Two thoughts:

1. 'Australian parents have lost the ability to feed themselves and their children healthy food' - when did they have this ability? I don't think it helps public debate to call on unresearched nostalgia for a time when everyone was healthy. From what I know of the dietary options of working class Westerners in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the current situation is probably as good as it's ever been.

2. Why are we always worried about junk food and kids? What about the fat rich folk? Let's start a campaign aimed at the most expensive restaurants in Australia to make sure that they only serve low calorie food (no lard or red meat) and don't allow guests to drink more than the daily recommended intake of wine.

When I was 18 I weighed 108kg. It was mostly because as a child I spent a lot of time playing computer games, watching TV, and eating things like chocolate, McDonalds etc. Actually, I stole coins from my Dad's shelf to buy chocolate at the primary school canteen. Then in highschool I was a boarder and had very limited control over what I ate, and as much of it available as I wanted. Then I went to college which was the same situation.

Then I moved out of college in 3rd year uni and had to pay for each meal as I consumed it (rather than my parents paying boarding fees at the beginning of each year). Suddenly I noticed the opportunity cost of meat (or almost anything other than rice and beans) was too many beers to be acceptable to me (I acknowledge this was particularly unhealthy in a sustainable sense, but I didn't sustain it for too long). Fortunately, soon after I came across an extremely convincing argument in favour of veganism by Peter Singer. Given that I was virtually following a vegan diet already I couldn't find any reason not to make the ethical decision to become vegan entirely. Over the course of the next 18 months my weight steadily reduced to 75kg. It has been around that amount for the last 4 years. I have had more energy and better focus/attention span.

I have recently adopted a macrobiotic diet (whole grains with beans, nuts and some vegetables make up about 95% of this diet) which has led to even higher energy, attention, good humor, less desire for things like chocolate, alcohole etc (I now only feel like drinking 1-2 times / week instead of almost daily), and more enthusiasm for physical activity. Libido and performance also get a boost from eating healthily.

It takes a while to adapt mentally to a new diet, but if anyone needs to reasess their health, macrobiotics seems to be the best choice for anyone anywhere, plus its good for the environment, economy and animals.