A common message from health experts about how to cure the obesity crisis is to ditch processed food and return to fresh food and home-based cooking. But in a new, much-talked-about article, one journalist argues that demonizing processed food isn't helping, and the answer may actually be found in your neighbourhood drive-thru.

In an article published in The Atlantic magazine entitled “How Junk Food Can End Obesity,” journalist David H. Freedman argues that much of what we’re being told is good, wholesome food can actually be just as fat- and sugar-laden as so-called junk food.

He argues that people love junk food too much to ever hope it could be made to disappear. So instead of trying to ban pop, chips and burgers altogether, we should work with the fast-food industry to encourage them to make healthier fare.

“We’ve been telling people for years, ‘Eat more fruits and vegetables.’ They don’t,” Freedman told CTV’s Canada AM from Boston.

“What we really need to do is do something about that junky food –- not to get rid of it because that’s not going to happen, but to actually make it a little healthier. And companies know how to do that.”

Fast food companies such as McDonald’s have been making health-motivated changes to its menus for years, Freedman writes. They’ve been shrinking portion sizes, reducing some fats, trimming salt content, and adding fruits, vegetables and things like oatmeal and whole grain buns to their menus.

Many of these changes have been made quietly so as not to upset the core customer base, who have shown time and time again they are not interested in foods that might be “healthy.”

Freedman argues that other restaurants and food companies could be making these changes too, without a lot of difficulty.

“When it comes to Big Macs or fries or a Coke, there are all kinds of technological tricks for lowering fat, lowering sugar and making it a much healthier thing to eat while still preserving all the sensations that junk eaters love,” he says.

Freedman says he has nothing against wholesome foods and tries to eat as much of it as he can. But he says people will always be drawn to junk food too.

“I think people should try to eat healthy if they can. But the fact of the matter is there’s a reason why so many of us are hooked on junk food: it’s cheap, it’s convenient, it’s really tasty, it pushes all the right buttons in our brain,” he says.

In his article, Freedman points out that a lot of the foods found in health food stores touted as “low in saturated fat” or “vegan” or “organic” are actually highly processed and often contain sky-high levels of sodium and fat.

“I don’t want to get down on wholesome food. I try to eat wholesome food and everybody should try to eat wholesome food. But a lot of it is absolutely junkier than stuff you’ll get at McDonald’s or Burger King or elsewhere,” he said.

What also bothers Freedman about the “wholesome food” movement is that it is inherently elitist. He argues that many who espouse it fail to take into account the fact that the obese are disproportionately poor and often can’t afford to buy and make their own fresh foods.

The poor also tend to live in what scientists call “food deserts,” meaning there are few stores in their neighbourhoods that offer fresh foods and healthier choices. What the poor often do have close at hand are fast food outlets.

“So when we say the solution is wholesome food, we are really excluding an enormous percentage of the sick and obese population,” Freedman said.

In the two weeks since his article appeared online, Freedman says the reaction has been mostly negative. But he believes that many of the people who are lashing out at his argument have “sort of ‘drunk the Kool-Aid" on the wholesome food thing” and can’t see past their belief that the only solution to the obesity crisis is fresh foods.

“I salute those people who can stick to that diet and who can afford it,” he said. “But it’s not a solution for everybody else. But they think it is and they are really angry that I’m saying that we should work with the giant food companies. But we should.”