Tonsils Come Out, Fries Go In

By Andrew Jenkins in Food on Dec 4, 2006 7:32PM

By this point we’re pretty much used to Chicago catching some flak for its portly midsection. So we were saddened, though not surprised, that our very own Children’s Memorial Hospital is the focus of a study that explores the effects of having fast-food restaurants located inside pediatric centers. Out of our country’s 250 children’s hospitals, 59 of them have fast-food joints located on-site. Children’s Memorial found a way to one-up the other 58, however, by not only having a McDonald’s in the building, but also one 20 feet across the street.

The study, published today in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, concluded that offering fast food in hospitals leads to more patients’ families eating the stuff while also perceiving the food to be somewhat healthy. The “if it’s in a hospital, it must be healthy” rationale was the most troublesome finding for the study’s lead author, Dr. Hannah Sahud, a pediatrician who conducted her research while at Children’s Memorial.

Sahud and fellow researchers surveyed 386 adults who were leaving various Chicago hospitals after their child’s outpatient visit, and found that 56 percent of the people leaving Children’s Memorial had eaten McDonald's during the day. Now we’re not big fans of the typical cafeteria setting (see one exception), but we’ll likely take it over a hospital McDonald’s, especially if it sets a good example for the kiddies. A Children’s Memorial spokesperson told the Tribune that McDonald’s was brought into the hospital a while back so that kids having a rough time could have a treat. And while Chicagoist is definitely in favor of ice cream for sick kids, there are some tough contradictions with having fast food in hospitals that are just tough to ignore.

Image via www.mcdonalds.com.