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Make Hospital Food Healthy
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Why Meaty, Cheesy Fast Food Doesn’t Belong in Hospitals
Making fast food like cheeseburgers, fried chicken, and pepperoni pizza available in hospitals sends the wrong message to patients, staff, and visitors.
Animal products common in fast food meals, including red and processed meat, chicken, and dairy products, are associated with chronic diseases including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.
A study published in the journal Circulation found that people who eat fast food—including hamburgers and cheeseburgers, pizza, deep-fried chicken, and hot dogs—once a week increase their risk of dying from heart disease by 20%. Two to three fast-food meals a week increase the risk of premature death by 50%. Four or more fast-food meals a week increase the risk of dying from heart disease by nearly 80%.
Eating two or more servings a week of restaurant hamburgers increases the risk of diabetes by 40% and two or more servings of fried chicken a week increases the risk of diabetes by 68%, according to another study.
Despite the clear link between fast food and chronic disease, offering fast food at hospitals gives visitors the false sense that fast food is healthier than it truly is and encourages patients to consume unhealthy foods.
A study published in Pediatrics found that when there was a McDonald’s operating inside a hospital, parents and their children who were attending 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 compared with those attending a hospital that did not have McDonald’s onsite. Visitors to a hospital that had a McDonald’s onsite were also more likely to rate McDonald’s food healthier.
How You Can Help
- If you are a hospital administrator or employee, visit our resource portal to get started with the Healthy Food in Health Care Toolkit.
- Check the list below and see if your local hospital hosts a fast-food restaurant. If so, urge it to only host restaurants that offer healthful, cholesterol-free plant-based meals.
- Ask your local hospital to adopt the Healthy Food Options in Hospitals policy issued by the American Medical Association (AMA). Hospitals should provide tasty, plant-based options that can speed recovery as well as prevent and even reverse diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Hospitals should also eliminate cancer-causing processed meats including hot dogs and bacon.
Hospitals That Host Fast-Food Restaurants
Alabama
Chick-fil-A
- University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital
California
McDonald’s
- Naval Medical Center San Diego in San Diego
Florida
Chick-fil-A
- Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville
- UF Health Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville
McDonald’s
- Tampa General Hospital in Tampa
Wendy’s
- Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola
- UF Health Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville
Georgia
Chick-fil-A
- Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta
- Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta
- Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville
- Piedmont Fayette Hospital in Fayetteville
McDonald’s
- Northside Hospital in Atlanta
Michigan
Wendy’s
- DMC Harper University Hospital in Detroit
Mississippi
Chick-fil-A
- Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg
- North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo
- University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson
McDonald’s
- Methodist Rehabilitation Center/University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson
North Carolina
Chick-fil-A
- Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte
- Duke University Hospital Complex in Durham
Ohio
Wendy’s
- Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus
Oklahoma
Chick-fil-A
- Duncan Regional Hospital in Duncan
South Carolina
Chick-fil-A
- Greenville Memorial Hospital in Greenville
- Medical University of South Carolina University Hospital Complex in Charleston
Tennessee
Chick-fil-A
- Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson
Texas
Chick-fil-A
- Texas Children's Hospital in Houston
- Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth
- Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock
- Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas
- University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston
- University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
McDonald’s
- John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth
- Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston
Virginia
Chick-fil-A
- Chippenham Hospital in Richmond
- Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond
Wendy’s
- Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond
West Virginia
Chick-fil-A
- The Health Sciences Campus in Morgantown, which includes J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital
Hospitals That Closed McDonald’s
California
- Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in Los Angeles | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2015
- Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2016
Florida
- Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale closed McDonald’s restaurant in 2019
- Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami closed McDonald’s restaurant
- Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2014
Georgia
- Children's Hospital of Georgia in Augusta, closed McDonald’s restaurant 2021
- Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2016
- Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon
Indiana
- Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2013
Iowa
- Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines | Closed McDonald’s restaurant
Kentucky
- Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2016
Minnesota
- Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2016
Missouri
- Truman Medical Center in Kansas City | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2012
Ohio
- Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2015
Texas
- Ben Taub Hospital in Houston | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2017
- Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi | Closed McDonald’s restaurant 2015
