the voyeur factor is good, the compulsion to watch fat americans eat rubbish and slowly kill themselves has the same kind of weird appeal as a car smash.
jamie is kind of annoyingly cute and idealistic and engaging all at once but mostly i love what he is doing. i love that jamie oliver is trying, and succeeding, in helping a city change it's eating habits. i love that he is approaching the problem from so many angles: changing school food, teaching people to cook, educating people about what they are eating now and what they should be eating and how their health is being affected.
after six years of home economics in high school i can draw the healthy diet pyramid in my sleep, even 20 odd years down the track. i have read food magazines, family magazines and health magazines, i have seen tv shows on healthy eating and i have read newspaper supplements. i have the information but i still find it hard sometimes to make sure there is always good, nutritious food on the table.
i would like to think i am a long way from needing a food revolution but i still need to work at making good choices and one of the ways i try to do that is not by aiming for perfection but to aim for small, achievable goals. they might not give us the ideal diet but they get us closer
- i only buy good bread. sourdough, multigrain or premium type whitebread, free of additives and heavier than the average white fluff
- i have veggies delivered, taking the drama out of the shopping leaves more energy for the cooking
- i try to add herbs to food. a handful of parsley or coriander ( or what have you) on a risotto, a soup, a pasta or a sandwich ramps up the nutrients for a teeny bit of effort
- i don't keep soda in the house (i will buy a bottle or two as a treat) if it's not there nobody can drink it. same goes for biscuits, chocolate and chips
- chocolate breakfast cereals are only for holidays
- i keep a box of porridge sachets in my locker at work. it costs about 5 times what regular oats do but it's sooo easy and all too often ease is the name of the game. they keep well and there's always something hot and comforting just a couple of minutes away
do you have any nutrition rules or handy hints?
