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Jonnyjonny_uk · 08-07-2007, 01:03 AM

Healthcare and leisure centres 'promoting unhealthy snacks'

Hospitals and sports centres offer a "shockingly bad" selection of junk food and sugary drinks to patients and visitors, a report out today says.

A snapshot survey of centres in England and Wales found an array of fatty snacks, fizzy drinks and chocolate bars on offer in vending machines and canteens.

Unhealthy food is "the norm" at some healthcare and leisure outlets, according to the Soil Association which carried out the research.

The pro-organic group said unhealthy food was being sold and promoted "extensively" to patients, staff and visitors in the outlets surveyed.

Toddler-height dispensers selling sweets were "the norm".

The Soil Association's Not What the Doctor Ordered report says hospitals and sports centres are lagging behind schools when it comes to improving vending-machine snacks.

Healthy food options were "severely limited" in all five hospitals surveyed. But fast food or unhealthy snack food was being sold and promoted "extensively".

Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett said: "Of all the places, you'd expect hospitals and sports centres to be promoting healthy eating and healthy choices.

"Venues that are supposed to be helping people become healthier and fitter should not be offering up such poor quality food. Children and patients deserve better."

The Soil Association visited five NHS hospitals and 17 sports and leisure centres across England and Wales last year.

Its researchers looked at the food available to patients, staff and visitors at on-site canteens, restaurants and vending machines.

The hospitals visited in Cambridge, Rotherham and Southampton had fast-food outlets on their premises.

Vending machines selling junk food and sugary drinks were a constant feature, the report says.

And only a small number of the leisure centres surveyed had water freely available to help rehydrate people who had exercised.

Heavily-branded confectionery and drinks were on sale in all the 17 leisure centres visited.

Researchers found a children's ward at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, ran a Burger King takeout night every Saturday.

The Burger King outlet at Southampton General Hospital was so centrally placed it was used as a landmark in directions to hospital departments, the report says.

And the entrance to Guy's Hospital in London advertised a nearby McDonald's outlet.

The Soil Association wants healthy eating to be a "key consideration" for vending-machine stockists, with some healthy options always available.

The hospitals visited were: Great Ormond Street and Guy's in London; Rotherham District General Hospital; Southampton General and Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

The sports centres were all publicly funded. They were located in the following towns and cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Rotherham, Sheffield and Southampton.