Children's Hospitals Serve Up Junk Food

In the wake of a medical journal report that castigates 14 California children's hospitals for selling unhealthy food, Children's Hospital of Orange County has retooled its menu, a spokeswoman said Monday.

"The food in many hospitals is no better—and in some cases worse—than what you would find in a fast food restaurant," said Dr. Lenard Lesser of UCLA, the lead investigator for the study, which was published in the journal Academic Pediatrics. "As health professionals, we understand the connection between healthy eating and good health, and our hospitals should be role models in this regard." 

The report said only 7 percent of the entrees dished up by children's hospital cafeterias around the state qualified as healthy, according to a UCLA press release. The findings were based on such factors as pricing, availability of vegetables, nutrition labeling, and the fat and sugar content of food and drinks.

The average score was 19.1 on a scale of 0 (least healthy) to 37 (most healthy). Although nearly all the hospitals offered healthy alternatives such as fruit, less than one-third posted nutritional information or displayed signs to promote healthy eating.

Other key findings:

• All the food venues offered low-fat or skim milk and diet soda.
• 81 percent offered high-calorie, high-sugar items such as cookies and ice cream near the cash register.
• 25 percent sold whole wheat bread.
• Half offered no indication they carried healthy entrees.
• 44 percent didn't have low-calorie salad dressings.

Since the study was conducted, in July 2010, some of the hospitals have taken steps to improve. Some eliminated fried food, lowered the price of salads or dropped sugary beverages from their cafeterias.

CHOC spokeswoman Denise Almazan said her hospital, which is located in Orange, instituted "several enhancements" to its cafeteria, including healthier entree specials, nutritional information signs, healthy snacks near the cash register (baked chips, roasted nuts, pretzels, hummus and fruit), and an expanded salad bar that now offers made-to-order salads with lean meats.

"We have always offered—and will continue to do so—low-fat salad dressings and low-fat and nonfat beverage options," she said.

Study author Lesser praised such efforts. "The steps some hospitals are already taking to improve nutrition and reduce junk food are encouraging," he said. "We plan to make this nutritional quality measurement tool available to hospitals around the country to help them assess and improve their food offerings."  

Other hospitals in the survey included Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital and Research Center at Oakland, Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Rady Children's Hospital–San Diego, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and the UC Davis Children's Hospital.

The study also said it analyzed food at UC Irvine's University Children's Hospital, but UCI spokesman John Murray said the center closed in 2009, before the study.

Ratings for individual hospitals weren't published but were given to hospital executives. CHOC didn't respond to a Patch request for its survey score.