International TV personality Jamie Oliver has spoken out against Dubai's fast-food culture, urging the government to do something before it is too late.
Speaking to Caterer Middle East earlier this month, Oliver commented: “I didn’t know [the UAE has the second highest diabetes rate in the world] until I got here, but it doesn’t surprise me. Bad health has no class; just because a lot of people are rich out here doesn’t mean they’re not rich and unhealthy.
“The one thing that’s true is that proper luxury is knowledge; whether you’re super rich or super poor, the basic skills in cooking are having the confidence to cook and nourish yourself and your family properly,” he continued. “That doesn’t necessarily mean with overly healthy food, but with proper food, fresh food. It’s a lesson that’s needed even here. And I think that’s something the government can take a look at.”
The celebrity chef, made famous by his Naked Chef television series, pointed out that in the US state of California, the government stopped giving planning permission to fast-food franchises — a move he labelled “a good solution”.
“If the choice is there and it’s too easy and cheap, apart from undermining more historic businesses that try to do a good job, health-wise it’s bad news,” he said. “They’ve proved that having more fast-food places leads to more bad health.
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“We’ve also proved that if you don’t teach kids to cook at school, that contributes to bad health and a bad relationship with food. I mean, here in primary schools they don’t even have school dinners; they’re expected to snack from 7.30am until one in the afternoon and that’s not good,” he asserted.
“The great thing about having loads of dough in the system is that you can do stuff properly,” continued Oliver.
“You don’t really need a big gob like me to stir things up here. In the next ten years they’re going to have to do something about it because the otherwise the next decade will follow a very different graph and pattern to this one — the upwards curve will probably be twice as sharp,” he predicted.
“Bad health and the obesity here is exponentially growing year-on-year and it’s the same in Great Britain. Someone’s going to have to do something about it at some point.”
For the full interview with Jamie Oliver, see next month’s Caterer Middle East.
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