Long TED Talk : Teach every children about food

1.   Summary

Jamie Oliver, a chef from UK, has worked to save people’s lives for the past 7 years. He wants to fight against the awful reality in America. America is now one of the unhealthiest countries in the world. There are 2/3 people in the USA are overweight now, and children will have 10 years shorter lifespans than their parents due to the wrong way of eating food. Furthermore, the main death-leading causes in the USA are all diet-related. In addition, the obesity deceases cost 10% of health care bills of America per year which is equal to 150 billion dollars; and in 10 years this amount will keep rising.

Oliver also told the food revolution he involved in Virginia. He pointed that the obesity and diet-related deceases not only hurt the patients themselves but also their friends and family members. Nevertheless, they are all preventable deceases.

Oliver shaped our daily food landscape into a triangle: main street, family and home. First, in the past 30 years, the big brands of fast food occupied the main streets and became a powerful power in the USA. Their power was even big enough to affect the law of food labeling. Fast food which is highly-processed and full of additives replaced local and fresh food. Second, home has stopped passing on the food culture because the change of our lifestyles. Third, people who provided the meals to the students in schools were not professional on food and limited by the tight budget. Therefore, they provided junk foods to schools.

Besides, Schools didn’t teach food knowledge to children. All the conditions above caused the serious situation in the USA.

   Oliver thinks there are 4 ways to do a food revolution in America. The first, supermarkets should put a food-ambassador in each of them to teach people how to choose fresh food materials and cook nutritious meals. Second, big brand companies should put food education in their business, and they should help their customers to wean off over sugars and fat. Third, schools should provide the local and fresh food and take two-one hour session of food in their cruses. Last but not least, families should start again to pass on the food culture.

In conclusion, Oliver think people should believe that the slightly they do will bring the change. They should educate children about food, inspire families to cook again and empower everyone to fight for obesity. If America starts to do these, all other countries will follow soon, and the world will change.

2 What listeners can learn from this talk?

     The listeners can learn 3 things in this speech. The first one is that we should care about our life skill, cooking, because everyone will face the responsibility to pass on our own food culture. It not only helps others but also save us from the unhealthy food. Second, we should supervise our government to enact strict food regulations so that we can make sure all the food we bought is safe for our bodies. Third, we should eat the food grown local rather than the highly-processed because they will be much fresher and contains more nutrition.