A new study finds hospital cafeterias to be among the lowest-ranking providers of nutritional food.

A new study finds hospital cafeterias to be among the lowest-ranking providers of nutritional food. 

Thank you http://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/1202/healthy-options-not-plentiful-in-hospital-cafeterias.aspx

THURSDAY, Dec. 2, 2011 (MedPage Today) —Hospital cafeterias have long been an object of jokes about unappetizing food, and results from a recent survey of children's hospitals in California may add "unhealthy" to the stereotype.

A large majority of the 16 hospital eating places surveyed (81%) had high-calorie impulse buying options such as ice cream, cookies, or candy at or near the checkout lines, Lenard Lesser, MD, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues found.

Half of the venues offered combinations that added a side and a drink for a lesser price, giving a discount for more items. And 38% of the venues priced their healthy entrees at a premium to the unhealthy ones, they reported in the October issue of Academic Pediatrics. 

On the other hand, a majority of eating venues in children's hospitals did have low-fat or skimmed milk, diet sodas, baked chips, salad bars, fruits without sugars, and non-fried vegetables outside of the salad bar. 

In addition, about half made nutrition informationavailable on the menu or had designated some items as being healthy. Less than half had signage that encouraged healthy eating choices.

THURSDAY, Dec. 2, 2011 (MedPage Today) —Hospital cafeterias have long been an object of jokes about unappetizing food, and results from a recent survey of children's hospitals in California may add "unhealthy" to the stereotype.

A large majority of the 16 hospital eating places surveyed (81%) had high-calorie impulse buying options such as ice cream, cookies, or candy at or near the checkout lines, Lenard Lesser, MD, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues found. 

Half of the venues offered combinations that added a side and a drink for a lesser price, giving a discount for more items. And 38% of the venues priced their healthy entrees at a premium to the unhealthy ones, they reported in the October issue of Academic Pediatrics. 

On the other hand, a majority of eating venues in children's hospitals did have low-fat or skimmed milk, diet sodas, baked chips, salad bars, fruits without sugars, and non-fried vegetables outside of the salad bar. 

In addition, about half made nutrition informationavailable on the menu or had designated some items as being healthy. Less than half had signage that encouraged healthy eating choices. 

"The provision of food in a hospital setting is itself an implied message to patrons and employees because it models acceptable meals and other food service behaviors," wrote the authors. "Children's hospitalsrepresent locations with great potential for influencing what people eat ... Furthermore, hospital food venues can serve as exemplars of healthy food environments and function as a place where nutrition education can be directed at children and their families." 

Previous studies have found poor food environments at hospitals, with one larger study showing that 42% of 234 hospitals were serving brand-name "fast food" such as Krispy Kreme and McDonald's, they noted. 

Other researchers have graded pediatric hospital cafeterias by scoring and ranking their performance based upon interviews with food service directors, but those results may have suffered from misrepresenting their habits, the researchers suggested. 

In order to obtain more objective data, Lesser and colleagues used a modified version of the Nutritional Environment Measures Survey for Cafeterias and directly observed the food-service areas — including cafeterias and fast-food eateries — at all 14 tertiary children's hospitals in the state. 

The survey summarized the number of items offered at each place, whether calorie labeling was available, whether any signage promoted healthy or unhealthy eating, how the pricing structure worked, and if there were unhealthy combination meals. 

Across all 16 venues surveyed, only 7% of sandwiches or entrees were healthy, according to the criteria of the survey. Exactly half of the venues were found to have no entrees that were considered healthy.