Blame Gordon Ramsay For The Obesity Epidemic

We might just make Gordon Ramsay mad by writing this, but new research published in the Food and Public Health journal has accused celebrity chefs of "exacerbating" the obesity epidemic, thanks to fatty recipes.

The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Coventry, examined 904 recipes from 26  television chefs, finding that 87 percent of those recipes didn't meet the British government's healthy eating recommendations. That means only 13 percent of those recipes would be considered "healthy" by Britain's Food Standards Agency, Reuters reports.

This, of course, comes several months after another study found that celebrity chef recipes (like, ahem, Jamie Oliver's) are sometimes less healthy than store-bought ready-made meals. "If people regularly use the recipes found in these cookbooks, it could be that celebrity chefs are exacerbating public health nutrition issues in the UK," study author Ricardo Costa said told Reuters.

All 26 celebrity chefs had recipes that contained high levels of saturated fatty acids, sugars, and salt, the research notes. But one thing left out? The lack of preservatives, oftentimes found in ready-made meals. Ramsay wins, so it seems, on at least one count.