Yep, and so many prepared foods contain sugar that it's ridiculous. Sometimes we play the "where's sugar on the list?" game when reading the ingredients on a label. And so many times they use weasel words to make it seem like there's less sugar, like "fructose", "corn syrup", "white grape juice". My grandfather developed diabetes about 15 years ago, and he thought that if the label didn't specifically say "sugar", that it was OK. It took my parents ages to convince him otherwise, and in the meantime he was chug-a-lugging super-sweetened fruit drinks, because he thought they were simply fruit juice. I'm surprised he didn't go into a diabetic coma.

I'm not sure if US fast food portions are bigger than the UK's - I didn't go to burger stands when I visited your fair islands. But I know they are bigger than when I was a child and teen. When travelling, we'll stop to get iced tea, and many places don't even have "small" drinks - just medium, large and super. Although I didn't see it, there's a documentary called "Supersize Me" which follows a fellow for a month as he eats only fast food, and always takes the super sized meal if it was offered. I hear the impact on his health was apalling.

I shouldn't rant about junky food when I'm hungry.... mmm, jelly doughnut!