US kids can't tell tomatoes from potatoes, as TV chef breaks down.

The UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver recently broke down in tears as his reality television drive for healthier eating (especially school and kids' lunches) met with opposition and ignorance in West Virginia.
For people watching from other countries this supports a long-held suspicion that the richest nation is exporting the unhealthiest lifestyles, backed up by their "addictive" junk-food corporations.
The worst is that the kids shown could not tell a tomato from a potato:
"Jamie was also left flabbergasted after he asks a group of school children to identify vegetables, mistaking tomatoes for potatoes."
(Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... )

Is this a proof of a junk-food conspiracy that eventually leads to chronic conditions and medicalization, or is it simply proof of stereotyping a remote community for ratings?
See also www.metro.co.uk... .


[edit on 22-1-2010 by halfoldman]

That is too ridiculous. I'm an a believer that our educational system is circling the bowl, however, even I don't think it's quite that bad yet. Every child I know is able to identify common fruits and veggies.

Jamie Oliver is a well meaning guy and has suffered the same frustrations in the UK. The underclasses on both sides of the Atlantic have slipped into apathy about no only themselves but now their children. Too many are becoming vessels for the conglomerates to bleed cry whilst earning themselves the David Icke title of 'Sheeple'.

Originally posted by halfoldman
"Jamie was also left flabbergasted after he asks a group of school children to identify vegetables, mistaking tomatoes for potatoes."

[edit on 22-1-2010 by halfoldman]

Well, I am flabbergasted that a top british chef mistook a fruit (tomato) for a vegetable...

my oh my, I wonder if the rest of britian collectively cannot understand the difference between fruits and vegetables.


its fun to compartmentalise...racism and nationalism is soo easy.

and besides...its west virginia...they are not part of the US...they are their own unique entity that is only technically part of the US...sort of like how the sewer system far under the earth is part of the home above...if you expose it, its going to smell foul.

---added---

incidently, as a technical matter, a potato is more of a vegetable than a tomato given the potato is a root...roots have more likeness to veggies (carrots) than the sex organs of plants (fruits)..so, even though the initial view seems silly, technically the children in this particular senario were more correct than the chef.

[edit on 22-1-2010 by SaturnFX]

Huntington is in a part of WVA that has some of the highest poverty rates in the US.

There are poor areas in these parts and others of appalachia that are lower then third world countries.

There are high incendences of mountain dew mouth where kids teeth are rotted out because they parents can't even afford milk so they give their kids soda.

When you can't afford real food, you depend on cheap unhealthy fattening alternatives.

What this chef fails to understand is that people can't afford real food. So trying to push a gourmet diet was probably outright offensive.

Their economy needs to be boosted and young parents need to be given jobs and then the kids could eat better.

mountain dew mouth

Now I am not saying that school lunches are not horrible. I even went to one of the richest counties in the country and the fare was awful.

We had a "break" in the morning, and the lowest carb thing I could find was a rice krispie treat.

Kids who actually wanted to eat something other then pizza, fries and burgers used to have to make salads out of the condiments bar: lettuce, slices of tomatoe and pickles.

It was quite quite sad.

But for this chef to go to an area with 20% or more poverty rate and start going on about healthy foods was just in the wrong neighborhood. It would be like preaching to starving Africans about healthier eating.

This isnt surprising. Most of the urban trash Ive met have no clue about vegetables or fruits. Mostly because the only time they ever see them they're processed into some bizarre form or shape.

Just last night I was out at this little place. Everyone gets served whatever the meal happens to be for that night. That night there was a nice grilled squash as a side. I overheard a couple, adult couple, discussing how they were supposed to eat it. They didnt know what it was or how it was meant to be consumed.

The only thing they ate were the mashed potatoes and the desert at the end.

People need to get back in touch with their food. Grow something and kill something for christs sake.

Originally posted by SaturnFX

and besides...its west virginia...they are not part of the US...they are their own unique entity that is only technically part of the US...sort of like how the sewer system far under the earth is part of the home above...if you expose it, its going to smell foul.

[edit on 22-1-2010 by SaturnFX]

Ouch, I resemble that remark! Actually my dad's from WV and no my mom is not his sister.

It is sad that kids can't tell the difference between said fruit/vegetable (same for the chef though) but there is definitely a problem when trying to teach people to eat healthier is met with a "we will eat whatever we want attitude" It does look bad. I don't believe it's a conspiracy by the makers of junkfood because people have a choice to either eat the stuff or not. Now I can't say that the chef didn't do what he did for ratings, but, the point of any TV show is to get ratings so....

Originally posted by nixie_nox
Huntington is in a part of WVA that has some of the highest poverty rates in the US.

This was the reason he went there my friend. It is supposedly also the fattest town in the US.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I agree with you to an extent.
My mom witnessed at a farmers market a woman looking at artisan bread and made a comment it must be stale because it was crusty. My mum was flabberghasted. To have only eaten store bread and have no idea that really good bread is nice and crusty. Not soft and sliced.

I try to grow my own stuff. It is not easy. My soil sucks and I have had only minor results. It is a time consuming activity that not a lot of people have the space or time or know how. It is a major learning curve.

I had to bail on my garden last year because my health prevented me from taking care of it.

But the most treasured moments are my son and I eating right out of the garden. Everyday searching for strawberries in the spring.

But that doesn't mean that people can't prepare fresh fruits from the store.

But when I did go seed shopping and plant shopping for my garden 2 years ago, the stores did tell me there has been a huge uptick in gardening, and people seem to be planting a lot more of their own stuff. AT one point I couldn't find any strawberries. Places told me they usually threw plants away. That year they ran out two months early.

reply to post by The_Archangel


Ok I will do the correlation for you.

