🍟 Why Do Hospitals Serve Junk Food?

Hey friends,

It’s been a couple weeks!

On June 20th my wife gave birth two weeks early to our third son, Noah. He was born with some complications that have required him to spend time in the NICU the last two weeks, though he’s improving incrementally and we hope to bring him home next week!

Having spent many hours at the hospital recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how our healthcare system often overlooks the link between diet and our reliance on it.

Before anything else, I have to say is that I’m incredibly thankful for acute level care whether it’s urgent surgery, birth, etc. One of the most incredible things is to watch a labor & delivery team of nurses, doctors, doulas, anesthesiologists, lactation consultants, and other support staff work like a well-oiled machine to bring new life into this world. The expertise and precision just blows me away every time.

Having said that, there’s another layer that confounds me.

On one hand you have acute care teams and experts who are precise, knowledgeable, and just masters of their craft. Yet on the other hand, the overall hospital experience brings this jarring sense of broader detachment when it comes to nutrition – one of the very tenets of healthcare.

I’ve eaten many meals at the hospital over the last 2 weeks, and no matter where I go, snack brands I might expect to see in a 7-Eleven are staring at me, readily available for purchase. Coca-Cola products, popular candy bar brands, assorted “gourmet” candies, even energy drinks populate most vending machines, cafes, stores, and coffee shops. It’s a bizarre contrast to the health-focused mission of a hospital.

At first, it blew my mind. What is happening?! Shouldn’t the hospital be the ONE place you can expect to go to find nutritionally rich food? After all, it is about health and care, right? RIGHT?!

Well… I have some thoughts.

👉 First, as a nation, we truly don’t understand how diet affects our health. Just listen to how people talk about chronic disease. They’ll pawn it off on genetics or they speak about illnesses as if they magically surface one day without any sort of cause. I’m obviously no medical professional, but from what I’ve learned over the last two years, so many chronic illnesses surface because of what we are putting into our bodies! Alzheimer’s disease? Increasingly being referenced as type 3 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes? Entirely reversable through diet. Do genetics play a role? In some cases, sure. But diet is a responsibility we seem to shirk.

Dr. Philip Ovadia, a cardiothoracic surgeon, summarizes this perfectly:

Further, people seem to think it’s just normal to get sick. Curiosity is lacking in so many areas, especially nutrition. In fact, this newsletter is an effort to keep my own self curious.

👉 Second, healthcare is a business. Businesses thrive on revenue. It makes me think: is my wife getting sugary, starchy food delivered by the hospital to her bed because at some level it keeps people hooked on the system? Poor nutrition fuels chronic conditions, feeding Big Pharma’s medication cycle that keeps the money flowing. Are food tray servers “in on it”? Of course not, they’re just working. But at the industry level, where profit and pharmaceutical interests shape food guidelines and recommendations, the disconnect is glaring.

To conclude, US healthcare is a strange double-edged sword. On one hand we have the most advanced medical pros and technology in the world. But the money to reach that level has to come from somewhere, right? In a deeply twisted way, it doesn’t make sense for the business to advise proper nutrition. Why? Because it doesn’t pay the bills.

Disclaimer: Am I thinking about this in the wrong way? I could be, but I’ve never claimed to be a medical expert – it’s why I chose the name Metabolic Musings. I read, I learn, I observe, and I share here to get my thoughts on to paper. Whether I’m right or wrong here, you must admit there are some suspicious gaps between healthcare and nutrition. 😉

Would love to be challenged on this.

Thanks for reading this far!

–Ben

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🫀 A Heart Surgeon’s Perspective on Animal Fat – Dr. Philip Ovadia

“We now have reason to believe that animal fat may be the superior option over so-called ‘heart-healthy’ alternatives — and that highly-processed plant fats could be a leading factor in heart disease.”

Read the article

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