Health campaigners fear obesity among the young is being fuelled by multimillion pound sponsorships of celebrities and events.
Consumer groups combating the epidemic of child obesity are increasingly concerned that junk food manufacturers are exploiting the popularity of sport to target children and young people.
British sport received more than £40m last year from the fast food, confectionery and soft drinks industries through sponsorship of events, governing bodies and stars such as David Beckham, the England rugby captain Laurence Dallaglio, and Gary Lineker.
Sponsorship by such companies as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Cadbury, Nestlé and Walkers accounts for about 10% of the UK market, and the sector is the third largest contributor to British sport, after the financial services industry and alcohol manufacturers.
The Football Association, the Premier League, the British Olympic Association and Manchester United are among the big sporting organisations that receive millions from the industry.
Sport is acknowledged by the junk food manufacturers as an effective means of reaching the crucial youth market.
Asked why McDonald's was sponsoring Euro 2004 by a deal worth £15m, Jeff Wahl, the company's director of worldwide marketing, said: "It's important that we build brand loyalty with kids ... sponsorships like Euro 2004 are a great way to accomplish this."
But with obesity and heart disease on the rise - a recent study found that half the 11- to 15-year-olds in England were overweight or obese - there is increasing international pressure to regulate the marketing of products high in fats, saturated fats, sugar and salt: all elements of a poor diet.
There are also a growing concern that sponsorship is being used as a way to bypass advertising regulations, and some experts have drawn parallels with the way the tobacco industry used sport as a cornerstone of its marketing strategy.
Existing guidelines to advertisers require only that they act "responsibly", but there have been calls to toughen legislation, a development that could have knock-on effects for sport.
The European commission, the World Health Organisation and the Food Standards Authority are all examining the existing regulation of the marketing of junk food.
A parliamentary select committee on obesity has heard evidence on the subject and is due to publish its recommendations next month. The culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, has written to Ofcom asking it to review its guidelines.
The Food Commission has been highly critical of the link between sport and fast food, and particularly the tactic of sponsoring grass roots and community events alongside "marquee" events such as the World Cup and the Olympics.
It has accused the FA and the Premier League of selling out by allowing their school-linked health promotion activities to be compromised by junk-food sponsorship.
The FA receives an estimated £10m annually from McDonald's and Pepsi, and Nestlé is one of the Premier League's six partner sponsors.
Through the FA, McDonald's funds a community football programme that will pay for 10,000 people to qualify as coaches, and provide coaching to more than 600,000 children.
It also retains the World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst and the former Scotland captain Kenny Dalglish as "directors of football".
Tim Lang, professor of food policy and an adviser to the select committee, said that by targeting sport, manufacturers "get themselves off the public health hook".
"It is very convenient for fast food and soft drinks people to sponsor sport, because by doing so they place all the emphasis on activity as the means of avoiding obesity rather than both activity and diet," he said.
"There is a similarity between the strategy of the food industry today and the tobacco industry.
Both have used sport as a means of reaching young people, and both began by denying evidence that their products are harmful to health.
There is a horrible familiarity in the way the food companies have behaved; they are trying to buy influence and present a kindly face."
The endorsement of leading sports stars is a key part of the food sector's marketing strategy. A new Pepsi advert featuring Beckham will get its first showing in Madrid next week, Dallaglio is currently the face of a McDonald's TV campaign, and Lineker has promoted Walkers for several years.
Ian Campbell, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said that by accepting sponsorship from food companies the stars risked undermining parental messages about healthy lifestyles.
"The manufacturers want to be associated with these stars but I cannot accept that by advertising these products they are helping," he said.
"It is sad that we need sport to be funded by these people in the first place.
"If these people really are altruistic in wanting to support sport then they would put money into a blind trust and do it without their logos on display.
"I would like to see the regulations on advertising and marketing tightened up. Ideally this could be done voluntarily, but if necessary there should be regulation. The stakes are too high, the health of our children is too important."
Despite the concern of health campaigners, the junk food companies appear to be winning the argument in sport and government.
Officials of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Sport England, the quango charged by the government with increasing participation in sport, praised McDonald's for its community work.
The department also made it clear that legislation on advertising and sponsorship was a last resort, and that the government favoured a voluntary code.
Craig Reedie, chairman of the British Olympic Association, which receives an estimated £200,000 a year from Coca-Cola and McDonald's, said the dilemma for sporting authorities was balancing the benefits of income with the message it sends.
"I am comfortable with the income we receive from these sponsors," he said.
"We use it to fund two Olympic teams for a four-year cycle. We are in the business of creating heroes, and if this funding produces a gold medallist, many more young people will be inspired to take up sport and activity, which will do them a great deal of good."
All the major junk food manufacturers counter criticism by maintaining that the key to tackling obesity is a balance between activity and diet.
They maintain that their products are not in themselves harmful.
A spokesman for Pepsi said: "We believe the focus should be on promoting a balanced diet and regular exercise".
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