Obesity can be linked to poverty. Because ALL YOU CAN AFFORD is high fat, high calorie, low nutritional food.

The amount of fast food restaurants are exponentially higher in poor areas just for those reasons.

I can see what he was trying to do. But if you only have 10 bucks for groceries, you can't spend 5 bucks on apples when you could get 10 boxes of mac and cheese instead.

See the problem?

reply to post by nixie_nox

From your post and others I could them maybe add a third question: Is it perhaps a class conspiracy (if the poor can't afford "real food")?
Perhaps it is the confrontation between class realities that shocks the celebrity chef?

wait...what??

how old were these kids? I can understand kids getting P's and T's mixed up, or calling spaghetti bisketti, but I find it hard to believe that kids would mistake the ingredients for ketchup and potato chips! they're completely different colors!

Originally posted by cjcord
wait...what??

how old were these kids? I can understand kids getting P's and T's mixed up, or calling spaghetti bisketti, but I find it hard to believe that kids would mistake the ingredients for ketchup and potato chips! they're completely different colors!

you just gave me a great idea...I am going to make a food called bisketti...it should be a instant hit with kids since they are always asking for it...no marketing necessary.

oh, and hangerburgs....

reply to post by nixie_nox


I understand your point and concur with what you say but it doesnt mean it is right. My issue with these people is that the price of food is relative to where you shop. In the UK, you can stock up on fresh meat, fruit and veg at a very cheap price from markets, as opposed to supermarkets, but requires effort on the part of the parent to cook from scratch. Too many parents are too intrested in getting their spawn feed and out of the way as quick as possible so they can kick back watch the trash tv.

The same program was made in the UK and highlighted this issue in all its glory and showed people how laziness is the main issue. It is too easy to stock up on rubbish food, ending up with fat kids starting off in life at a disadvantage and likely to suffer from life threatening illness at a young age.

Fat does not have a citizenship. Yes there seems to be more of it in the US and i have met more than a few Americans that simply refuse to eat vegatables for some reason.
But i also saw a documentary on a 13 yr old girl from the UK who wanted to get a gastric bypass surgery and she was saying that her and her mother had tried everything to loose the weight but she just couldnt get it off and life threatening surgery was the only way.
The very next scene was her "eating" a salad, at which point she said she had never eaten a vegetable, was brought to tears by putting a baby tomatoe in her mouth and it looked like she was eating battery acid.
Yeah food and food prepeartion is a huge issue but not solely with the youth of the US the youth of the world.
US just happens to be the one leading the way, just as they so often do in most areas good and bad.

reply to post by halfoldman


I don't think he broke down because of some "un-informed" children, every country has the same issue, this is because we have distanced kids from the manufacturing process...... this usually can be attributed to where the kids reside IE in the country or inner city?.

City kids are far less likely to know or care where the food came from, so as an example everyone knows ketchup .... it's red.... does not mean that the average 8 year old will know that a tomato made it, or even what a tomato looks like (easy to mix a potato with a tomato if you have no idea what one is!!)

A link about UK peoples not knowing food origins - news.bbc.co.uk...

I think he broke down beacause of the resentment he met, he obviously wanted to help one of the FATTEST cities on earth.

HALF the CITY is clinically obese (so states the metro article)

clinically obese - medical help required or if left untreated physical weight will crush internal organs and kill.

Reminds me of this clip tbh

www.youtube.com...

fair play to the lively cockney for atleast trying to help some pretty rude and nasty fatties.

[edit on 22-1-2010 by ainsley]

Adding link *

[edit on 22-1-2010 by ainsley]

[edit on 22-1-2010 by ainsley]

[edit on 22-1-2010 by ainsley]

reply to post by nixie_nox


I don't buy the whole "they're poor so can only afford junk food" line, as it has been proven to be a complete falsehood.

To feed a family of four on fast food is vastly more expensive than cooking a meal from scratch using real ingredients.

Jamie Olive did the exact same show here in the UK and some people there were spending over £2000 a month on takeaways, twice a day every day! And they moaned about being poor! Lazy idiots, that's what they are.

I'm sorry, but I only spend, maximum, £150 a month of fresh produce and I can cook a meal for me, the missus and two kids for less than a fiver, whereas one meal at McDonalds would cost around £4 a head, at least.

Being poor is not an excuse to be fat.

This is so damn sad, these kids are so sad. I wish we could just stop being so unhealthy. We're in such a miserable state.

reply to post by ainsley

In South Africa we've gone from a situation in the 1980s where rural black women still grew, stamped and ground their own corn. Now there has been rapid urbanization, and white bread and "milie meal" (refined maize, corn) are the main staples. Generally there is a strong ideal for expensive meat, and a huge market for more affordable fast-food chicken.
The factory refined maize was so unhealthy that nowadays it is enriched with vitamins and minerals. Strangely the indigenous crops were sorghum and millet, yet maize is nowadays seen as the quintessential African crop, and people will sometimes not even believe that it was introduced by white traders.
The cheap imported junkfood situation in urban areas is so bad that the only vegetable that kids eat is the potato in potato chips.
It's not the whole story, but the situation is so bad that in many areas I could think of children who wouldn't recognize most of the vegetables.

reply to post by halfoldman

Strange, I've come across a lot of websites that regard tomatoes and potatoes (especially the former) as "evil", athritis causing plants.
They are deadly nightshades like tobacco and other toxic plants:

"The Solanaceae family is characteristically ethnobotanical, that is, extensively utilized by humans. It is an important source of food, spice and medicine. However, Solanaceae species are often rich in alkaloids whose toxicity to humans and animals ranges from mildly irritating to fatal in small quantities." (en.wikipedia.org... )

Now there's something the celebrity chef won't tell!