in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat,

four Americans that are alive

will be dead

from the food that they eat.

My name is Jamie Oliver. I'm 34 years old.

I'm from Essex in England

and for the last seven years

I've worked fairly tirelessly

to save lives in my own way.

I'm not a doctor.

I'm a chef.

I don't have expensive equipment

or medicine.

I use information, education.

I profoundly believe that the power of food

has a primal place in our homes

that binds us to the best bits of life.

We have an awful,

awful reality right now.

America, you're at the top of your game.

This is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world.

Can I please just see a raise of hands

for how many of you have children in this room today?

Please put your hands up.

Aunties, uncles, you can continue ...

Put your hands up. Aunties and uncles as well.

Most of you. OK.

We, the adults of the last four generations,

have blessed our children with the destiny

of a shorter lifespan

than their own parents.

Your child will live a life ten years younger

than you

because of the landscape of food that we've built around them.

Two thirds of this room,

today, in America, are statistically overweight or obese.

You lot, you're all right, but we'll get you eventually, don't worry.

(Laughter)

Right?

The statistics of bad health are clear,

very clear.

We spend our lives being paranoid about death, murder, homicide,

you name it. It's on the front page of every paper, CNN.

Look at homicide at the bottom, for God's sake.

Right?

(Laughter)

(Applause)

Every single one of those in the red

is a diet-related disease.

Any doctor, any specialist will tell you that.

Fact. Diet-related disease is the biggest killer

in the United States, right now, here today.

This is a global problem.

It's a catastrophe.

It's sweeping the world.

England is right behind you, as usual.

(Laughter)

I know they were close, but not that close.

We need a revolution.

Mexico, Australia, Germany, India, China,

all have massive problems of obesity and bad health.

Think about smoking.

It costs way less than obesity now.

Obesity costs you Americans

10 percent of your health care bills.

150 billion dollars a year.

In 10 years, it's set to double.

300 billion dollars a year.

And let's be honest, guys, you ain't got that cash.

(Laughter)

I came here to start a food revolution

that I so profoundly believe in.

We need it. The time is now.

We're in a tipping-point moment.

I've been doing this for seven years.

I've been trying in America for seven years.

Now is the time when it's ripe -- ripe for the picking.

I went to the eye of the storm.

I went to West Virginia, the most unhealthy state in America.

Or it was last year.

We've got a new one this year, but we'll work on that next season.

(Laughter)

Huntington, West Virginia.

Beautiful town.

I wanted to put heart and soul and people,

your public,

around the statistics that we've become

so used to.

I want to introduce you to some of the people that I care about.

Your public. Your children.

I want to show a picture of my friend Brittany.

She's 16 years old.

She's got six years to live

because of the food that she's eaten.

She's the third generation of Americans

that hasn't grown up within a food environment

where they';ve been taught to cook at home or in school,

or her mom, or her mom's mom.

She has six years to live.

She's eating her liver to death.

Stacy, the Edwards family.

This is a normal family, guys.

Stacy does her best, but she's third-generation as well;

she was never taught to cook at home or in school.

The family's obese.

Justin, here, 12 years old.

He's 350 pounds.

He gets bullied, for God's sake.

The daughter there, Katie, she's four years old.

She's obese before she even gets to primary school.

Marissa. She' all right. She's one of your lot.

But you know what? Her father, who was obese,

died in her arms.

And then the second-most-important man in her life,

her uncle, died of obesity.

And now her step-dad is obese.

You see, the thing is

obesity and diet-related disease

doesn't just hurt the people that have it;

it's all of their friends, families,

brothers, sisters.

Pastor Steve.

An inspirational man. One of my early allies in Huntington, West Virginia.

H's at the sharp knife-edge of this problem.

He has to bury the people, OK?

And he's fed up with it. He's fed up with burying his friends,

and his family, his community.

Come winter, three times as many people die.

He's sick of it.

This is preventable disease. Waste of life.

By the way, this is what they get buried in.

We're not geared up to do this.

Can't even get them out the door, and I'm being serious.

Can't even get them there. Forklift.

OK, I see it as a triangle, OK?

This is our landscape of food.

I need you to understand it.

You've probably heard all this before,

but let's just go back over it.

Over the last 30 years,

what's happened that's ripped the heart out of this country?

Let's be frank and honest.

Well. Modern-day life.

Let's start with the Main Street.

Fast food has taken over the whole country. We know that.

The big brands are some of the most important powers,

powerful powers in this country.

Supermarkets as well.

Big companies. Big companies.

30 years ago, most of the food

was largely local and largely fresh.

Now it's largely processed and full of all sorts of additives,

extra ingredients, and you know the rest of the story.

Portion size is obviously a massive, massive problem.

Labeling is a massive problem.

The labeling in this country is a disgrace.

They want to be self ... They want to self-police themselves.

The industry wants to self-police themselves.

What, in this kind of climate? They don't deserve it.

How can you say something is low-fat when it's full of so much sugar?

Home.

The biggest problem with the home

is that used to be the heart

of passing on food and food culture,

what made our society.

That isn't happening anymore.

And you know, as we go to work and as life changes,

and as life always evolves,

we kind of have to look at it holistically --

step back for a moment, and re-address the balance.

It ain't happening. Hasn't happened for 30 years.

I want to show you a situation

that is very normal

right now. The Edwards family.

(Video) Jamie Oliver: Let's have a talk.