In my time, I’ve been known to eat far too much fat, salt and sugar – sometimes simultaneously – so believe me, I’m no paragon of virtue on the issue of healthy eating.

But because I’m no stranger to the not-so-tasty side effects of junk food, I also know that when the kilos start to pile it, getting rid of them is damned hard work.

It is much easier to avoid junk, and the detrimental health effects, in the first place.

So, as a nation, we need to go on a diet.

With the call for action this week by some of the nation’s leading health bodies, debate has been reignited about the merits or otherwise of a sugar tax.

The Tipping the Scales report has recommended a 20 per cent tax on sugar as part of a raft of measures aimed at helping us to, quite literally, tighten our belts.

I have no objection to a sugar tax. Anything that makes a shopper decide on fruit over chocolate has got to be a good thing.

But it does make one wonder if there isn’t room for us to consider whether we’ve got the whole shopping experience backwards.

One of the reasons junk food is so popular is because it’s often cheaper than fresh, healthy food. And that’s heartbreaking.

Should we as consumers admit that what we really need is for supermarkets to turn shopping experiences upside down.

We don’t need two-for-one deals on the chocolate bar of the week. We need broccoli to be 50 cents a kilo cheaper.

Instead of mark-downs on ice-cream, we need reduced prices on frozen beans.

And we need to stop considering sugar, fat and salt as some kind of “treat” because, no matter how good they taste, this stuff is actually killing us.

And it’s absolutely everywhere. You’d have to live under a rock in the Antarctic to avoid the pervasive nature of advertising and the influence of big brands.

If you’ve travelled abroad, you’ll probably have snapped a sign of yourself with the local version of at least one globally recognised food brand.

It is estimated that about two-thirds of Australians are overweight, and quarter of the population is actually classified as obese.

We know our world is changing. We lead increasingly sedentary lives as we move further away from labor-intensive jobs.

Commuting is, more often than not, done in vehicles and mod cons in the home make chores there physically easier.

As a society, we just don’t do the same back-breaking work that we once did, so we just don’t need the same amounts of food.

Cornish pasties may have been a great way to get meat and veg into the stomach of a miner working underground, for example, but they are simply too rich in kilojoules to be anything more than  ‘sometimes’ food for most of us.

Our grandmothers may want to encourage us to clear our plates and ask for seconds, but unless it’s steamed veggies, we need to say no.

As our nation has moved further away from labour-intensive jobs and a sturdy manufacturing base, the economy has changed. So much of our national prosperity depends on our ability to buy stuff. And a lot of the stuff is food that we just don’t need.

We’ve been conditioned to think of sugar, salt and fat as rewards – little treats for ourselves, our friends and our kids. But we have to admit that what we are treating ourselves to is, more often than not, diabetes, heart problems and a lengthy session in the dentist’s chair.

Jody Lindbeck

jody.lindbeck@fairfaxmedia.com.au