“Children become obese very slowly. We have these images of parents just taking their kids to McDonalds, parents stuffing their children’s faces. It’s grossly unfair,” says Prof Russell Viner, the new President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

The paediatrician spent 15 years working at University College London Hospital adolescent medicine service, specialising in diabetes and obesity.

He believes the odds are firmly stacked against families who are trying to bring up children healthily, in a word where huge portions, processed, calorie-dense foods are pushed at every turn.

One third of children in England are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school. And three quarters of millennials are forecast to reach this point by middle age.

Asked about the drivers of obesity, Prof Viner suggests individuals are relatively powerless, with heavy advertising, availability and low pricing of unhealthy foods fuelling Britain’s ever expanding waistlines.

“It’s 90 per cent about the environment, much less about individual change,” he says.