Did anyone watch Jamie Oliver last night?

[elegantlion]

We only saw the last half. It was interesting.

 

The fast food owner had a point about the shakes. IMO, a shake has to have ice cream. I also understand as a business he is giving the consumer what they want and can afford.

 

The school milk issue was wow! Talk about a mindset! Children won't drink milk unless it's flavored? I think watching the bus display had a real effect on ds.

 

It'll be interesting to see the next episode. I'm sure some of the drama is hyped for TV, but he's still a gutsy guy.

[southcarolinamom]

Yep, you saw the parts I saw.

 

I watched almost the entire last season when Jamie was in Huntington, West Virginia. Wow, he was "put through the wringer" by the school, the cafeteria ladies, the children, the parents.... yikes!

 

It's happening in L.A. now.

 

Jamie has to figure out a balance of better nutrition, coupled with cost savings, for the families, schools and restaurants.

 

We all know that it costs more to eat healthy ... but in California, with all the farmland, I wish it wouldn't be so expensive.

[Mrs Mungo]

We only saw the last half. It was interesting.

 

The fast food owner had a point about the shakes. IMO, a shake has to have ice cream. I also understand as a business he is giving the consumer what they want and can afford.

 

I agree, especially about the milkshake. I think the solution there is putting the regular burger on the menu *with* the new $6 black angus burger combo would be a good solution. put them both on, I guarantee some people will pay extra for the more expensive burger.

 

The school milk issue was wow! Talk about a mindset! Children won't drink milk unless it's flavored? I think watching the bus display had a real effect on ds.

 

I hate milk. I only drink it flavored. :lol: BUT, I would drink water or tea or something else if it was offered.

 

I can see that they want kids to eat. I *don't know* how you balance healthy with kids being willing to eat the food.

 

I posted this in one of the other recent threads on school food:

My mom also works with child nutrition in the public schools, and she has for over 20 years. What is interesting are the changes she has seen over that time frame. For example, tons of kids used to eat lasagna. They took lasagna off of their menus a few years ago because so many kids would not eat it.

 

There was a time they served steamed broccoli. My mom said about half of the kids ate the steamed broccoli. Now, they serve it raw with ranch dressing (because someone has the idea it's healthier raw, never mind the ranch dressing that probably negates that). My mom said almost no kids eat it raw. She asked if they could steam it, because the kids had been eating it that way. She was told no, because it looks better (to the state? the usda? I don't know) for it to be raw.

[abbeyej]

I'm frustrated by it. I want more about food and less about showmanship. It irks me.

 

The flavored milk issue figured large in the previous season as well. So incredibly disturbing!

[Snickerdoodle]

Didya see the homeschool kids in the beginning with the apples?

 

Something about JO going to the fast food joint to change things up rubbed me the wrong way although I can't quite put my finger on it. I guess it has to do with asking restaurant owners to be the point at which decisions are made about the nutrition of the food served. Again, this smacks of consumers being unable to make decisions for themselves. OK, not very coherent, but both kids are jumping on my back....

[HayesW]

Milkshakes are unhealthy. They are a TREAT, a sometimes food. If I want a milkshake or a piece of chocolate cake, then that is ok! It doesn't mean that I can never eat anything just for fun again.It means that I make really healthy choices and truly enjoy my treats!

 

My children drink 4 ounces of chocolate milk at school most days. The rest of the time they drink water. Can you tell me the issues with drinking a chocolate milk?

[Mrs Mungo]

Didya see the homeschool kids in the beginning with the apples?

 

Something about JO going to the fast food joint to change things up rubbed me the wrong way although I can't quite put my finger on it. I guess it has to do with asking restaurant owners to be the point at which decisions are made about the nutrition of the food served. Again, this smacks of consumers being unable to make decisions for themselves. OK, not very coherent, but both kids are jumping on my back....

 

Milkshakes are unhealthy. They are a TREAT, a sometimes food. If I want a milkshake or a piece of chocolate cake, then that is ok! It doesn't mean that I can never eat anything just for fun again.It means that I make really healthy choices and truly enjoy my treats!

 

My children drink 4 ounces of chocolate milk at school most days. The rest of the time they drink water. Can you tell me the issues with drinking a chocolate milk?

