Jamie Oliver energizes Toronto

Jamie Oliver & Linda Matarasso

Did you ever do something for so long and felt like nothing was happening and then you start to wonder why you did it in the first place?  Well, lately I have been feeling that way.  Over 5 years ago I became a Food Revolution Ambassador to represent Jamie Oliver's vision to make people live healthier happier lives by eating better food.  I was originally inspired by his school lunch campaigns and work in the UK and USA so I joined.   But for the past few years I have been spending a lot of my time shouting to whoever will listen on social media about what he and myself and the rest of the Ambassadors were trying to do.  I kind of felt like I was in the ocean in a little boat waving for help and nobody could hear me.  I spent 5 years trying to host events and write about Food Revolution but had never actually met Jamie in person even though I had seen him at television shows and appearances in Toronto a few times.  This time was different though.

I finally got to meet Chef/Activist Jamie Oliver, the person that inspired me to join Food Revolution 5 years ago and representing his Food Revolution campaign.  Jamie was in town to do many things.  He was promoting his 2 restaurants at Yorkdale and Square One in Mississauga and also his new cookbook Super Food Family Classics and he did lots of media interviews a Press Conference Panel and a chat with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Ambassadors around Toronto were invited to go to Jamie's relatively new restaurant Jamie's Italian at Yorkdale for a dinner and Q&A for media and other influencers.  They set aside a very long table for a sit down dinner after Jamie's chat with the media and we were given loads of food.  We were told he would pop by to say hi but as we got through our dinner we didn't think that was going to happen and then someone spoke to Jamie and he came over finally.

He sat down with us and listened to what we have been doing and what we wanted him to tell Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his chat with him the next day.

He had a very long day and was probably extremely jet lagged but he was still full of passion and energy when speaking about what he wanted to do for his Childhood Obesity campaign.

Jamie Oliver and Senator Nancy Green Reine

He invited us to attend a Press Conference panel discussion that was held at the Evergreen Brickworks the next morning with some very important people who were all involved in creating change in the area of Childhood Obesity.  Nick Saul the CEO of Community Food Centres Canada was the moderator.

Members of the panel included:

• Dr. Jan Jux, Chief Sciences Officer, Canadian Diabetes Association
• Dr. Tom Warshawski, Pediatrician and Chair of the Childhood Obesity Foundation
• Geoff Craig, Chief Marketing Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• Honourable Senator Nancy Greene Raine
• Nathan Sing, Student at Ryerson University

They discussed some statistics about sugar consumption, rates of childhood obesity, and many other health concerns that will increase if changes aren't made now.

Jamie has so much energy and passion and he captivated the room as he stood up in his Canadian Tuxedo to discuss his plan to support changes in Canada through new policies that the Prime Minister makes.

I think the Ambassadors took up half of the small gathering of people.  We all got re-energized from Jamie's passion and enthusiasm.

After the Press Conference and his one on one interviews with the media he set aside time with us to do a Facebook Live with all of us.  We all tried to get our 2 cents in as Jamie shared his thoughts to the Facebook World.  It was so fun.  He asked us to tweet a message at 3pm that would get attention before his meeting with Justin Trudeau at 4pm.

We added the hashtag #JamieSpeaks4FoodRev so if you check that on twitter you can see all of our messages.

And after much love, food and attention for a couple of days then he was gone but left us all fired up ready to do whatever we can to help people lead healthier better lives.

We finally got acknowledged and thanked for our efforts and it really helped to legitimize what we have been doing individually on our own.

After spending a couple of days listening to him speak I remembered why I got inspired to join in the first place.  I agree with everything he says about food and health.  It's all about balance and education.  People need the knowledge to make the right choices and they also need access to fresh food and water to be able to live their lives fully and have a fighting chance to reach their potential.

Jamie's energy is contagious and we all got energized from his presence.
Let's see what the Toronto Team can do this year.  One of the Super Ambassadors from the Netherlands said it crossed the pond to her too.

JOIN THE REVOLUTION 

www.foodrevolution.org

Visit Jamie's 2 Jamie's Italian Restaurants in Canada at Yorkdale and Square One.

Jamie's Italian

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.  

Follow Linda:

Twitter: @integrityfilms

Instagram: @lindamatarasso

Facebook: LindaMatarasso

Oreo turns 100 but you won't.

The Oreo Cookie turns 100 today. How many Oreo Cookies do you think you have eaten in your life. I probably haven't had as many as the average because my parents hardly ever bought them and I have only bought them a few times myself. I prefer chocolate chip cookies. But not that that's any better for me. Lately I have been making a homemade healthier chocolate chip cookie that my friends son seems to be totally in love with. He won't eat much but loves those cookies.

So many of us are COOKIE MONSTERS because our mom's gave us cookies when we were kids to make us happy or quiet depending on what was going on. I wonder how many less cookies kids would have eaten if these moms knew what was in those harmless looking little tasty cookies. So I wondered since the Oreo Cookie turns 100 today what is in these things. The Oreo Cookie may be 100 years old but I bet that eating them won't get you to 100 years old.

I looked up the nutritional facts from the Nabisco site and noticed that one of the Ingredients listed was HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. This is one of the Ingredients that needs to change in baked goods because it causes so much damage to us and is a contributor to obesity in kids and adults.
I also looked up the definition of High Fructose corn syrup on Wikipedia. Have a look at what this stuff is and then decide if you want to chomp down on a package of Oreo Cookies. Be informed and take charge of what you are putting into your body. Kids shouldn't grow up fat they should have the best health they can possibly have to give them the best chances for a happy life.

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—also called glucose-fructose syrup[1][2] in the UK, glucose/fructose[3] in Canada, and high-fructose maize syrup in other countries—comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness. In the United States, consumer foods and products typically use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. It has become very common in processed foods and beverages in the U.S., including breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments.[4]
According to the USDA, HFCS consists of 24% water, and the rest sugars. The most widely used varieties of high-fructose corn syrup are: HFCS 55 (mostly used in soft drinks), approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in beverages, processed foods, cereals and baked goods), approximately 42% fructose and 53% glucose.[5][6] HFCS-90, approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose, is used in small quantities for specialty applications, but primarily is used to blend with HFCS 42 to make HFCS 55.[7]
In the U.S., HFCS is among the sweeteners that have primarily replaced sucrose (table sugar) in the food industry. Factors for this include governmental production quotas of domestic sugar, subsidies of U.S. corn, and an import tariff on foreign sugar; all of which combine to raise the price of sucrose to levels above those of the rest of the world, making HFCS less costly for many sweetener applications. Critics of the extensive use of HFCS in food sweetening argue that the highly processed substance is more harmful to humans than regular sugar, contributing to weight gain by affecting normal appetite functions[8] , and that in some foods HFCS may be a source of mercury, a known neurotoxin.[9][10] The Corn Refiners Association disputes these claims and maintains that HFCS is comparable to table sugar.[11] Studies by the American Medical Association suggest "it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose", but welcome further independent research on the subject.[12] Further reviews in the clinical literature have disputed the links between HFCS and obesity,[13] diabetes,[14] and metabolic syndrome,[13] and concluded that HFCS is no different from any other sugar in relationship to these diseases.[dubious – discuss] HFCS has been classified generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1976.[15]
However, consumers in the United States no longer have access to accurate ingredient labels that establish the presence of High Fructose Corn Syrup in food products. Manufacturers are permitted to label High Fructose Corn Syrup, as "Corn Syrup" in the ingredient listing of the product packaging. [16]