“Why do they hate McDonald’s so much? Some of us might not think its food tastes that great, but surely that is a matter of, well, taste. There is no evidence that eating a McDonald’s meal is bad for you, but plenty to suggest that it is being made an easy scapegoat for obesity.

I want to let you in on a scientific secret. There is no such thing as ‘junk food’. Given the news coverage that it attracts, this may sound like saying that there is no war in Iraq. But junk food really is a myth. As Professor Stanley Feldman from the University of London told me: ‘Of course, some foods taste better or are more nutritious. But the idea that some are ‘junk’ – containing nothing of value, or harmful to our health – is nonsense.” — Mick Hume (spiked)