Do hospitals legitimise junk food?

The "obesity crisis" in the UK has again made headlines this week. A report by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges called for a range of measures from taxing sugary drinks to improving food in hospitals. A report by the group Sustain has also called for hospital food to meet mandatory nutritional standards. In the week's Scrubbing Up, Dr Aseem Malhotra argues that hospitals must lead by example.

It is demoralising to observe patients on daily ward rounds gorging on burgers, crisps, and chocolates, washed down with a sugary drink - the very food items that contributed to their admission in the first place.

When I recently told a heart attack survivor in his 50s that the can of coke he was drinking contained nine teaspoons of sugar, he replied "you sold it to me".

Like most clinicians I find it really quite appalling that many hospitals continue to have high street fast food franchises on site as well as corridors littered with vending machines selling junk food.

A study in the US found that families that made out patient paediatric visits were four times more likely to eat junk food (at any time of the day) if they visited a hospital with a fast food restaurant on site.

By legitimising the acceptability of junk food, hospitals have become a risk factor for obesity and diet related disease.

So why have we allowed hospitals to remain a branding opportunity for the junk food industry?

The common argument that chief executives and senior managers use to defend such practice is that the revenue from the sale of such products is used to "save lives".

But we don't sell alcohol to treat liver disease or cigarettes to treat lung cancer because it would be considered unacceptable.

More on this story here.