 

It's the first time I saw the show. Honestly, I could not stand it for the most part and ended up turning it off when he got to the point of arguing with the restaurant owner about the milkshakes.

 

I didn't care for Jamie's approach and I'm not impressed. The guy is a multimillionaire. He can afford to eat whatever he wants. He doesn't get that not everyone else can. While I agree changes have to be made I don't feel like some of his suggestions were realistic and his claims were exaggerated.

 

I happen to know about him because I watch a lot of Food TV, but otherwise I imagine many people he came across thought "Jaime who?"

 

I lived in Europe for 5 years. I watched his shows almost every day when we lived there. So, maybe I am taking all of this differently because I have had a different level of exposure to his philosophy (which is more about eating whole foods than eating low-fat or something). I wonder if how it is being produced/edited is affecting how people see it.

 

I think offering healthier choices would be a better tactic.

[myfunnybunch]

Children won't drink milk unless it's flavored?

 

Yes. I have a friend whose background is in nutrition. She currently works as the lunch lady in her children's school. Many kids won't drink white milk; they make a face and take the chocolate. The milk company finally reformulated the chocolate milk (less sugar, no HFCS) after a number of schools threatened to remove it from their menus altogether. She'd like to see it eliminated altogether, or offered only a couple days a week as a treat. (Because that's what it is, a treat.)

 

Given a choice, my kids would choose chocolate milk every day too. And if you're used to sweet chocolate milk, white milk just isn't the same. Poor guys, they're outta luck. ;) White milk for them, and they like it!

 

Cat

Edited April 13, 2011 by myfunnybunch

[myfunnybunch]

Can you tell me the issues with drinking a chocolate milk?

 

In a nutshell....it's the added calories for kids who aren't getting enough exercise (no PE classes at many schools, limited recess and outside play time both during and after school), and the philosophy that children's food must be made sweeter/flavored/palatable in order to get them to eat.

 

I mean that in a general way. You are the best judge of what is or isn't healthy for your individual children.

 

But in a broader cultural context, with childhood obesity rising so rapidly, neither the added calories nor the idea that we have to tempt children to eat healthy foods are serving the children well in general.

 

Cat

[MelanieM]

You hit the nail on the head for me. I THOUGHT that was what he was about too. That isn't how it came across to me at all.

 

Really? How did it differ from that idea, in your opinion? I thought he focused pretty heavily on the idea of real foods vs. fake non-foods that people are eating. For example, he wasn't saying "don't eat the hamburger and milkshake" but rather "make better choices when you choose a burger and shake."

 

I was pretty horrified by the pink slime stuff and the sugar in chocolate milk stuff. I also felt pretty shocked at all that resistance against what is really a sensible idea.

[Cindyz]

 

Something about JO going to the fast food joint to change things up rubbed me the wrong way although I can't quite put my finger on it. I guess it has to do with asking restaurant owners to be the point at which decisions are made about the nutrition of the food served. Again, this smacks of consumers being unable to make decisions for themselves.

 

I think it was to point out that the gross pink ammonia slime stuff is probably in most of the meat that we are eating at fast food restaurants. The owners have no clue or idea where the meat is coming from or what is in it. All he cares about is how much it costs, and unfortunately often it's the same for the consumers. It's like a big hidden secret so it is true that consumers aren't really able to make the decision for themselves because most are not informed of what the choices entail more than simply cost.

[elegantlion]

Didya see the homeschool kids in the beginning with the apples?

 

Something about JO going to the fast food joint to change things up rubbed me the wrong way although I can't quite put my finger on it. I guess it has to do with asking restaurant owners to be the point at which decisions are made about the nutrition of the food served. Again, this smacks of consumers being unable to make decisions for themselves. OK, not very coherent, but both kids are jumping on my back....

 

Missed the beginning. I think maybe he needs to deal with the consumer mindset before getting the business owners to change practices. I would love healthy fast food, but in many applications it's not cost effective. I think he was running into some cultural differences with the milkshake. Smoothie places are all over, obviously this guy was running a typical American burger place.

 

The restaurant owner is a conduit, he provides what people want. Until people in general change, there will always be a place for owners like him.

