Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk
February 22, 2010 - By Bobby Solomon - Category: Food & Drinks & VideoWhenever there are new TED Talks it’s always interesting to see who ends up speaking and finding the most interesting of conversations. I think this year there was easily one man that caught my attention the most, and that would be chef Jamie Oliver. I remember Mr. Oliver from his very first cooking show, The Naked Chef, which I was quite excited about because he’s very cute, but sadly he was never cooking in the nude, no matter how dangerous that may be.
The reason Mr. Oliver was speaking was because he’s currently trying to fight the rising tide of obesity here in the United States and across the world. Obesity is becoming one of the major causes of death around the world and especially here in the States and this is because of a few reasons. The first is that our diets are comprised of mostly fast food.
100 years ago if you were overweight it was a sign of wealth, that you were able to feed yourself well and probably ate three meals a day. These days it’s the exact opposite. Fast food has given the country an endless supply of calories to consume, thus getting fat, while the wealthy are able to by organically grown produce and eat finely crafted, healthy meals which keeps them trim.
As Mr. Oliver points out this isn’t entirely our fault. There’s a severe lack of knowledge about food and options when it comes to fast food and the foods we can buy at grocery stores. Basically we’re killing ourselves because of our diets and something needs to change.
I’ve kind of just summed up the main ideas but I implore you to take 20 minutes and watch the video above. I cooked all of my meals yesterday, thinking about each ingredient I used and checking every label, seeing just what I was consuming.
Bobby
Comments
If you've got something to say, keep it positive.great stuff. Was not Oliver’s biggest fan in Naked Chef days, but he was on fire w the school lunch project (UK) and this latest (though no doubt a bit cra-crash tv). thx for posting it up.
This talk was so good and so true. I should show it to my roommate who only lives on Pizza and Burgers. I have always liked Jamie Oliver and believe the efforts he makes in Britain and the States are amazing. Hopefully people in Germany will also start considering healthy food again. It’s especially people who do not have lots of money who buy all this fast food stuff here, since they are led to believe that it is much cheaper than a home cooked meal, whereas in reality it’s so much more expensive (which might be a difference to the states).
Does his cooking show go out in the US? It’s incredibly inspiring to watch (not to mention stylish with excellent food photography). As a vegetarian, a lot of the stuff he makes has to be adapted so I can eat it, but my wife’s an excellent cook so it gets done a lot.
As much as I agree with everything he says, I’m one of those people who’s been weaned onto sugary, fatty foods and I love them. I do worry about what it does to my health, and it’s things like this that make me realise that and want to do something about it.
Now all I need to do is watch this video every morning before I eat anything and I might be alright.
Thanks for the link, Bobby – wouldn’t have seen this otherwise, and I really needed to.
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I saw this one last week and immediately started pimping it out on my Facebook. As someone struggling with transitioning from the garbage I grew up with into an actual healthy human I definitely appreciate this kind of passion for fighting the horrible place we have gotten to with food. I actually even picked up his cookbook, worth checking out if you get a chance Bobby > http://www.amazon.com/Jamies-Food-Revolution-Rediscover-Affordable/dp/1401323596/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266860213&sr=8-2
The B&N up the street had like 3 copies so you should be able to walk in pretty much anywhere and take a glance, I think you would appreciate it visually a bit.
This year I turn 7 years as diabetic, disease that I have because bad genes (both sides of my family) and a very sedentary life through my days in college (long periods of times doing homework and school projects). Now I realize the importance of food in life, so I take care of my health during the week and the sundays I eat some fast food or unhealthy food, like a vanilla ice cream, a slice of pizza or a burger, but conscious of what I’m consuming, very nicely done Mr. Solomon