C8 Tuesday, May 14, 2013
FITNESS & WELL-BEING As Jamie Oliver’s global Food Revolution hits Hong Kong, chef Andrea Oschetti explains how being kind to your waistline can bring pleasure to your palate
TRY A LITTLE SLENDERNESS I
am a chef and I am in love with food: it has the power to make us healthy and happy. But it also has potential to make us fat. An obesity epidemic is under way. Worldwide, obesity has nearly doubled since 1980, according to the World Health Organisation. In Hong Kong, 37 per cent of those aged 18 to 64 are overweight or obese (a body mass index of 23 or greater), based on the Centre for Health Protection’s Behavioural Risk Factor Survey published in April last year. Obesity is costly: according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an obese person incurs 25 per cent higher health expenditure than a person of normal weight in any given year. Obesity is responsible for 1 per cent to 3 per cent of total health expenditures in most OECD countries (5 per cent to 10 per cent in the United States). Obese people earn up to 18 per cent less than non-obese people. Frustrated with the obesity epidemic, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver last year launched a global day of action to boost education and awareness of eating better as a society. This year, Oliver’s Food Revolution Day – which falls on Friday – has spread to 75 countries from 56 last year. Hong Kong is involved once again, hosting cooking classes, herb growing workshops, dinner gatherings, exhibitions, special set menus from eateries, and even a leftover vegetable collection at a wet market planned during the coming weeks. Among those involved include the HK Catholic Vegetarian Association, Polytechnic University’s Food & Wine Academy, Island East Markets, Health Concept organic store, and eateries such as IPC Foodlab, Mana, Habitu, Harakan-S and Grassroots Pantry. This Friday at Cheung Chau’s Piu Sik Float Parade, a mini Jamie Oliver – the first time a non-Chinese child will play a
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Jamie Oliver (left, centre) launched the Food Revolution, which now has a local chapter (below). Photos: David Loftus
role in the traditional bun festival parade – and a little farmer will meet more than 30,000 participants to spread the message of responsible healthy eating. “Anyone can support Food Revolution Day, even with something as simple as holding a dinner party with fresh cooked
HEALTH BITES
ingredients or just trying a new type of fresh food,” says Beatrice Chan, Hong Kong ambassador for the Food Revolution. “Everyone is welcome to help or join in. It’s a very friendly, welcoming day.”
More than 550 local ambassadors, such as Chan, have planned events all over the world. These ambassadors, many of them local chefs, bloggers, teachers, nutritionists or simply parents wanting to get involved in improving food for their children, have organised street markets, school cooking classes, workshops, foodie tours and dinners – anything to get the message across about better food. In London on Friday, Oliver will be hosting a day of food, fun and surprises at a street party outside his restaurant, Fifteen, in Shoreditch. There will also be a live Google+ hangout on the day, where Oliver will be connecting with the global community. “Food Revolution Day is all about people power. I was amazed last year when we
It’s about giving people knowledge and confidence to cook from fresh ingredients JAMIE OLIVER
managed to get over 1,000 events organised across the globe in only a few weeks; but this year, the response has truly been incredible. Food Revolution has reached 75 countries, which shows that the demand for better food education is a global phenomenon,” says Oliver. “For me, Food Revolution Day is all about building better
is an ardent supporter of relationships with obese workers earn this local farming. great food – percentage less than their “In Hong whether that’s slimmer counterparts, Kong, food through hosting a says the OECD revolutionaries and big event, like a local diehard farmers farmers’ market, have been fighting alone for the or a small dinner with freshly past decade,” she says. prepared food, it’s all about “However, with the prevalence giving people the knowledge of consuming local and organic and confidence to make better food spreading across the globe, choices about what they feed the increased demand has led to themselves and their families.” the revival of local farming and The path to health starts with farmers’ markets. We can now being conscious of what we put purchase in-season local in our bodies. You are what you vegetables and at the same time eat, physically and emotionally. support our local farmers. But the common view is that “The success of the local healthy, nutritious food is not farmers’ markets shows that tasty or enjoyable. But as a chef I Hongkongers are concerned know that nourishing food can about their health. There is a also be pleasurable. huge demand for toxic-free food. Consciousness must be Additionally, there is also some supported by habits. It starts at large-scale investment taking home: all that is needed to whip place in Hong Kong, such as a up a great meal is the love for commercially run hydroponic good food and the willingness to vegetable farm, which started source the best ingredients. last year.” When dining out, be Chan points to another demanding: fats and sugars revolution emerging inside the are used in abundance to cover city centre: rooftop farming. poor quality ingredients. Commercial rooftop sites, such Cooking methods also change as HK Farm, have opened for the nutritional values. Raw olive oil public to rent their own box to is very healthy, but at high plant and grow their own food. temperatures it becomes trans “Local families are beginning fat, a “bad” fat for the body. Fish to utilise their balconies, swimming in butter is not rooftops and even windowsills healthy any more, and its to start growing their own herbs delicate taste is gone. and vegetables,” she says. Chan wants the campaign to life@scmp.com stimulate discussions on food topics, including healthy diet, Go to frd.asia for a list of Food treasuring food resources and Revolution events in Hong Kong the risks of processed food. She
PERSONAL BEST
How genes play a role University of Pennsylvania researchers, looking at genomes of more than 13,000 men, have identified four new genetic risk factors for testicular cancer. This brings the number of genomic regions associated with the highly heritable disease to 17. If a man has a father or son with testicular cancer, he has a four-to sixfold higher risk of developing it compared to a man with no family history. That increases to an eight-to tenfold higher risk if the man has a brother with testicular cancer. Incidence rates of the disease have doubled in the past 40 years. The study was published on Sunday in Nature Genetics.