 

I would have been interested to see what was said off camera in those conversations.

 

Milkshakes are unhealthy. They are a TREAT, a sometimes food. If I want a milkshake or a piece of chocolate cake, then that is ok! It doesn't mean that I can never eat anything just for fun again.It means that I make really healthy choices and truly enjoy my treats!

 

My children drink 4 ounces of chocolate milk at school most days. The rest of the time they drink water. Can you tell me the issues with drinking a chocolate milk?

 

The issue is the sugar in the milk. If milk is mandated to drink and you add sugar to the milk, it negates the nutrition.

 

It's the first time I saw the show. Honestly, I could not stand it for the most part and ended up turning it off when he got to the point of arguing with the restaurant owner about the milkshakes.

 

I didn't care for Jamie's approach and I'm not impressed. The guy is a multimillionaire. He can afford to eat whatever he wants. He doesn't get that not everyone else can. While I agree changes have to be made I don't feel like some of his suggestions were realistic and his claims were exaggerated.

 

I happen to know about him because I watch a lot of Food TV, but otherwise I imagine many people he came across thought "Jaime who?"

 

I think this episode was a little off. He's definitely a knock open doors and ask permission later kind of guy. I think what he is doing is good, he's trying to get people to see what kind of food they actually are eating. The episodes from last year were very eye-opening.

 

What his financial status is is irrelevant to me. I know I feel gypped when I go to the store and try to read food labels. Most of what is sold and packaged as real food contains stuff it doesn't need. You need a chemical background to decipher food labels.

 

I've been reading (very briefly) on food habits of the middle ages. I laughed a few comments as it seems the typical American mindset stems from some of the thinking of long ago. I can't find the references now, but one was about white bread being for the nobility and the brown bread being for the peasants.

 

I hope the show doesn't suffer from the hype the show syndrome and forget the message he's trying to convey. I know my ds became more interested in the ownership of his nutrition after watching last year.

[Snickerdoodle]

.

I think maybe he needs to deal with the consumer mindset before getting the business owners to change practices.

THis is what I was getting at in a fumbled way.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I would love it if fast food restaurants had genuine healthy options. I would love it if I knew my hamburger was coming from grass-fed beef that had not been washed in ammonia. I would love a delicious, healthier "shake" option. I know these foods are more expensive, but really, isn't the exorbitant cost of healthcare for our obese nation the real cost of all the disgusting non-food and added sugar we eat? I think the show is highly dramatized, but I think the point he is trying to make is that if better foods are offered, and people are educated as to why these foods are better for your body, they will choose to eat the healthier, real, whole foods.

[MelanieM]

I think it was to point out that the gross pink ammonia slime stuff is probably in most of the meat that we are eating at fast food restaurants. The owners have no clue or idea where the meat is coming from or what is in it. All he cares about is how much it costs, and unfortunately often it's the same for the consumers. It's like a big hidden secret so it is true that consumers aren't really able to make the decision for themselves because most are not informed of what the choices entail more than simply cost.

 

I consider myself pretty aware on the subject of food, and that whole thing came as a surprise to me. I had no clue! And now I have to find out if the same is true in Canada. So yeah, I also wonder how people can really make an informed choice when they've not been given the information in the first place.

[RoundAbout]

Chocolate milk bugs me because of the sugar and because it gets kids used to the idea that everything they drink has to be sweet. My kid has had chocolate milk only a few times. We treat fruit juice with the same care as a dessert. He loves regular milk and drinks water just fine so I'd rather not even go down that path.

 

There's no reason to drink milk if you don't like it - cheese and yogurt are healthy dairy alternatives - so I don't see why there's a need to sweeten it up to make it palatable. Just skip it. When I was in elementary school we had the option of chocolate milk once or twice a month - that seems reasonable.

[timmys mom]

The way I see it he has plenty of money if he's filling old buses with sugar and spending all this time talking to people. Why doesn't he take that money and start his own healthy fast food chain? I would love it if there was one around here that was more healthy!! I think people would like the option and it's something that's lacking.

