I've been a huge Jamie Oliver fan
for years and I always get a little bit too excited when he has a new
show out. Last night his new documentary, Jamie's Sugar Rush, was shown on Channel 4 throughout the UK and promoted an
extremely important message.
Ten years on from Jamie's School
Dinners, where Jamie Oliver
campaigned for better food for children in schools, comes
Jamie's Sugar Rush. Jamie is now investigating sugar's massive
contribution to global health problems such as obesity and type 2
diabetes. As I believe most people are ignorant of just how big this
problem is, I salute Jamie for bringing it to the public
consciousness. He's well-known and well-liked enough for people to
actually sit up and pay attention.
During the programme, Jamie visits a
six-year old child who is undergoing surgery under general
anaesthetic to have his teeth removed because of his addiction to
sugary drinks. He then goes on to investigate how much hidden sugar
is in foods most people think of as healthy, such as cereal, fruit
juice and bread. Unless you're an extremely health-conscious person,
the results may surprise you.
Jamie also visits a middle-aged man
who has had a foot amputated due to type 2 diabetes. He discovers
that in the UK alone there are around 7000 amputations a year because
of this diet-related disease (later in the show, Jamie visits Mexico,
which has an even higher number of 75,000 amputations per year). How
is this acceptable?
Next, Jamie explores how saturated
our society is with sugary snacks. From TV adverts to sweets at
children's eye-level in the supermarkets, it's literally inescapable.
In Mexico, as mentioned above, he
discovers the problem is much more widespread. Coca Cola is an
integral part of daily life and the diabetes problem is much worse.
However, a soda tax has recently been introduced which has reduced
fizzy drinks consumption by 6 per cent and increased consumption of
both water and milk. Jamie decides to start a petition to introduce a
20p per litre 'sugar tax' in the UK too. The extra money raised will
be spent on children's food education. I think this is a brilliant
idea.
While I readily admit that any
review I write of Jamie Oliver's work would be a little gushing, I
honestly can't recommend this programme highly enough – I believe
everyone should see it. It may just be the wake-up call you need.
Did you watch Jamie's
Sugar Rush? What did you think of it?