Tag: Steve Willis

Our Sugar Cravings

By Ken Walker- It is that time of year when chocolate eggs are all the rage, but after our Easter sugar rush subsides, it is worth looking at the literature continuing to emerge about the links between sweets and obesity. This problem threatens not only our nation’s health, but the future of our most precious…
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Soda: A Matter of Choice?

By Ken Walker- Absent court intervention, New York’s ban on super-sized sweetened beverages will take effect next week. Of course, regardless of whether that state’s supreme court intervenes, the “nanny state” debate will rage on far into the future. I have mixed emotions about Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s step. Having lost weight after double-bypass surgery, I…
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The Power of Grassroots Action

By Ken Walker- The idea that grassroots action can make a long-term difference can often bring ridicule, as shown by Steve Willis’ appearance with Jamie Oliver on the David Letterman show. Steve writes in our book, Winning the Food Fight, “As Jamie discussed his efforts to alter Huntington’s eating habits, Letterman ridiculed the idea that…
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Bridging the Gap

By Ken Walker- Jamie Oliver taught Steve Willis an important lesson. Three years ago the famed British chef and his army marched into Huntington, West Virginia in hopes of revolutionizing what many pundits had deemed “the unhealthiest city in America.” Our area earned that label because of a Centers for Disease Control report that listed…
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Carrying on the Food Fight

By Ken Walker- When famed British chef Jamie Oliver came to Huntington, West Virginia in the fall of 2009 to produce his first Food Revolution mini-series for ABC, I never imagined that I would become part of a healthy reformation that continues to this day. Filming stretched to April of 2010, when Oliver’s crew taped…
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