A PRIME EXAMPLE OF USELESS "MEDICAL" RESEARCH

But the subtext of it is to demonize McDonalds. It took four medical researchers writing in a prestigious medical journal ("Pediatrics") to establish such amazing facts as the fact that people eat more McDonalds in places that have a McDonalds restaurant!

But such "authoritative" findings will be quoted in campaigns to get McDonalds out of hospitals, of course. The fact that for many people the McDonalds is the most comforting and reassuring part of a hospital does not matter, of course. The do-gooders must have a demon to attack.

And the average McDonalds meal consists of meat, bread, salad and potatoes -- which is a mainstream Western diet. If that is bad for you then we are all in big trouble. Excerpt from the medical journal abstract below:

Marketing Fast Food: Impact of Fast Food Restaurants in Children's Hospital

By Hannah B. Sahud, Helen J. Binns, William L. Meadow and Robert R. Tanz.

OBJECTIVES. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine fast food restaurant prevalence in hospitals with pediatric residencies and (2) to evaluate how hospital environment affects purchase and perception of fast food....

RESULTS. Fifty-nine of 200 hospitals with pediatric residencies had fast food restaurants. A total of 386 outpatient surveys were analyzed. Fast food consumption on the survey day was most common among hospital M respondents (56%; hospital R: 29%; hospital X: 33%), as was the purchase of McDonald's food (hospital M: 53%; hospital R: 14%; hospital X: 22%). McDonald's accounted for 95% of fast food consumed by hospital M respondents, and 83% of them bought their food at the on-site McDonald's. Using logistic regression analysis, hospital M respondents were 4 times more likely than respondents at the other hospitals to have purchased McDonald's food on the survey day. Visitors to hospitals M and R were more likely than those at hospital X to believe that McDonald's supported the hospital financially. Respondents at hospital M rated McDonald's food healthier than did respondents at the other hospitals.

CONCLUSIONS. Fast food restaurants are fairly common in hospitals that sponsor pediatric residency programs. A McDonald's restaurant in a children's hospital was associated with significantly increased purchase of McDonald's food by outpatients, belief that the McDonald's Corporation supported the hospital financially, and higher rating of the healthiness of McDonald's food.

Source; crossposted from Food & Health Skeptic