny, or why you think "all is well" in what is apparently the most unhealthy community in America.

Everybody understands that shows like this are made in a certain way so that they fit into the time limits of television, and that they have to have a certain amount of over the top emotion etc to engage the audience (because a simple show about good nutrition for children would never get ratings in the US, which is part of the irony of all this).

The thing I think you are missing is the overall message of the show, which is nothing to laugh about.