It also used the experience of intervention models in Denmark in particular, as well as the UK, the US and New Zealand to help approximate how consumers would behave when prices fluctuated.

"This is a feasible intervention," said the report's co-author, Professor Tony Blakely.

Tax could see price of ice-cream rise by 65 per cent

Under the modelling, foods were taxed based on the units of sugar, the units of saturated fats and the units of salt they contained.

"Some foods that had all — high salt, high sugar, high saturated fat — would have a bigger price increase than those that had, say, just saturated fat, but not high sugar or salt," Dr Blakely said.

A basket of goods used in the report showed a chocolate bar would cost about 10 per cent more, while ice-cream, with high levels of sugar and fat, would rise as much as 65 per cent.

The cost of a kilogram of apples would fall by a quarter.

The researchers deliberately set about to find a combination of taxes and subsidies that would be "fiscally neutral" for consumers.

The aim was for "no change in expenditure, because they would shift their consumption and slightly reduce their energy intake", Dr Blakely said.

The recommendations can expect resistance from the producers of foods that are seen to be unhealthy.

Geoff Parker from the Australian Beverage Council described it as "a new GST".

"There's no evidence anywhere in the world that these types of taxes have any discernible impact on public health," he said.

"It's really disappointing that in 2017, the only solution being put forward to address a complex problem like obesity is tax, then another tax, then another tax.

"We need to be having a smarter dialogue around how to address the nation's expanding waistline."

The researchers beg to differ, but they know they have got a PR battle to fight.

Dr Blakely advises a gradual approach - first to put a tax on sugary drinks, a measure which already has some community support.

"It's a sensible place to start politically because it's an identified, targeted food group," he said.

If that worked, he added, then "we can widen it out and then have a system of taxes and subsidies that benefits more people, saves more money".

"That feeds through to changed disease rates, like diabetes obviously, which then changes the costs that people get in the health system and changes life expectancy."