Are Hospitals Practicing What They Preach?

Most US Hospitals have fast food outlets in their site, thus giving an idea to the patients of fast food being healthy, in reality it is not. According to a report in the journal of the American Academics of pediatrics, 59 out of 200 hospitals had fast food outlets.

Dr. Hannah Sahud, pediatrician at Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh said, 'We're giving two different messages by being in the health care profession and promoting health and saying obesity is a huge medical problem ... and then implicitly encouraging it.'

17% of the children at US are considered obese; food consumed with high amounts of calories and fat is the reason.

Parents who visit hospitals, tend to eat at these fast food points that day. So the message children take home is different from what they actually have to.

Dr Sahud said, 'efforts are needed to balance the dietary choices and social messages'.

McDonald was one of the most prevalent restaurants found at hospitals. Bill Whitman, spokesperson of McDonald denies having seen the study yet.

He also said, 'McDonald's menu provides customers with a wide variety of menu choices, including fruits, vegetables, mixed greens, 100 percent USDA-inspected hamburgers ... many of the same foods that we find in our refrigerators and cupboards at home.'

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Anyway many children would opt for fast food when having such an outlet, thus rightly said by Dr. Sarah Barlow, an obesity specialist, 'Hospitals should be walking the walk, not just talking the talk.'

Source-Medindia
SRM