[MelanieM]

The way I see it he has plenty of money if he's filling old buses with sugar and spending all this time talking to people. Why doesn't he take that money and start his own healthy fast food chain? I would love it if there was one around here that was more healthy!! I think people would like the option and it's something that's lacking.

 

I agree that a healthy fast food option would be great, and had the same thought that I'd love it if JO backed something like that.

 

However, I think it's worth pointing out that it's not JO that is paying for the filling of buses and talking to people. That's a part of the budget for the show, and a part of the types of things they do to get attention. It's television.

 

Also, I think it's important to acknowledge the value of what he's doing from an educational perspective. JO is very much invested in helping kids get access to better nutrition, and going into schools, talking to parents and policy makers, and televising the whole thing helps him to reach that goal in a way that starting another restaurant simply wouldn't do. I really don't care how much money this man has; his work is obviously a labour of love.

 

Not picking on you here... it's just that your post provided a good jumping off point for me to comment on the whole money aspect, which seems to come up a lot in these types of discussions. :)

[Heather in AL]

We only saw the last half. It was interesting.

 

The fast food owner had a point about the shakes. IMO, a shake has to have ice cream. I also understand as a business he is giving the consumer what they want and can afford.

 

The school milk issue was wow! Talk about a mindset! Children won't drink milk unless it's flavored? I think watching the bus display had a real effect on ds.

 

It'll be interesting to see the next episode. I'm sure some of the drama is hyped for TV, but he's still a gutsy guy.

 

I didn't see the show, but read an excerpt of it. I applaud him for what he is trying to do, but I have a feeling he could go about it in a different way. I agree that there is a lot of hype to draw viewers.

 

I just wanted to comment on your flavored milk question. I grew up in Florida and every.single.day for grades K-11 (until I moved to a different state) the milk was lukewarm. Blech. Seriously---- the 'wheeled coolers' were NEVER plugged in, so the milk got warm fast. I chose chocolate flavored milk to cover the yucky taste of gross, warm unflavored white milk. Sadly, to this day, I can't drink milk *at all* ---- I'm sure it's because of my school years and having to drink that warm milk. :ack2:

[Happy]

I lived in Europe for 5 years. I watched his shows almost every day when we lived there. So, maybe I am taking all of this differently because I have had a different level of exposure to his philosophy (which is more about eating whole foods than eating low-fat or something). I wonder if how it is being produced/edited is affecting how people see it.

 

I think offering healthier choices would be a better tactic.

 

I only lived a couple of years in Europe, but I love his emphasis on whole foods. On knowing where your food comes from and how it was raised. He changed how I think about food--and I lived on a farm once a upon a time.

[elegantlion]

I didn't see the show, but read an excerpt of it. I applaud him for what he is trying to do, but I have a feeling he could go about it in a different way. I agree that there is a lot of hype to draw viewers.

 

I just wanted to comment on your flavored milk question. I grew up in Florida and every.single.day for grades K-11 (until I moved to a different state) the milk was lukewarm. Blech. Seriously---- the 'wheeled coolers' were NEVER plugged in, so the milk got warm fast. I chose chocolate flavored milk to cover the yucky taste of gross, warm unflavored white milk. Sadly, to this day, I can't drink milk *at all* ---- I'm sure it's because of my school years and having to drink that warm milk. :ack2:

 

You're right. I still can taste the lukewarm cardboard carton, yuck. I don't drink that much milk either.

[Dmmetler]

Another thing-at least in the district I taught in, Milk came to the school frozen. And frozen/thawed milk (or sometimes, not completely thawed) in waxed cardboard just plain doesn't taste good. Chocolate milk or fruit juice was more palatable-and indeed, a lot of kids developed "milk allergies", preferring half frozen juice to half-frozen milk, even chocolate milk.

 

The same is true with a lot of the less desired school foods. There are few cooked vegetables in a school cafeteria that I'd eat even now-they're usually canned to start with, and then have been on the steam table long enough to be mushy. I love steamed broccoli-but in school cafeterias it's that olive-green color and is completely limp. Casseroles, too just plain tend to be mushy, unappetizing, and not taste very good. Pastas were so overcooked that they might as well have been canned Chef Boyardee. Pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and the like tend to look and taste better, simply because they were just pulled out of the freezer, heated, and served, and don't sit around long.

