Jamie Oliver accuses PM Boris Johnson of not doing enough to tackle obesity

World-famous chef Jamie Oliver accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of making excuses for not tackling the obesity problem in Britain. However, the "Naked Chef's" position has many people upset, and some say he is out of touch with the average person's reality.

The controversy all began in July 2020 when the government announced a ban on pre-watershed TV ads for high fat, salt, or sugar foods, along with a ban on "buy one get one free" deals on junk food in an attempt to tackle obesity. Government statistics say that one in three children were obese or overweight in Britain upon leaving primary school.

However, the British government soon made a change of plans, and according to the BBC, it said it would defer the action for a year due to the increase in the cost of living and the hit that household finances are taking. If it still goes through, the ban will not go into effect until October of 2023 for BOGOF deals and January 2024 for TV ads.

Jamie Oliver, who has a long history of promoting healthy eating, has made his distaste for this development very public. Oliver asked the public to join him in a protest on May 20 outside of Number 10 with an Eton Mess pudding at lunchtime to convince the government to take immediate action against junk food.

Oliver told Channel 4, "I've asked the British public to come and join me on Friday at 12:30. Please bring an Eton Mess. Just come and have a peaceful protest for 15 minutes. Part of my job, believe it or not, is following graphs of how our kids are doing. And the last two years has been extraordinarily bad."

Boris Johnson spoke about the decision to turn around the junk food ban while on a tour of the Hilltop Honey factory in Wales. Boris said that while decreasing obesity is of "vital importance," buy one get one free offers may help those who are simply struggling to keep their families fed.

According to Sky News, the PM said, "There are lots of things you've got to focus on, including diet, eating less, well, eating less is the most important thing. But there are some things at the moment where we think they make very little difference to obesity and they can affect people's weekly outgoings, people's budgets."

However, Jamie Oliver says that the opposite is true and that BOGOF offers often make people spend more than they planned. Oliver said, "This whole strategy was designed by the government and has been researched by the government, proves that this particular mechanic (two for one deals on junk food) makes people spend more of their income and waste more."

Oliver continued, "To use cost of living as an excuse is wrong, it's completely unfair. The Eton Mess is symbolic of the mess that we've got ourselves into." He then went on to say, "We want to put child health first, the strategy was looking world class and now it doesn't. It's our job to put it all back together again and make sure that we can build a better future for our kids."

While it seems that Jamie Oliver has nothing but the best of intentions, people think Oliver's protest is quite tone-deaf.

On Twitter and Instagram, some say that the chef is coming from a place of privilege. Instead of campaigning to ban junk food, he should focus his efforts on teaching people how to create healthy meals on the cheap.

According to The Huffington Post, the price of food in the UK increased by 3.5% in April, making it the highest inflation rate since March 2013. Furthermore, the chairman of Marks & Spencer warns that food prices could still increase by 10% more in 2022.

Clementine Moodie wrote in The Sun that the call to end obesity in Britain is important, but that "Jamie Oliver, a multi-millionaire who lives in a ten-bathroom country­mansion..., is not the man to deliver it."

Jamie Oliver has been known for his advocacy of healthy meals for kids. In 2005, he started the 'Feed Me Better' campaign to teach children about the importance of eating healthy food and convince schools to provide healthier lunches.

Jamie Oliver has written dozens of books. His goal, he says, is to make cooking more accessible to all. Over the years, he has also appeared in 39 tv series, documentaries, and specials.

Jamie appeared on 'Iron Chef America' in 2008 as a challenger. He lost a contest against his opponent Mario Batali because it centered on an ingredient that was not often on his chopping block: cobia.