Jamie Oliver is a 34 year old male from England giving a TED talk about the food that we eat and what we can do about it, in Long Beach California on February 2010. Jamie asked the audience how many children they have, and how many aunts and uncles they have. Just about everybody’s hands went up. This displayed that the food America eats does not have to only affect their bodies but it can affect others around them.
My parents, and grandparents, according to Jamie have “blessed” me with a shorter life span than my parents and grandparents because of the food I eat. And the positive fact behind the leading cause of death in the US, heart disease, is that it is preventable. Not only is heart disease preventable, the next two highest causes of death in the US are also preventable. This can be attributed to American’s diet.
A few people who make executive decisions about what to put in our food and how to serve it are causing this issue. Jamie brought up a triangle of how the food in our society flows to our mouths. Main stream food has turned into the fast food, the big brands, and the supermarkets all around us. 30 years ago these foods were largely grown and eaten as local foods, but now these are largely processed with a bunch of additives in them. Other problems such as massive portion sizes and misconceptions about food due to labeling are also issues.
Home. Throughout the generations Americans have started to rely more heavily on dishes prepared from restaurant. Children are learning few of the recipes because parents have decided its easier to go out and buy food than cook it themselves. Schools are one of the biggest issues. Children get meals, like breakfast and lunch, from schools around 170-190 days a year. The food these kids get are loaded with sugars so that they will enjoy them. 1 bottle of milk, a drink kids consume twice a day, contains as much sugar as one bottle of soda. The solution Jamie discussed dealt with targeting this issue with the education system and in supermarkets. Give kids the knowledge of what foods are and how to fix quick, easy, healthy meals. Put people in supermarkets to share knowledge with others about how to fix healthier meals rather than going out or buying frozen pizzas.
Throughout his speech Jamie seemed like he was ranting about the obesity epidemic in America. It was a TED talk that at the end made me feel very passionate about his issue and like there was a call to action for me to do something about this situation. HIs eye contact and presentation with the use of visual aids were very effective. He used a couple videos to show his points of how kids don't know which foods are which and to display the average weekly diet of some American families. The reason I found this talk was bearable to listen to and not like an angry man yelling about a topic was that his facts were very effective, he included some humor, and most importantly he acknowledged that we weren't the only country suffering from this problem. This is a worldly concern. He could have yelled a little less and included more humor but his visual aids and props that he used were extremely effective. I felt like he approached this piece with more of a scare tactic with an eventual call to action.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOPl8P2S-Lw
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