 

So even if kids drink white milk and eat veggies at home, it doesn't mean they'd eat them at school. I suspect many of the problems could be solved if they simply had enough people and enough fixtures to cook food in smaller batches.

[Anita in NC]

Poor Jamie Oliver. It appeared from the show that permits that were previously issued for the show were revoked.

 

I was disappointed in the number of people that showed up for his demos. Especially the sugar and school bus demo - what a pitiful turn out.

 

As for the the segment with the fast food owner, the guy is in business to make money. He isn't there to feed whole healthy foods, he's there to make a quick buck. When people start demanding healthy choices, restaurant owners will listen. For right now, with the lack of healthy choices available, I have to determine that America as a whole does NOT want to eat healthy.

 

So I will continue to feed my kids home made meals and pack sandwiches when we go out.

[Cheryl in NM]

Milkshakes are unhealthy. They are a TREAT, a sometimes food. If I want a milkshake or a piece of chocolate cake, then that is ok! It doesn't mean that I can never eat anything just for fun again.It means that I make really healthy choices and truly enjoy my treats!

 

My children drink 4 ounces of chocolate milk at school most days. The rest of the time they drink water. Can you tell me the issues with drinking a chocolate milk?

 

It's the amount of sugar in the chocolate milk. As Americans, we eat/drink way too much sugar.

[Cheryl in NM]

The way I see it he has plenty of money if he's filling old buses with sugar and spending all this time talking to people. Why doesn't he take that money and start his own healthy fast food chain? I would love it if there was one around here that was more healthy!! I think people would like the option and it's something that's lacking.

 

Because his show is meant to educate. He is doing a service, opening a restaurant and shutting up only lines his pockets.

 

I commend him for going against mainstream American thinking and trying to help us educate our children for their own health.

[mommaduck]

Another thing-at least in the district I taught in, Milk came to the school frozen. And frozen/thawed milk (or sometimes, not completely thawed) in waxed cardboard just plain doesn't taste good. Chocolate milk or fruit juice was more palatable-and indeed, a lot of kids developed "milk allergies", preferring half frozen juice to half-frozen milk, even chocolate milk.

 

The same is true with a lot of the less desired school foods. There are few cooked vegetables in a school cafeteria that I'd eat even now-they're usually canned to start with, and then have been on the steam table long enough to be mushy. I love steamed broccoli-but in school cafeterias it's that olive-green color and is completely limp. Casseroles, too just plain tend to be mushy, unappetizing, and not taste very good. Pastas were so overcooked that they might as well have been canned Chef Boyardee. Pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and the like tend to look and taste better, simply because they were just pulled out of the freezer, heated, and served, and don't sit around long.

 

So even if kids drink white milk and eat veggies at home, it doesn't mean they'd eat them at school. I suspect many of the problems could be solved if they simply had enough people and enough fixtures to cook food in smaller batches.

This is all so true. I LOVE veggies. Loved them growing up. Could not stand the school lunch version *blech* I was also very sensitive to milk flavour. Having lived in Guam, where all our milk was either canned and thick and lumpy or from a box and watery thin, I didn't like milk coming back to the States. I can only do 2% or raw. I cannot stand whole or skim (reminds me of canned or boxed). Frozen and defrosted milk is just gross.

 

I missed being in a school where everyone brought lunches from home. We ALL brought fairly healthy food (granted we lived on an island where fruit was rampant). Sandwich, fruit, fruit juice, and a Hostess cake of some sort (yeah, the dessert wasn't healthy, but it wasn't like we were consuming tons of junkfood either). Beats greasy pizza, limp beans, and half soured milk.

 

Yes, things need to change in schools. Things need to change, but be made possible for the families it affects. We have a ton of cafes and restaurants in our area that offer healthy foods. However, they cost a lot more (and thus end up being "special occasion" places for us or when hubby and I go on a date).

[creativish]

I like watching his shows and it creates a nice opportunity to talk to my kids about healthy eating in a relaxed, non-confrontational way. Oh and I can tell that the kids like it too since they feel smarter than most of the folks on the show!

