News Release, Sep 4, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C.—A new survey by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine reveals that 69.2% of U.S. hospitals affiliated with a medical school host at least one fast-food restaurant.
The five most common fast-food restaurants located in hospitals were Starbucks, Subway, Chick-fil-A, Au Bon Pain, and McDonald’s.
“Making fast food like cheeseburgers and fried chicken available in hospitals is hazardous to the health of patients, visitors, and staff,” says Zeeshan Ali, PhD, the lead author of the paper and a nutrition program specialist with the Physicians Committee.
“Hospitals are places of healing, and any food served in hospitals should help reinforce that message with plenty of healthful meals focused on fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans.”
To determine the prevalence and type of fast-food outlets at medical-school-affiliated hospitals, the Physicians Committee invited medical students at 192 medical and osteopathic schools to complete surveys on fast-food restaurants affiliated with their main teaching hospital or medical centers.
A total of 255 individual completed surveys were received from 146 schools, showing that 101 schools, 69.2%, reportedly hosted at least one fast-food restaurant.
In addition to Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Wendy’s were also among the 38 fast-food restaurant chains located in the hospitals.
Most students surveyed did not think fast-food restaurants should be located in hospitals. More than half strongly or somewhat disagreed with the statement, “It is acceptable for fast-food restaurants to be in hospitals.”
“Having fast food restaurants inside hospitals is a prescription for poor health and undermines health from within,” says Roxanne Becker, MBChB, DipIBLM, a co-author of the paper and doctor with the Physicians Committee.
“Hospitals should be setting the standard when it comes to good nutrition and should house restaurants that reinforce the message that foods that are low in saturated fat, cholesterol-free, and high in fiber are the healthiest options for patients, staff, and visitors.”
Research shows that eating fast food increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Eating fast food four times a week may increase heart disease risk by 80%, according to one study.
A study published in Pediatrics found that when there was a McDonald’s operating inside a hospital, parents and their children who were visiting the hospital as outpatients were more likely to purchase McDonald’s, and four times more likely to consume fast food the day of their appointment.
In 2017, the American Medical Association passed a resolution calling on health care facilities to improve the health of patients, staff, and visitors by:
(a) providing a variety of healthy food, including plant-based meals, and meals that are low in saturated and trans fat, sodium, and added sugars;
(b) eliminating processed meats from menus; and
(c) providing and promoting healthy beverages.
The authors recommend that hospitals encourage fast-food chains to provide healthful menu options or that hospitals replace fast-food restaurants with others that provide healthful choices.
This study was designed to be an update to a 2006 study by Lenard I. Lesser that reported that 63% of U.S. medical schools were affiliated with a hospital that hosted a fast-food restaurant. SOURCE.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: a wolf in sheep’s clothing
ACTIVISTFACTS.COM – PCRM is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, meat, and seafood from the American diet, and to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research.
Despite its operational and financial ties to other animal activist groups and its close relationship with violent zealots, PCRM has successfully duped the media and much of the general public into believing that its pronouncements about the superiority of vegetarian-only diets represent the opinion of the medical community.
“Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians,” Newsweek wrote in February 2004. The respected news magazine continued:
[PCRM president Neal] Barnard has co-signed letters, on PCRM letterhead, with the leader of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, an animal-rights group the Department of Justice calls a “domestic terrorist threat.” PCRM also has ties to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
An agency called the foundation to Support Animal Protection has distributed money from PETA to PCRM in the past and, until very recently, did both groups’ books. Barnard and PETA head Ingrid Newkirk are both on the foundation’s board.
New York Times columnist Joe Sharkey put it more crisply in a November 2004 piece about PCRM’s annual airport-food ratings. “The physicians’ committee has a PETA link,” he wrote, “and its food rankings reflect that agenda.”
While PCRM presents itself as a doctor-supported, unbiased source of health guidance, the group’s own literature echoes Newsweek’s observation that 95 percent of its members have no medical degrees.
And even the five-percent doctor membership that PCRM claims is open to question. Anyone claiming to be a physician or a medical student can join without paying a dime — even if their only motivation is to collect free waiting-room reading material. Current data indicates that only 10 percent of PCRM’s members graduated from medical school.
PCRM’s anti-meat and anti-dairy tactics include newspaper op-eds and letters, campaigns against airports and school boards, and television commercials. One 2005 TV spot claims “the most dangerous thing our kids have to deal with today isn’t violence. It isn’t drugs. It’s unhealthy food.” PCRM’s prescription? “Vegetarian foods.”
The American Medical Association (AMA), which actually represents the medical profession, has called PCRM a “fringe organization” that uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.”PCRM is a font of medical disinformation.
The group has argued, with a straight face, that experiments involving animal subjects “interfere with new drug development.” PCRM even rejects the consensus of the respectable medical community by claiming that animal experimentation “leads AIDS research astray.”
PCRM discourages Americans from making donations to health charities like the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, the American Red Cross, and even Boys Town.
All because they support research that requires animals, in order to cure human diseases. PCRM’s multi-year crusade against the March of Dimes, which includes protests directed at March walkers, volunteers, and donors, has been reported widely.
Attacking Meat and Dairy
Often appearing in a lab coat, PCRM president Neal Barnard looks the part of a mainstream health expert. He also churns out a steady stream of reliably anti-meat and anti-dairy nutrition research. Although his “results” generally conclude that a vegan diet (practiced by a tiny fraction of Americans) will solve any of dozens of health problems, the mass media eats them up. And PCRM is media-savvy enough to take advantage.
But Barnard was trained as a psychiatrist, not a nutritionist. His nutritional advice boils down to one basic message: don’t eat meat, or anything that comes from animals …
