The New York Times has a really interesting article on Jamie Oliver's latest venture, teaching a small West Virginia town how to cook.  The article's author does an admirable job of portraying the tension between "real food" and "healthy food" which seems to be gripping America these days.

We all know that we should cook our own food more often.  It's cheaper, it's healthier, and it's better for the environment.  Kids who sit down to dinner with their parents every night do better in school.  The benefits of eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables can't be overstated.

But as people venture into the kitchens, many wonder "Is this really better?"  I recently went looking for apple cake recipes on Allrecipes.com to use up six pounds of apples I had been given.  I can't tell you how many comments I read from people who had substituted applesauce for one or more cake ingredients.  

Many home cooks are squeamish about using oil and cream, but is applesauce any better?  Applesauce is high in sugar (and I understand that we're making a cake, but why add extra sugar to a cake?) and depending on the oil, it could easily be the wrong choice.  This video by a board certified endocrinologist explains how sugar is the worst thing you could possibly eat.  This high profile Atkins fanatic explains that oil will save your life and sugar will doom you.  

Jamie Oliver and our old friend Michael Pollan would have us eat nothing but real butter, real cream, real pasta.  And lots of vegetables as well, of course, but Jamie Oliver is also a noted proponent of bacon.  Bacon is either the worst thing in the world (according to the anti-cholesterol and fat crusaders) or the best (according to the pro-protein crowd).  How are we supposed to know?

This is why Michael Pollan called his book "The Omnivore's Dilemma."  In a world filled with food, and crammed to bursting with dietary advice, we are overwhelmed with anxiety about what we should or shouldn't eat.  Too many of us, like the West Virginia town of Huntington, abdicate that choice and essentially hand over their diet to corporate interests.  

Reading between the lines in Witchel's account of Jamie Oliver's trip to a Huntington grocery store, the people of Huntington eat nothing but brand name food.  Krispy Kreme for dinner, Coke in their baby bottles, and Ore Ida Tater Tots for lunch.  Jamie Oliver (not a nutritionist - just a famous chef of "plain old food") argues (persuasively) that any meal cooked from scratch, regardless of the ingredients, is better than that.  And you can kind of see his point - is there anything parents could make from scratch that would be worse than Coke, to put into their babies' bottles?  (Wait, never mind, I just remembered that West Virginia is a big moonshine state.  But you get my point.)

I will be keeping an eye on the continuing story of Huntington, West Virginia.  Jamie Oliver made quite a big splash in Britain, but at the end of the article he admits there have been some logistical issues.  The British schools which committed to feeding kids "real food" instead of pre-packaged and canned meals have struggled to find the staff, the resources, and the time.  But those schools that have made it have reported a decrease in aggressive and hyperactive behavior, and even a decrease in asthma.  

Could it be that simple?