[Ravin]

I talked to my DD about the chocolate milk. She said everyone at her school (an enrichment program which she attends 1 day/wk but gets the same food as the rest of the district) gets the chocolate. We discussed it and I told her it was ok for just 1 day/wk, but next year when she goes 2 days/wk she needs to get white milk 1 of the days.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I thought that he was barking up the wrong tree with the fast food guy. A higher level of restaurant can afford to make an angus burger with something like sweet potato fries and yougurt shake. But it is going to cost about $7-10 a plate. That isn't what the customers of the fast food place are looking for.

 

The substitutions he wanted to make would either price the product out of the market or eliminate the margin for a small business owner.

 

It is a good lesson for me as a consumer to realize that a burger and fries needs to be an occasional treat, not daily fare.

[MelanieM]

But why is a yogurt shake better than a milk shake? Both could contain the same amounts of sugar. I don't know if they did, but that segment confused me. I can't imagine JO going for a yogurt shake verses a high quality cream shake with fresh fruit. Or at least not saying one is better than the other.

 

The milkshake was made with ice cream. The yogurt shake was made with plain yogurt, which probably didn't have any sugar in it at all. Certainly natural yogurt is more healthful than ice cream.

[Cheryl in NM]

But why is a yogurt shake better than a milk shake? Both could contain the same amounts of sugar. I don't know if they did, but that segment confused me. I can't imagine JO going for a yogurt shake verses a high quality cream shake with fresh fruit. Or at least not saying one is better than the other.

 

I didn't see the episode, but I think a yogurt shake would be better than a milk shake because a yogurt shake has the healthy bacteria and is usually lower fat than a milkshake. I'm betting the sugar content would be the same though.

[Cheryl in NM]

Well see I don't buy into the anti fat thing. Yes the bacteria might be good, assuming it's fresh. Who knows when one buys it in a restaurant though.

I agree, kids need fat, especially the good kind like from milk and yogurt. Unfortunately, that's not mainstream thinking.

[MelanieM]

Why?

 

Check the ingredients on a carton of natural yogurt compared to vanilla ice cream (which, in this case, was likely iced dessert and not real ice cream at all). One is something I would happily have my kids eat on a regular basis. The other is pretty much junk food. Note, I am assuming the gentleman who owned the restaurant wasn't using a natural or homemade ice cream, and that Jamie Oliver was using a healtful yogurt.

Edited April 13, 2011 by MelanieM

[Jean in Newcastle]

He didn't know that there was anything wrong with the beef that the restaurant owner was using. He only assumed. He had it analyzed and all he could say about it was that the fat content varied from burger to burger. He didn't find any gross fillers. So then he goes onto say that the grass fed (I know where it came from) is better. YES, sure. But not everyone has access to this. Maybe that SHOULD be there for all, but it is not. We are not going to get grass fed beef at this point in time into school lunches. Nobody is going to pay for that. Here is this one small business who serves burgers and fries. The people who eat there are not going to keep coming if the guy doubles the prices of his food.

 

But why is a yogurt shake better than a milk shake? Both could contain the same amounts of sugar. I don't know if they did, but that segment confused me. I can't imagine JO going for a yogurt shake verses a high quality cream shake with fresh fruit. Or at least not saying one is better than the other.

 

I googled grass fed beef burgers and found out a couple of things. For one thing, the meat is much leaner and you have to be careful not to overcook it or otherwise make it too dry. A fast food place does not have the experienced cooks to do this. Also - in our city, you can get grass fed beef burgers plus fries - for $11 a plate! Those are not fast food prices.

[simka2]

I will never look at ground beef the same way again!!!! Ammonia!!!! Somehow, that is just not something I am interested in eating.

[MelanieM]

I googled grass fed beef burgers and found out a couple of things. For one thing, the meat is much leaner and you have to be careful not to overcook it or otherwise make it too dry. A fast food place does not have the experienced cooks to do this. Also - in our city, you can get grass fed beef burgers plus fries - for $11 a plate! Those are not fast food prices.

 

They said Jamie's grass fed beef burger was going to cost $4.70 compared to the regular price of $2.70. (Not exact prices, but something close to those.) So definitely an increase that could impact business, but not out of the realm of reasonable in a fast food context, I don't think.

