Jamie Oliver: The Superhero Foodie With a Plan to Save Lives

Jamie Oliver is best known for his optimist cooking shows like Jamie Oliver: Together and recipe books like 30-Minute Meals. What’s lesser known about the celebrity chef is his relentless campaigning to reduce obesity: “Diet-related disease is the biggest killer in America, in Canada, and in England, but it’s just not glamorous or cool. There are no bullets or car chases.”

Jamie may be determined to make nutritional food attractive, but there are no 30-minute solutions. Obesity and weight-related health issues are part of a global epidemic that kills almost 3m people a year. Still, if anyone can charm their way into the nations’ kitchens and government corridors to effect change, it’s Jamie Oliver.

He’s already persuaded British schoolchildren to eat broccoli and pushed the UK government to make school meals healthier. He won an Emmy for Food Revolution where he tackled childhood obesity in America. And if he’s not on your television testing Vegan corn burgers, Oliver’s probably peering out of your bookcase offering advice on spinach pancakes.

He’s sold almost 15m books, generating about $240m in sales. Not bad for a chef from Essex, England who learned how to cook in his parents’ pub.