"Majic bullet" to offset bad effect of junk?

(source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McDonald%27s_McDouble_close.jpg)

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/doctors-call-on-fast-food-outlets-to-offer-heart-pills-20100813-122ua.html

Sydney Morning Herald chose to publish this article from the Guardian in the UK despite the suggestion was from a cardiologist at the Imperial College. It is because the control junk food consumption and obesity are of high relevancy to Australians. It is one of the most concerned health issue in the society apart from alcohol and tobacco use. Recently the Australian Green has announced its healthcare plan which proposed to lift tax on junk food ad, hoping to improve health of Australians (see source 1).

I was not convinced by the idea of giving out pills at fast food outlets as a means of lowering health risks of consuming junk food. The junk food tax proposal or compulsory nutrition labelling on menu recommendation by the Australian Heart Foundation are more appealing to me (see source 2). Regardless, this article presented arguments from various experts which helped explain the controversies. However what I believe a nice-to-have for this article was the unhealthy effects the Statin pills cannot remove, for example, "odium content is high, fibres are absent, and caloric load gargantuan" as suggested in an article from topnews.us (see source 3).

This article was written in the traditional hard news format, employing the inverted pyramid structure. It served to present timley facts to its readers - recent paper published by the UK cardiologist Dr Darel Francis who proposed the controversial idea of providing cholesterol-lowering pills in fast food outlet to reduce the harmful effect of junk food. Its timeliness and the conflicts among experts views (both for and against the proposal) make it an interesting and newsworthy piece.

Sources:

1)http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/greens-launch-healthcare-plan-20100802-112qi.html

2)http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/sites/healthyeating/Healthprofessionals/Pages/NutritionLabellingonMenus.aspx

3)http://topnews.us/content/224579-experts-express-views-over-serving-statin-junk-food