[OrganicAnn]

I like that the show raises the subject and gets people talking about good food vs everything else. I missed this new one (honestly I thought it was a rerun of the WV show).

 

I heard recently that Taco Bell's ground beef is only 60% ground beef. The rest is "other".

[Cheryl in NM]

I heard recently that Taco Bell's ground beef is only 60% ground beef. The rest is "other".

 

Actually, this was proven to be untrue. Here's their website.

[OrganicAnn]

Thanks. I hadn't really looked into it. I guess they are allowed to have up to 40% "other" and still call it taco filling

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/01/business/la-fi-taco-bell-20110201

[Cheryl in NM]

Thanks. I hadn't really looked into it. I guess they are allowed to have up to 40% "other" and still call it taco filling

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/01/business/la-fi-taco-bell-20110201

 

Again, Taco Bell provides 88% MEAT in their mix. The website I linked shows exactly what is in the other 12%. The article you linked said the packaging info was USDA guidelines for providers to restaurants, not for restaurants themselves to give to their customers. It also said that "taco meat filling" must have at least 40% fresh meat, not that Taco Bell ONLY puts 40% meat in THEIR proprietary meat. Taco Bell exceeds the requirement by more than half.

[MelanieM]

Well see I don't buy into the anti fat thing.

 

Me either. In fact, the research I've seen says that low fat eating is a part of the problem that is causing obesity. Good fat is good for you! When you take the natural fat out of food you have to replace it with something, and that's typically sugar, artificial sweeteners, or flavour enhancers. None of those things are good for maintaining a healthy body.

 

I didn't get the impression that Jamie was anti-fat. He does seem to be anti- turning fat into sort-of food and feeding it to kids (i.e. blending up fat and meat byproducts, forming into patties and calling it lunch), and eating non-foods that are nothing more than sugar, chemicals and fat as a staple of the diet (like those milkshakes made with syrup) but I don't recally him saying anything about avoiding healthy fats.

[MelanieM]

When he was talking to the restaurant owner about his ground beef he commented on how high in fat it is.

 

 

Ah, in the meat analysis. Ok. I didn't come away with the impression that he was against fat so much as against not knowing where your food comes from. I actually agree with that... I think it's the biggest part of our food issues as a society; no one gives much thought to where the food actually comes from or what it is they're eating!

 

I'm actually not against using the scrap parts from the animal. Why wouldn't we eat most of what is edible? That seems less wasteful and what humans would naturally do.

But it isn't edible. This is the stuff that would be fed to the animals on the farm, or used in some other non-edible fashion. They make it edible by processing it with chemicals. There's nothing natural about that! And it isn't wasteful if they continue to do that with pet food on a mass scale, which is what they did before someone came up with this chemical wash approach.

 

Granted, if you were preparing it personally at home you could probably process it in such a way as to get more out of the animal carcass than we would in mass production plants. But if a byproduct of mass production is that there are some bits that can't be used as they would on a small scale, then that's a part of the consequence of that processing scenario. I don't think using a chemical wash to create filler should be seen as a reasonable option just because someone invented a way to do it.

I think the bottom line is that when food becomes less and less like food and requires tampering to make it edible by humans, then we need to look at the situation and really assess what it is we're doing to our bodies by eating that way.

The ammonia thing weirds me out though. Although many things are washed in bleach and we don't scoff so much. It's a very small amount and you are balancing the pros and cons of not using these chemicals. When stuff is handled on such a huge scale it's harder to keep things clean and free from very harmful bacteria, etc. So you risk contamination verses risk having a very tiny amount of something like ammonia. He poured a gallon of the stuff on a small portion of scrap. I think he was exaggerating. And why? Why not just be absolutely honest. People will still be upset about it.

 

 

I agree that it is likely a lot less ammonia than what he poured in there. But, to give him a little credit, he did say that he has no idea about measurements or how much is used and, as you say, it's just as upsetting if it's a cup or a gallon.

And what alternative did JO offer to the scrap washing?

 

I think his alternative was to protest the practice so that it isn't in 85% of the ground beef product on the market in the first place. That, or have your meat ground by the butcher in front of you (which he stated is a pain in the rump and not an option for everyone).