Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (ABC)

JAMIE OLIVER’S FOOD REVOLUTION is a reality series featuring renowned British chef Jamie Oliver as he tries to help America’s unhealthiest town change their attitudes about food and nutrition. Oliver spends four months in Huntington, West Virginia, a community that has the highest early mortality rate in the country thanks to diseases like heart disease and diabetes, meeting with families, school employees, and community leaders in hopes of inspiring them to improve the way they eat. He also builds a center where people can learn to cook healthy recipes and attempts to assist the community with feeding school children more wholesome meals. But convincing Huntington citizens to eliminate things like frozen nuggets, fried foods, pizza, and sugar-filled drinks from their daily menus isn’t easy, especially when it comes to dealing with USDA guidelines, limited budgets, and people who simply resent an outsider like Oliver. But Oliver keeps trying to find ways to get his point across, and hopes that his efforts will plant the seed of change necessary to promote revolutionary changes in America’s overall eating habits.

The series draws on the habits and attitudes of Huntington residents to illustrate how poorly Americans are eating thanks to their taste for fatty meals and their reliance on convenient processed foods. It shows how the consumption of these unhealthy meals has been so normalized that they are thought of as appropriate daily food choices. The program underscores the fact that consistently eating unhealthy foods is a direct cause of obesity, disease, and early death. The show also notes some of the loopholes in government nutritional guidelines that allow U.S. schools to regularly serve these foods to children.

Some viewers might find the chef’s opinions about some of America’s general dietary choices a little judgmental. But Oliver, who successfully lobbied the British government for a healthier school lunch program, is simply underscoring what health experts in the United States and England have already identified as national problems. What he serves up are constructive and positive solutions at the grassroots level that can lead to important changes in the way we educate people -- especially children -- about food, and improve their overall health and well being.