Jamie Oliver takes obesity campaign to UN

Jamie Oliver has taken his anti-obesity campaign to the United Nations.

The celebrity chef, who has previously raised awareness of healthy eating in the UK with his School Dinners show and with his Ministry of Food series in the US, has written to secretary general Ban-Ki Moon to ask the UN to pressure governments to support his weight loss schemes.

In a letter published online, Oliver wrote: "[We will soon have] a global diet of fast and processed food and drink. I have seen young mothers feeding toddlers cola through a feeding bottle because they don't understand good nutrition.

"I've shown simple fresh vegetables to teenage students in the United Kingdom and America and they can't identify a cucumber or an aubergine or a pear. If parents can't cook, how can they feed themselves and their growing families?

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"One in ten people in the world is obese. It's affecting our kids - 42 million are overweight before they even reach school age, and most of those beautiful children will be suffering from the early stages of heart disease and diabetes by the time they reach adulthood.

"The knowledge to be able to feed yourself and your family in a nutritious and balanced way should be a basic human right. The United Nations must take urgent action to put pressure on governments to ensure that every person working in health has the food education and knowledge of good nutrition to become frontline advocates in the fight against obesity."

Earlier this year, Oliver said that he wanted to help fight obesity in Australia after opening a Ministry of Food in Ipswich.