Jamie Oliver takes aim at 'fattest nation in the world' [View All]

Now Jamie Oliver may be an irritating TV chef but he is still very good at politics and it was his campaign that got the British government to stop selling junk food as school dinners and start providing healthy school dinners instead.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1984456.ece

Jamie Oliver, the outspoken celebrity chef and scourge of every school cook in Britain, has taken his healthy-eating message to the United States. And true to form, he is not mincing his words when it comes to American children and their particular battle with obesity.

"A fat person in England isn't the same as a fat person in America," Oliver gamely asserted yesterday, taking time off from a packed schedule in New York promoting his two latest ventures - a book and a television series about cooking in Italy. Apparently unconcerned with the sensibilities of his American hosts, Oliver ploughed forth suggesting that the US should follow the example of Britain, which, on his urging, has recently banned Turkey Twizzlers and other fatty delights from school cafeterias, replacing them with healthier options.

"England is the most unhealthy country in Europe and America is the most unhealthy country in the world," Oliver told a Reuters reporter. He nonetheless acknowledged that he did not expect to repeat his British campaign for healthier school food in America, noting that as an "English boy in America, they might not appreciate my honesty".

Not that Oliver is necessary wrong in his observations. The number of overweight Americans has tripled since 1980, according to new figures from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and the obesity rate among children and young people is expected to hit 20 per cent by the end of this decade.