Why is hospital food unhealthy?
“Set critical conditions, CVD [cardiovascular disease] it kills one American every 39 seconds and causes more deaths each year than cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and accidents combined.” With most heart attack deaths, you just keep going. Sudden cardiac death is “the first manifestation of CHD [coronary heart disease] most people, especially women.” Thus, “for many of these victims of sudden death, their death was the first sign of the presence of heart disease.” They didn’t even know they had heart disease. That’s why an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure—because there is no cure for death.
This is why the prevention of sudden cardiac death is still “a major public health challenge” because many people do not even know they are at risk. However, we have known for more than half a century, when we start examining the bodies of soldiers who died during the Korean War, that coronary artery disease starts in our youth, even among young children. Therefore, “business as usual … just won’t deliver the improvements needed to significantly improve a CV. [cardiovascular] the health of the United States” and the rest of the world.
However, there is good news. A “risk-free lifestyle (not smoking, regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, and maintaining a healthy weight)” may be able to eliminate a large portion of the risk of sudden cardiac death. “It’s high time we started strong heart disease prevention programs in our schools, homes and workplaces.” How about starting in our hospitals?
As I discuss in my video Hospitals profit from junk foodA significant percentage of the hospitals surveyed have fast food restaurants within them, with Krispy Kreme topping the list. Clever marketing, given that “families surveyed in hospitals with McDonald’s were…twice as likely to think McDonald’s was healthy, compared to families in hospitals without McDonald’s.” After all, McDonald’s was in the hospital.
What about the food served in hospital restaurants? Any better? Researchers analyzed 384 admissions at 14 children’s hospitals in California, and only 7 percent were “considered healthy.” And, in case someone chooses the rare healthy option, 81 percent of children’s hospital cafeterias have “high-calorie items, such as frozen ice cream, cookies, and candy, at or near the checkout register” and 38 percent. “had signs that encouraged unhealthy eating.” Why would they do that?
When you ask hospital restaurant managers, “less than a quarter (4 out of 17) of respondents reported that the hospital followed standards for the food served in the restaurant.” “Nutrition is not a priority.” It’s the same reason unhealthy food is sold elsewhere: “pressure on food service departments to make restaurants profitable.”
“For more emphasis…[is] placed in the management of the hospital catering department as a profit center”—a large and “profit center,” that is. It’s such a metaphor for our health care system as a whole, where healthy, root-cause treatments trump pills and procedures that bring in more money.
What do you expect from the private sector? Government hospitals do not seem to be much better. A 2019 analysis of veterans hospitals found that “all VA Hospitals have vending machines that serve soda, candy, and junk food that are in direct conflict with recommendations for healthy food choices from the US federal government,” such as, ironically, “hospital visits.” It can promote extreme poor health….The important question to ask is why are there soda or candy machines available in our VA hospitals? Are we trading the lives of our veterans for profit?”
Maybe it’s time to ban junk food from hospital premises. “In daily rounds, it’s surprising to see patients…eating crisps [potato chips]confectionery [candy]sports drinks, and cola—the very foods that may have contributed to their initial acceptance…It’s a shame that so many hospitals continue to have…fast food joints on site, and hallways full of junk food vending machines. . Such a practice ensures the acceptance and use of these foods in the daily diet…The obesity epidemic represents a public health problem, but it is a public health scandal that by authorizing junk food hospitals they risk the risk of food-related diseases on an ongoing basis. the revolving door of health care…It is time to stop selling disease on hospital premises.”
What message do residents get when they are served pizza and soda in large rounds? We need a health care system that is “more Hippocratic, less hypocritical.”
To find out more about how the profit motive is ruining our health, see the related post below.
