Sept. 4, 2006 – Doctors? lectures on healthy lifestyles do not often translate outside the office, where even hospitals are offering fast food to patients, a new study has found.
The study, to be published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, found that of the 234 hospitals surveyed, 42 percent were hosting brand-name fast food at their on-site restaurants and cafeterias.
Some of the prominent hospitals that serve fast food include Tufts-New England Medical Center, where Pizza Hut and Dunkin Donuts are available, according to the report; the Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia, which reportedly hosts a McDonald's; and the University of Michigan Hospital, where patients, visitors and staff can opt for Wendy?s.
The report was prepared by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), a 68,000-member organization of physicians in training, which launched a Healthy Foods in Hospitals Campaign in 2005.
"The medical community must practice what it's preaching," said study author Dr. Lenny Lesser, in a press release. Lesser is AMSA's Healthy Hospitals Campaign coordinator and a family-medicine resident at Tufts University. "It is deplorable for a doctor to lecture a patient on taking more careful precautions against heart disease, while there is McDonald's in the hospital's lobby serving a fried-food lunch."
AMSA is urging hospitals to remove the fast-food vendors from their premises. For hospitals that refuse to do so, AMSA is proposing that nutritional information be posted on menu boards.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease, which has been linked with poor nutrition and high cholesterol, is the leading cause of death in the US. Studies have found that people who eat fast food tend to eat higher percentages of fat and calories, and experience long-term weight gain.
