The garbohydrates (yep that's a 'g' not a 'c') are a new food classification designed to cope with the rise and rise of junk food.

The diet pyramids and diet plates no longer provide consumers with adequate advice about how to eat wisely. This is because the garbohydrates have taken such a prominent place in what people eat - at home, and when they're out.

It's not just take-aways. A lot of junk food is prepared and eaten at home. In fact the 'official' food guidelines fail to take into account the high proportion of junk food being eaten within the home.

The garbohydrates fit into the Red Zone of the Hourglass Diet model.

The fast food division of the industry is dedicated to providing its customers with instant gratification. I was going to write ‘culinary gratification’ but for most of this food you won’t need a knife, fork, spoon or chop stick to get it into your mouth.

The manufactured food industry stands as one of the pinnacles of man’s achievements; the ability to instantaneously satisfy people’s hunger at the cheapest possible price. Imbedded from bottom to top in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is a powerful, irresistible force.
 
Most of my fellow junk food technologists work for multi-national companies that are hell-bent on lowering the cost of junk food, increasing its palatability, serving it to their customers in the shortest possible time and giving them the biggest possible energy bang for their buck.

The expansion of abdomens, thighs, buttocks and trousers is in direct proportion to the expansion of the sale and consumption of high density manufactured food. The sale and consumption of fresh food will continue to decline.

The other effect of the junk food epidemic sweeping across the face of the globe will be a community where the incidence of personally-generated metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological dysfunction will continue to escalate. The national medical bill will charge through 20% of GDP, sucking the lifeblood out of communities and threatening to bankrupt individuals and their governments. The Australian states already spend close to a third of their income on subsidizing medical treatments, particularly through public hospitals. The responsibility for privately generated medical expenses has been shifted to the public purse.
 
The influence of the manufacturers of foods high in fat, flour, potato and sugar has extended to the highest echelons of government, the medical industry and that part of the nutrition industry that purports to inspire people to eat healthy, nutritious food. In particular, the relationship between the American Dietetic Association and the junk food industry passeth all understanding.
 
The junk food industry has spawned two generations of people who will never return to their ideal weight, that is unless they’re prepared to sign up for and bust their guts on the Biggest Loser.
 
For those intent on stemming the junk food tide, the chances of success match those of King Canute.
 
In the face of the junk food onslaught, brochures and posters extolling the benefits of fruit and vegetables are a waste of ink and paper. These attempts by well meaning people to promote healthy eating bear no comparison with the efforts of the junk food industry to promote fat, flour, potato and sugar.

In fact the war between intention to maintain and ideal weight and exercise more is being won by manufacturing industries hell bent on encouraging people to eat more high density food and reduce the amount of exercise they do while navigating the comforts of a sedentary society.

And the winners are? You guessed it.

I doubt that plain packaging will have much of an effect, though if it’s the packet and branding that attracts cigarette smokers, you can bet your life the same thing is happening to junk food eaters. It’s worth a try just to stick it up the junk food industry and its barking dogs on Madison Avenue.
 
It's doubtful if putting a tax on sugar would help reduce consumption Being so cheap, a tax on sugar would have to be a very steep tax to have any effect.

My preference is to compel food manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar in the foods they make. Cool and other flavoured drinks whole be obligated to reach a target of less than 5% added sugar within the net 10 years. Same with manufactured breakfast biscuits. Some of them are just plain confectionery masquerading as a wholesome cereal. Reducing the amount of sugar in chocolate would dramatically reduce its consumption. In fact for most palates it would taste so bitter people wouldn't eat it at all.
 
A super tax on foods containing fat and sugar, fat and potato and fat and flour would definitely upset manufacturers and consumers alike, but maybe they need to be upset. They’re running amok. A deposit on their wrappers, paper bags, cardboard boxes and take-away containers and drink bottles might be one way to do it, and kill two birds with the one stone. If large cool drink bottles had the same deposit as bottles had in 1960, the current deposit would cost 80 cents. That would certainly put a brake on consumption.
 
Shock horror: I heard someone saying that you don't need to tax junk food, just increase the Medicare levy on people who are over weight (and under fit). The money could be used to fund the enormous cost to the illhealth budget. Health insurance generally is one of the few insurances where premiums are not rated against risk.
 
Having said all that, the damage has been done and will continue to be done regardless of what a well meaning health community can do. Politicians will sit down with the junk food and junk drink sponsors at the football and be present at functions where these sponsorships are announced. But when the lion sits down with the lamb, the chances of the lamb coming out alive are remote.

The next generation will be fatter, more depressed and more dysfunctional than any other generation in history.
 
But whatever you think about the outlook for the junk food industry it will be utterly fantastic.
 
Eat and grow fat.
 

Frank McFatter