The battle to counter junk food.

(From Canberra Times)

OBESITY and lack of fitness in school-age children are important, because of their associations with high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems, as well as Type 2 diabetes, diabetic retinopathy and blindness. However, obesity is widespread in the whole community. The problems of over-consumption of poor food and lack of exercise are quite general, so the causes and solutions are likely to be complex. In this sort of area, simplistic approaches are attractive, and indeed the Opposition spokesman on education, Steve Pratt, has called for junk food to be banned from school canteens and for all school children to be assessed for fitness.

We need to ask how effective such knee-jerk …