EATING HABITS PART 1/3

Hello everyone! Today I invite all of you to read my blog. As you see it is connected with food habits.

Nowadays a "food" has became very popular and trendy. Television is full of programs about cooking in which stars and celebrities are showing how they love it. Everybody is also aware to food influence on our health and mood. We're trying to care about our health and change bad eating habits. But in fact, even if it is obvious we can meet some public activity absolutely opposite to it. It is surprising mainly due to the fact that it concerns highly developed, west country. England is the hero of my today's topic. The fact that Englishmen love eating is so evident and known that it 's starting to be their national feature. Often England is perceived as a country of extremely fat people. A British eating habits are very specific. Their cuisine is full of overcooked vegetables, greasy meats and sausages, snacks and sandwiches. In Britain there are a lot of bars and pubs which serve meals at very good prices. Unfortunately low price usually means low quality. Supermarkets offer wide assortment of ready-made meals which just must be put to microwave oven. The amount of this kind of meals on the market shelf is just incredible. Even though their eating habits are not proper they have great chefs and plenty of cooking programs. But meals which are served in English primary schools seem to be a horror. It is incredible that in advanced society nobody cares what children eat. The usual dinner contains everything what they shouldn't eat: hamburgers, chips, sweet drinks and as a dessert high-sugar sweets or crisps. No vegetables, no fruit — only one colour on the plate. I know that it sounds as exaggeration or nonsense but in fact it is true.





One of the famous British chefs, Jamie Oliver has started the campaign to raise the quality of food in British schools and transform the way the pupils eat. In 2004, he was shocked by the food that 8 millions British school children were being fed every day of the school year, Jamie took over the kitchens at the school in Greenwich.

He has transformed the recipes, has teached the cooks and organised the educational meeting with parents and children. At school he used shocking therapy on pupils and showed them how unhealthy a food looks after digestion. Before that all of them had been preparing their own meals which contained fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, etc. It was a good idea because of the fun and enjoyment of doing it.





Firstly children didn't want to change their old food but after some time they tried pasta, baked chicken, salad, boiled carrots and other colourful meals and stopped grumble. In interview one of the children confessed that it was the first time he tasted a lettuce. Isn't it strange?
Cooperation with children was a huge success however there were also a lot of problems. At some school children had to be taught how to use a knife and fork and in another pupils preferred to go to the local shop at lunchtime. Surprisingly parents were against Jamie's idea. Many of them preffered to make some packed lunch for their children. Guess what was inside?! It really sounds like a joke but they truly put there crisps, sweets, sandwiches made of white, artificial bread and many different products which are generally inadvisable for children. Others said that if their children didn't want to eat it was better to give them anything than nothing. There was also another serious obstacle — the government. After recognition of the problem and calculation of expenses they considered the Jamie Oliver's school dinner revolution as too expensive. So Jamie transformed his recipes and menues again, changed some of the ingredients but it still occured to be unacceptable. It was impossible to prepare better food at the same price. After a long and tough fight finally he managed to persuade the government to give some extra money. Government announced that it would pour an extra million pounds into school lunches over the next three years. The success of Oliver's campaign has transformed him from a celebrity to a popular hero.

Have you got any experience connected with English food ?
Did you see similar situations in other countries?