We all know that eating junk food is not a particularly good idea. Any junk food, whether it is burgers, crisps or fizzy drinks, when consumed excessively on a daily basis, have a detrimental effect on health as well as waistlines. The very things that make junk foods taste so appealing: sugar; salt; and saturated fats are the same things which make them so unhealthy.
There are the obvious effects of having to treat the related health problems: heart disease; diabetes; risk of stroke; and increased risk of cancer to name but a few. There is also the added problem, however, of having to deal with the increase in obese patients: bigger beds; wider operating tables; new equipment; and difficulty in moving patients to name but a few less obvious ones.
With the NHS feeling the strain of treating obese patients it is, perhaps, rather surprising that fast food outlets such as Burger King are being opened within the hospitals that are struggling to treat the consequences of a diet of burgers, chips, coca cola and other junk foods. This is occurring at a time when health trusts are offering patients financial incentives to lose weight. The firm Weight Wins, which is being employed by various trusts, is offering a ‘pound for pound’ plan.
So is it inappropriate or just part of modern life that there are these outlets within hospitals? The irony is that if people are in hospital being treated for a disease related to obesity, it is highly unlikely that the junk food that they consumed to become obese was bought on hospital grounds but surely opening branches up in hospitals send out the wrong signal?