A Norwegian travel journalist has managed to anger an entire Canadian province by calling Newfoundlanders "fat" in a New York Times article.

Writer Karl Ove Knausgaard visited a restaurant in Newfoundland this winter and said nearly "everyone" he encountered was fat, touching off a firestorm in the province.

"I had never seen people that fat before," Knausgaard wrote in his New York Times travel piece, titled 'My Saga.' The story recounts Knausgaard's visit to Jungle Jim's, a family-friendly eatery in St. Anthony, N.L. Knausgaard says his visit to the restaurant left him "furious and in despair," in part because people there were so fat "that I kept having to look at them," he wrote.

"The strange thing was that none of them looked as if they were trying to hide their enormous girth; quite the opposite, several people were wearing tight T-shirts with their big bellies sticking out proudly."

Knausgaard's scathing article did not sit well with Newfoundlanders.

"What's Norwegian for 'Fat-shaming elitist?'" wrote Lindsay Harding on Twitter.

"Maybe he's just over-skinny," added Twitter user @BrieOgle.

"Now… that's not nice," said JP Haukkavaara. "A bit of decorum would not hurt."

Restaurant manager Rick Reid said the article took him by surprise.

“I was quite taken aback that a world traveller, a writer, would make a judgment call, in today’s day and age, on the physical appearance of people,” Reid said.

But Knausgaard apparently didn’t limit his swipes to just residents’ weight.

In the article, the writer said his local driver had a heavy accent and was difficult to understand.

The driver’s wife, Shirley Patey, said her husband went out of his way to be hospitable to Knausgaard.

“We did everything we could to make his stay pleasant, and for him to go away and say things like that is absolutely rude and we don’t want him back,” Patey told NTV News.

One resident called the writer’s comments “ignorant.”

“People are known around here for how nice they are and to have somebody come in and make fun of the way they talk -- it’s not right,” the woman said.

Liberal MHA Chris Mitchelmore said he is "frustrated" by the comments, but hopes they prompt people to talk more about healthy eating.

"I really hope that the dialogue will place focus on prevention," he said.

Mitchelmore echoed those sentiments on Twitter.

Nutritionist Erin Chafe says she hopes the comments will encourage people to consider healthier life choices.

"We don't need to go on a diet per se to have healthy eating habits," she said.

Chafe says about 70 per cent of Newfoundlanders are projected to be overweight or obese by 2019, so Knausgaard's harsh words are not unfounded.

"Maybe we could look at this more as a motivator than as an insult," she said.

Knausgaard's article also describes a visit to Pizza Delight, along with a lengthy description of his struggle to unclog a toilet at the hotel in St. Anthony.

With files from NTV News' Heather Gillis