Are celebrity chef recipes making us fat?

Who cares if Jamie Oliver, Paula Deen and Rachael Ray eat seemingly delicious food surrounded by friends and laughter on a regular basis. Our health is at stake.

That's the message coming from one of two new studies that suggest celebrity chef recipes fall short in the nutrition department and encourage the public to eat fatty foods, Reuters reports.

The first study published in the December issue of the British Medical Journal concluded that recipes from British television chefs contain significantly more calories and fat, but less fibre, than supermarket-ready meals.

And now this most recent study, expanded to included international celebrity chefs, finds that 87 per cent of the 904 recipes from 26 cooks they tested did not meet the British government's healthy eating recommendations.

"If people regularly use the recipes found in these cookbooks, it could be that celebrity chefs are exacerbating public health nutrition issues in the U.K.," says study author and nutrition professor Ricardo Costa from the University of Coventry.

Also see: Healthy eating advocate Jamie Oliver to open a U.K. hotdog joint

Published in the journal Food and Public Health, the study found undesirable levels of saturated fats, sugars and salt -- which are all linked to common health epidemics like obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

It also discovered that only 13 per cent of the ingredients used in recipes were considered nutritionally "healthy" by British government standards, The Birmingham Press reports.

The researchers would not reveal which chef recipes they tested, but did say that they formed their list of famous chefs from the best-selling cookbooks on Amazon.

"This study is not about naming and shaming celebrity chefs," Costa says.

The authors claims through their own anecdotal evidence that three-quarters of the public believe celebrity chefs promote healthy eating.

Also see: How a chef lost 300 pounds

"There ought to be a tightening up of regulation around what these chefs can present on their own terms when it comes to nutrition or healthy eating messages," Costa continues.

But let's take a closer look at Costa's original claim that celebrity chefs are actually worsening public health issues.

For that to be true we'd have to assume that if folks weren't using these recipes they would be eating healthier food instead. But who is to say folks wouldn't naturally gravitate towards a takeout meal or a non-celebrity chef recipe that would be equally as unhealthy?

Nevertheless, this study is bound to raise eyebrows and perhaps put pressure on the culinary world to clean up their act.

Canadian chefs, beware. They might be coming for you next.