WESTWOOD—In a recent study published in the Journal Academic Pediatrics hospitals are serving entrees that can be classified as healthy but by only seven percent. The UCLA Research team along with the RAND Corporation studied 14 food venues at California’s 12 most major children’s hospital.

Photo courtesy of Children's Hospital of Orange County.

Authors involved in this study created a modified version of the Nutrition Environment Measures study for Restaurants (NEMS-R) to use as a guide for rating the food being offered within the hospital cafeterias. The study measures these specific details: account pricing, availability of vegetables, nutrition labeling, combination promotions and healthy beverages.

The assessment scale used to rate these hospitals were from 0 (being least healthy) to 37 (being most healthy). From reports, the average score was 19.1. Out of 359 entrees served only seven percent passed as healthy according to the NEMS-R requirements. Although, the majority of the hospitals offered fruits; less than one-third had any type of nutritional information at the point of sale or encouraged healthy eating.

During the study researchers found several other signs that these area hospitals were serving unhealthy foods. All 14 food venues offered both low fat or skim milk and diet soda. Eighty-one percent of the hospitals sold high-calorie, sugary items such as cookies or ice cream by the register. Twenty-five percent sold wheat bread and 44 percent didn’t offer any form of low-calorie salad dressing.  Almost half of the hospitals did not show that healthy entrees were on the menu.

Hospitals in the state of California have now improved their entrée offerings or have made effort to improve them by lowering the price of salads and increasing the prices on unhealthier foods. Some hospitals have stopped serving them altogether in the cafeteria.

Researchers believe hospitals can improve their health food standards by offering more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, as well as smaller portion meals. They can also benefit from posting signs that encourage healthy eating and keeping the junk food away from the cash register.

This research study was funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars, The RAND Corporation and Researchers at UCLA.

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