OPINION: An unhealthy attitude to eating and sport

And Coca-Cola is to remove its ads from 4,000 vending machines in secondary schools.

For some years now, our focus on health issues in relation to young people tended to dwell on the sharper problems: sexual health, mental health - notably eating disorders - and substance misuse. If it is not too awful a pun, I would say we have failed to keep our eye on the ball - and failed to address routine questions of fatness and fitness.

The declining physical fitness of young people first came to my attention in the late 1980s. In 1987, I broke my leg playing football and at first decided it was time for graceful retirement from the game. A year later, however, an ex-youth club member asked me if I would manage the team he played for. They were always arguing among themselves and Lee knew that I was a good organiser. I took on the challenge and every Sunday afternoon organised training in the local park. That was the first time I noticed how dreadfully unfit the players were, and this was a group of young men in their late teens and early twenties who were apparently "active". They struggled to complete even fairly elementary training routines. Of course, this restored my belief that I could carry on playing.