Check out our Diet Reviews on AOL Health!

Jamie Oliver Takes On America's Fattest Town

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment

Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

British chef Jamie Oliver has made it his personal mission to change the way people in England eat, so it's not surprising that he's taking America under his wing, too. The best place to start? The fattest town in the country, of course. Oliver recently met with the people of Huntington, W.Va. -- known as the unhealthiest place in America -- and admitted that the encounter was a hair-raising experience. So was finding out what they feed their children for lunch. "That's quite scary," he commented after discovering the school menu of hot dogs, funnel cake and hamburgers.

But he's not being mean to the town's 49,000 residents -- he's legitimately worried about their diets. "They are not stupid, they are not ignorant -- it's just they have never had food from scratch in their life," he said about the families he's worked with so far. Oliver blames the large food corporations who sell nothing but processed junk to residents, and points out the difficulty in finding fresh produce even though Huntington is a rural community surrounded by farmland.

There's no doubt that old habits will be tough to break for these southerners -- will this bumbling English chef be able to change a lifetime of bad eating? Looks like we'll have to stay tuned.

In the the meantime, find out what chef Gordon Ramsey thinks about vegetarian diets.

Recent Posts

Add your comments

New Users

Current Users

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

Recent Comments
Featured Writers
Bob GreeneReggie Casagrande
Bob Greene
Jonny BowdenJohn GanonJonny Bowden

Tanya ZuckerbrotFadil BerishaTanya Zuckerbrot
Liz Neporent Liz Neporent