One minute yields a second chance Heady with euphoria, a runner crosses the finish line faster than expected, not knowing it would be one of the luckiest accidents of his life ................................................
Non-toxic cancer treatment Conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy can have toxic side effects, leading some patients to turn to alternative treatment. One such treatment, developed by US doctor William Kelley, involves nutrition, detoxification and supplements of pancreatic enzymes. Dr Stephen Chan and clinical nutritionist Miles Price will speak on Kelley’s treatment at a seminar this evening at Life Clinic in Central. Fees are HK$200 in advance or HK$300 at the door. Call 2881 8131 for details and to register. It’s a wide open road If you think two wheels are better than none, this holiday might be for you: Australian charity Bicycle Network Victoria is organising a nine-day cycling and camping holiday along the Great Ocean Road to celebrate the 30th RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride. The fully catered-for 610 kilometre tour costs A$895 (HK$8,000) for adults, A$655 for ages 13-17 and A$330 for ages 6-12. Ticket sales begin May 20 and prices rise after July 29. Go to greatvic.com.au for details.
Brad Smolar life@scmp.com While many runners commit, sacrifice and train for years to earn the monikers of “Boston Marathon qualifier” and “Boston Marathon finisher”, I will now always be first and foremost, a Boston Marathon 2013 survivor, one who can still live to run another day. As the dust settled over the city, with the shelter-in-place order lifted following the daylong manhunt for the bombers and the streets deemed safe to return, a sign of normalcy slowly returned to my beloved hometown. I feel blessed to have narrowly escaped the chaos at the finish line and be able to share my story of triumph before the senseless tragedy. Having raced constantly against the clock for months to get here, this day was all about “living” in these moments and celebrating with the 500,000 people who would line the streets of Boston. The city had proudly graced me with “rock star” status, jumping me to the front of the line wherever I went and presenting me with an
honorary membership at a local health club. Being a Boston Marathon Qualifier is a big deal. Now fully indoctrinated into this special family, I was ready for the 42.2kilometre victory lap through the storied streets of Boston, retracing the footsteps of the world’s greatest runners. I soaked it all in, stopping intermittently along the course for the customary high-fives, photos, hugs and even a few memorable kisses from the brainy Wellesley College girls. As billed, it was a street party like no other. As the miles seemed to slowly drift away, I too slowed down to
I thank God for blessing me to move at the right pace, right speed and … allow me to live to run another day
desperately try to hold on to any last moments of this incredible journey. Flashbacks of my training, the setbacks and new relationships that brought me here, all came flooding in. As I sailed across the finish line some 31⁄2 hours later, just before 2pm, and dancing through the strong headwinds which contributed to some of the slowest winning times in years, it hit me that it was now over. But before the realisation could sink in too deeply, two bombs exploded near the finish line at 2.49pm, only 30 minutes before I would have been handed my official medal and guided through the other post-race formalities. What’s most haunting is that I was meant to cross the finish line between 2.30pm to 3pm as originally planned with my parents, a time when VIPs and other dignitaries would have
Brad Smolar after the race (left), and visiting a memorial for victims (above). Photos: Brad Smolar been escorted out of the area, allowing my mum and dad to better witness their son’s epic moment up close. They had been on their way to the finish line with my sister, and would have been waiting there long after I had left the area, around the precise time of the bomb blasts. Miraculously, the car dropped them off on the wrong side of the road and they were unable to get through. I went straight to the family waiting area (two blocks from the finish line) to look for them. Several minutes later, when we found each other, we heard
the two loud explosions and the sudden influx of sirens as roads were quickly closed, mobile phone lines shut down and police cars and ambulance filled the streets. With extraordinary assistance from employees at a major Boston bank which somehow was still open at the time, we were able to locate our ride and safely navigate our way on to the family home – my first visit in two years. I thank God for blessing me to move at the right pace, right speed and for the incomprehensible intuition and chain of events that would allow me to live to run another day. It just so happened that I finished early, having no real awareness of time, and I was not quite ready for the story to end.