Oliver lobbies UN to step up world obesity campaign

JAMIE Oliver is taking his food campaigns to a global level by urging the secretary general of the United Nations to help end the world obesity crisis.

The chef and broadcaster has written to Ban-Ki Moon in a bid to make the UN apply pressure to governments to take action.

Oliver has raised awareness of nutrition in Britain with his Channel 4 School Dinners series, sparking a change in the food served in the education system.

He has also ruffled feathers in the US with his programmes to highlight the issues across the Atlantic.

Now he wants the world to take food education seriously before it is too late, warning soon we will be left with “a global diet of fast and processed food and drink”. Oliver says: “I have seen young mothers feeding toddlers cola through a feeding bottle because they don’t understand good nutrition.

“If parents can’t cook, how can they feed themselves and their growing families?” the chef asks.

His letter comes ahead of a UN summit in New York discussing the worsening problems of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, lung cancer and obesity-related illnesses.

It is the first of its kind for many years.

Oliver raised his concerns earlier this week during a UN webcast, and the secretary general said the situation was “totally unacceptable”.

In his open letter, Oliver said: “The world cannot afford to pay for these diseases. Obesity already accounts for 10% of US healthcare expenditure.

“It’s predicted to be 20% in another 10 years. But the USA is just the tip of the iceberg — spending £10 million (€11.44m) an hour on obesity.” He said education was the simple answer.