I can't really take this TV programme seriously as a TV programme is what it is as opposed to a serious look at US diet and efforts to make change.
I do like JO but get a bit peeved with his evangelical attitude.
And also, his ignorance of how to manage change is irritating, although this is where this exercise being a TV programme fundamentally comes in.
The bits showing him crying are rediculous and if real, show him up to be either seriously immature, arrogant, even faintly narcissitic or all three.
Is he so naieve that he is suprised by the radio dj and the cooks' attitudes? Has he leant nothing from his other projects when trying to change things?
Or do a few crocodile tears quite simply make better TV?
I know he's not a management consultant but even good managers know that to manage change you have to tick many boxes with all parties involved before getting down and dirty on the shop floor.
And what has he read or understood about the power of the food industry and especially the meat and chicken sectors of it in the US?
Has he any idea about what he is up against? And if not why not?
This material should be lain before us and him before he waltzes into a school kitchen with his cockney spiv familiarity which then turns into rather cheap and nasty sarcasm when they don't bow down to his every whim and wish.
The chicken nuggets culture has a background which has been on a roll for many years.
The star of the show was that lovely 12 year-old boy in Family Obese who could see through it all and voiced an interest in cooking.
I've been to the US many times and have seen families like this eating through the menu in Dennys.
And its especially ironic when the healthiest and tastiest food, often vegetarian, was created in California and can be enjoyed in many places in NYC.
The rest of the country is time-locked into an appalling food culture based on convenience and ignorance and commercially driven interests of the huge food lobby.
But ultimately, this programme fails for me because he has so far completely failed to sell the case for change.
If he is serious about this project as a real initiative to make change as opposed to a TV production company's next programme idea, then he neeRAB to lay out the issues to demonstrate the pros and cons of different typs of food and different types of diets at a micro level on people and a a macro level with the effects of things like the Hospital costs, taxes etc.
So far, Its straight in there with 'I'm going to show them what fresh ingredients taste like' Oh are you JO. So what?
Interestingly, the most powerful part of the programme was when he effectively told the Mum that she was cutting her children's life expectancy by a significant amount.
Although a harsh message, this type of commmunication is what he neeRAB to do with all the other parties.
If he is going to fight the machine, he's got to use its' language as opposed to pushing the manuals away and saying 'let me show you how to make a fresh salad dressing.....daaarling'
Having said all the above, I love his intent but he's got to sell it better than this, otherwise I reckon that I'd tell him where to go if he pronounced what I'm eating was a load of c**p.