As a Brit myself, if you told me you didn’t know who Jamie Oliver is, I would probably (definitely) think you were joking. The words “I came, I saw, I conquered” are a fitting description for Oliver – he has bestselling books and recipes, a successful Italian restaurant chain, grocery stores and numerous popular TV shows, to name but some of the accolades that see his name printed everywhere. Jamie’s Food Revolution is one of Oliver’s more recent endeavours and yet, with its potential to impact millions of children worldwide, it’s his most important to date.

What is Jamie’s Food Revolution?

Initially launched as a US TV show, Jamie’s Food Revolution saw Oliver reforming school lunch programmes to help American society tackle obesity and poor eating habits. While the platform of the Revolution is no longer primarily TV-based, it includes other countries and now aims to reform things beyond just kids’ lunchboxes, its end game remains the same – for our children to live healthier and longer lives. Oliver has been using his celebrity influence to spread this message’s importance, developing a set of issues and skills, launching projects, campaigns and programmes, doing a TED talk“¦there’s even a Food Revolution Day! But without our combined efforts, the Revolution’s impact will fail to reach its full potential – therefore, it’s important that we are aware of the issues/skills that Oliver has highlighted, and involve ourselves in the cause that Jamie’s Food Revolution champions.

The 6 Issues/Skills You Need to Be Aware Of

Below are the 6 issues and skills Jamie’s Food Revolution notes as being of particular importance.

1. Food Education

Good food education enables people everywhere to develop a better, more understanding and balanced relationship with food, in turn empowering them to make responsible, healthy, sustainable food choices.

If you and your child are aware of the different foods available to you, then finding healthier options (e.g. switching out McDonald’s nuggets for home-roasted chicken) becomes much easier.

Copyright: Oksana Kuzmina

2. Nutrition

Ensuring children have access to good, nutritious food is”¦Understanding food and nutrition and the dual role they play as part of a healthy lifestyle is essential.

The importance of nutrition in early childhood development is not to be underestimated. Read a comprehensive insight into this issue here.

3. Food Waste

Not only is food waste immoral, it’s unnecessary.

Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted, with fruits/vegetables having the highest wastage rates. Hold off on getting that third carton of orange juice in the ‘3 for 2’ deal and teach your child about sticking to the two you’ll actually drink.

Copyright: Elena Nasledova

4. Our Planet

To sustain nutritious food for now and for the future, we need to care for the planet that produces it.

Don’t let anyone tell you that sustainability doesn’t matter (it does) or that global warming is a myth (it’s not). Teach your child the same. Without efforts to reduce pollution, our planet is at risk of the irreversible effects of climate change that could see our food sources become less varied at best and severely depleted at worst (think the movie Interstellar).

5. Cooking

Knowing how to cook from scratch empowers people to appreciate the value of food, to understand what they are putting in their bodies and, therefore, to nourish themselves and their families with fresh, nutritious food.

Cooking is a vital skill. Although we won’t all be the next Jamie Oliver, it’s time to hide our takeout menus and start putting our culinary skills to use. If you don’t know how to cook, take some classes. Start involving your children in the kitchen too.

Copyright: Oksana Kuzmina

6. Ethical Buying

Supporting food that has been responsibly produced, with the environment, animals and people in mind, supports a healthier, more sustainable food system for now and the future.

Ultimately, it all comes down to how much we value our children’s future. Taking your child to local food markets and teaching them the values of supporting local and sustainable produce will revolutionise how future generations consider food and bring about long-term benefits.

Join the Revolution

Whether you choose to donate, become one of the 700,000+ revolutionaries, participate in one of the Revolution’s projects or simply teach your child the values they preach, it’s important that you join Jamie’s Food Revolution. While the short-term benefits are not always apparent, the long-term ones are clear. If Oliver himself doesn’t thank you, your child sure will.

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Children can be picky eaters. For many parents, picturing a toddler stubbornly throwing a piece of broccoli to the floor in disgust is easy – after all, it’s an all too familiar scene. However tiring it might be, it’s important that you find ways to convince your child to eat that piece of broccoli, as studies show that having a balanced and nutritious diet directly impacts all aspects of a child’s growth and development.

Why is Nutrition so Important for Children?

The relationship between nutrition, health and learning is undeniably strong: nutrition is one of the three major factors that impact a child’s development. As genes and environment are the other two factors, eating a certain food cannot guarantee that your child will be smarter, although my mother did successfully teach (trick?) me to eat fish when I was little for that very reason. Nevertheless, research studies show that nutrition in a child’s early years is linked to their health and academic performance in later years.

Copyright: Lana K

Nutrition and Health

However you might personally define it, “a child’s early years” begin before birth when it comes to nutrition. Under-nutrition during pregnancy stunts foetal growth and can lead to poor brain development that result in irreversible chronic illnesses. Under-nutrition of a breastfeeding mother will likewise negatively impact a child’s development, especially in the first 6 months when breast milk is all he/she is consuming. For all soon-to-be and new mothers, it’s worth making sure you’re consuming a healthy and balanced diet full of the vital nutrients that both you and your child need: carbohydrates, protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A, C and D. Although at first glance this list seems overbearing, realistically you probably consume most of these nutrients already – it’s just about following proportions, which the eatwell plate helps to illustrate.

Is it really that important for children to be consuming all of the above nutrients though? The short answer: yes. The benefits of good nutrition to health are endless, but the following few conclusions made by researchers serve to prove my point. Firstly, breastfeeding by mothers following nutritious diets leads to fewer and less severe cases among their children of illnesses including diarrhoea, ear infection and bacterial meningitis. This is because better-nourished children have an enhanced natural ability to fight infection. Secondly, since iron is a vital component of brain tissue, iron deficiency makes nerve impulses move slower and may cause permanent damage to a child’s brain, especially in the first two years of his/her life; iron deficiency during this time is linked to behaviour changes and delayed psychomotor development. However, too much iron also presents problems. As my mother wisely often tells me, “the key is to find the middle way”. Thirdly, under-nutrition has been proven to decrease a child’s activity levels, social interactions, curiosity and cognitive functioning. Although parents everywhere probably harbour the wish that their child wasn’t quite so hyperactively jumping on their bed at 6am, good nutrition remains a must.

Copyright: DeeMPhotography

Nutrition and Academic Performance

It seems bizarre to think that what your child consumes at, say, 4 months will affect their learning ability years later. Research has proven this true. Throughout their early childhood, it’s important to monitor your child’s nutrient intake for the sake of their later performance. For instance, breastfeeding appears to lead to higher IQ, while iron deficiency correlates with reduced cognition and achievement at school age. More obviously to the layman, since under-nourished children get sick more often, they miss more school and fail to keep up with peers. Research has made the link even clearer: school-age children who eat breakfast do better in tests than those that go without.

“Eat up please”

When there’s work to go to, bills to pay and dishes to wash, getting your child to eat what they don’t want to (especially when doing so might cause a much-dreaded tantrum) is oftentimes the least of your worries. But it’s critically important. Following nutrition guidelines is relatively straightforward during pregnancy, as well as at the start of your child’s life. When your child starts to form likes and dislikes, my advice to you is to accept preferences but continue to introduce new foods by making silly faces and playing peek-a-boo until you hear that giggle and see your toddler happily putting the spoon into their mouth themselves. Persevere. I promise he/she will thank you one day.

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