Published: October 15, 2009 11:35 pm      

KENNETH HART: 101809

I’ve been keeping a wary eye on the filming of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s quote, unquote reality TV show in Huntington.

I’m having some fairly mixed feelings about it, too.

In case you haven’t been keeping up, Oliver, as he done in the past in his native Britain, is doing a program geared toward improving peoples’ dietary habits, with the goal of getting them to eat better and live healthier lifestyles.

Huntington was apparently chosen as the location for the as-yet-untitled, six-episode series, which will air next year on ABC, because it was labeled “America’s unhealthiest city” in an Associated Press story last year.

And that brings me to my first problem with the show — it’s based on a designation that is, at worst, inaccurate, and at best, highly misleading.

The story that caught the attention of Oliver’s production company was based on an AP analysis of data contained in a 2006 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But herein lies the problem — the CDC report drew on data for a metropolitan service area that includes five counties, and of which Ashland is also a part.

So is it fair that Huntington proper has to bear the entire burden of being the fattest city in the nation? I don’t think so.

Having said that, though, it should also be noted that a recent report by the Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index showed that West Virginia does, indeed, have the highest rate of diabetes in the nation, and the second-highest obesity rate. But again, that’s the entire state, not just Huntington.

For his part, Oliver has said it’s not his intent to make anyone look bad. But, public comments he has made about the program have done little to allay residents’ concerns.

In a recent interview with the British Sky News service, Oliver said essentially that the people he’d met, while not stupid or ignorant, were information-poor because they lacked information about healthy eating and cooking from scratch.

I’ve seen some postings on Facebook, too, from friends discussing the filming of the show that haven’t exactly been glowing.

There were reports that during a visit to Huntington High School, Oliver berated one student for getting two chocolate milks for lunch. And that he instructed another to act upset when he took his French fries away from him. And that he intentionally selected only the heaviest kids to interview.

Oh, yeah — in a rather ironic twist, one poster said his son informed him that the members of Oliver’s camera crew aren’t exactly svelte themselves.

At any rate, like I said at the outset, I’ve got some seriously mixed feelings about this whole venture.

As an Appalachian myself, I find the notion that people in Appalachia are a bunch of bumpkins who need a British chef to tell them how to eat healthy to be, well, rather offensive.

On the other hand, I also recognize that obesity is a serious public health concern and that poor eating habits are often at the root of the problem.

If the program gets folks to wake up and take stock of their own diets, with eyes toward making improvements, it will have accomplished a noble goal.

I just hope it manages to do so without trashing our region too badly in the process.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.