Jamie Oliver Takes His Food Revolution To Canada

Calling on Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep the promise he made last autumn to “tackle childhood obesity”, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver created this short video in the lead up to his visit to Canada, where he says 20 percent of Canadian children between the ages of 5 and 17 are overweight or obese.

After Trudeau’s October 2015 election, Oliver was pleased to see the following March a National Campaign to Combat Obesity by Canada’s Senate Committee on Social Affairs. The Committee’s report put forth 21 recommendations, including “a complete revision of Canada’s food guide to better reflect scientific evidence, a ban on advertising food and drink to children, a possible tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, a review of nutrition food labeling to make it easier to understand, and a plan for making healthy food more affordable.”

The Senate’s recommendations are not incongruous from the six main goals stated on Oliver’s website: Sugary Drinks Tax, Sugar Reformulation, Fair Marketing, Clearer Labels, School Food and Education.

Buoyed by such like-minded messaging, Oliver went to Canada last week to promote his Food Revolution campaign among politicians, supermarkets and influencers to try to ensure that the positive words are followed by real action.

“It’s crazy that we live in a world where millions of children get too much of the wrong food, while millions more get too little good food,” says Oliver. “There are 41 million children under the age of five that are overweight or obese, while 159 million under-fives are stunted. Let’s put an end to obesity and undernourishment the world over.”