TV Surveillance

The most disturbing program on television airs Friday nights on ABC.

And you should absolutely watch it.

“Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” is thoroughly disturbing, overwhelmingly uplifting and surprisingly educational all in one. The famous U.K. chef’s crusade to change the eating habits of Huntington, W. Va., one of America’s most unhealthy and obese cities, should open your eyes to the kind of things going on in this country when it comes to unhealthy food habits, even if you consider yourself a health nut.

Despite it being a heartfelt reality series, “Food Revolution” is causing some controversy amid the fervent online foodie community.

Some cry that Oliver and the program are taking advantage of one of the most extreme situations in the United States and exploiting it and its people to make us viewers feel bad about ourselves.

Others think “revolution” is a hyperbolic word choice, considering the reforms Oliver wants to implement in just one district in one city in one state are already taking place around the country.

That all might be true, but it does not make the events I’ve seen on screen during the series’ first three episodes false. Here’s a quick rundown of the most poignant — and terrifying — moments thus far:

A group of elementary school students watched Oliver carve up and compile disgustingly made chicken nuggets from the carcass to the breaded product — and still ate them.

Another group of youngsters could not identify one single vegetable from the group Oliver brought to their classroom; a group that included potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower, among others.

Finally, the lunches at the school never include forks or knives — and french fries are considered a vegetable.

Again, it’s easy to manipulate reality television to make the effects seem more drastic and tug at our heart strings. But that’s probably what people around the U.S. probably need to wake up to what’s happening in their communities. It surely isn’t as drastic everywhere, but there are elements of problems big and small all around our country.

We are all aware of these problems; we see them every day in some form. But unless we are directly affected by them, news reports, studies and charts or graphs just bounce right off us.

But as Jamie Oliver said in the third hour, those are just black and white papers, nothing substantial.

This, however, is substantial.

It might be manipulative — c’mon, it’s a reality series — and it might be making fools or freakshows out of people just trying to get through the day, most notably the lunch ladies. And it’s certainly not starting a revolution, but rather shining a spotlight on changes already in progress.

But if the food revolution is really going to take place, that spotlight is absolutely necessary. The fact that the series exists on a major network at all means nothing but good news for people who care and even for those who do not.

Because there is just too much at stake to not take this seriously. Let the revolution continue.