My Food Revolution Revelation

When I was a kid it was normal for kids to have stay at home moms who cooked meals from scratch and all of the kids were a normal weight.

This is a photo of my class in 1969.   I'm the one with the bad haircut in the orange sweater, my mom probably made it.

Things have changed a lot in the last 30 years.  

Now parents sometimes work 2 jobs and spend hours commuting to work and have less time to prepare sit down meals with their families. It’s the fast food generation.

This is the first time in history that parents are expected to live longer than their kids.

Over 3 years ago I started watching Jamie Oliver start his mission to bring back nutrition into schools in the U.K. and the U.S.  I watched his struggle to teach people about the importance of eating real food and how the cheap processed foods are affecting kids and it made me sad to see kids struggle with their weight and parents that didn’t know any better.

I became a Food Revolution Day Ambassador after seeing something on social media about it.  I wanted to see what I could do to help. I grew up watching Julia Child on TV and any cooking shows I could find to learn about all kinds of food.

I have also had the experience of gaining weight; losing weight and gaining it back.  I worked at a hospital for many years where I learned about the food and health connection and saw first hand my father struggle with Cancer and Heart disease before passing away at 65.   I read all the books, watched all the documentaries and have been cooking with my mom since I was a kid. I know what to do and still struggle with eating healthy.

The one thing I realize is that it’s a struggle to stay in control of food because sugar, fat, salt and the chemicals that are added to our food are addictive.  We are the generation of Food Addicts.

3 years ago I started my 1^st Food Revolution Day event by having a dinner party at my house with a few friends.   Last year I had a Mexican Fiesta hands on cooking experience at a Cooking Studio. This year I’m teaching a hands-on Italian Cooking from Scratch Workshop at the Depanneur in Toronto.  I will have kids and parents this year and will try to get them excited about real food.  They will learn how to make a basic tomato sauce, fresh ricotta and handmade ricotta gnocchi with grilled asparagus as a side dish and an easy no bake cherry amaretto dessert.

I will also be participating in Sobey's Potluck Challenge and will have friends over and will share in making Jamie Oliver's Rainbow Wraps and tweet photos to help the Children's Aid Society.

About the Author:  Linda Matarasso lives in Toronto, is an Administrative Professional, Filmmaker and writer of Starving Foodie - a blog about all things related to food. She’s a member of Food Bloggers of Canada, and a Food Revolution Day Ambassador for Toronto.  

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Twitter: @integrityfilms

Instagram: @lindamatarasso

Facebook: LindaMatarasso