Healthy gourmet: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

I am a chef and I am in love with food: it has the power to make us healthy and happy. But it also has potential to make us fat.

An obesity epidemic is under way. Worldwide, obesity has nearly doubled since 1980, according to the World Health Organisation. In Hong Kong, 37 per cent of those aged 18 to 64 are overweight or obese (a body mass index of 23 or greater), based on the Centre for Health Protection's Behavioural Risk Factor Survey published in April last year.

Obesity is costly: according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an obese person incurs 25 per cent higher health expenditure than a person of normal weight in any given year. Obesity is responsible for 1 per cent to 3 per cent of total health expenditures in most OECD countries (5 per cent to 10 per cent in the United States). Obese people earn up to 18 per cent less than non-obese people.

Frustrated with the obesity epidemic, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver last year launched a global day of action to boost education and awareness of eating better as a society. This year, Oliver's Food Revolution Day - which falls on Friday - has spread to 75 countries from 56 last year.

Hong Kong is involved once again, hosting cooking classes, herb growing workshops, dinner gatherings, exhibitions, special set menus from eateries, and even a leftover vegetable collection at a wet market planned during the coming weeks. Among those involved include the HK Catholic Vegetarian Association, Polytechnic University's Food & Wine Academy, Island East Markets, Health Concept organic store, and eateries such as IPC Foodlab, Mana, Habitu, Harakan-S and Grassroots Pantry.

This Friday at Cheung Chau's Piu Sik Float Parade, a mini Jamie Oliver - the first time a non-Chinese child will play a role in the traditional bun festival parade - and a little farmer will meet more than 30,000 participants to spread the message of responsible healthy eating.