Royal Childrens Hospital allows McDonalds to operate at new $1b hospital, if this responsible given high levels of childhood obesity?
The Royal Childrens Hospital has introduced a strict nutritional requirement for all food vendors to comply with in order to operate at their new hospital.
The new Traffic Light nutritional guidelines are similar to what has been introduced by the City of Melbourne at the food court at QV Building.
The guidelines are based on having a simple means to quickly determine what is healthy by adopting the traffic light colours of Red, Amber & Green.
The question is whether children would ultimately decide what they want to eat irrespective of whether it is healthy or not and more specifically will having McDonalds at the hospital bring greater benefits to children other than creating strong brand recognition from an early age?
By having McDonalds at at hospital sending a message of endorsement to not only parents but children who may not yet have the maturity or knowledge to make informed nutritional decisions.
While the issue of childhood obesity is extremely complex, is having a fast food company at the Royal Childrens hospital a responsible decision?
This entry was posted
on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
by Andrew Talati
and is filed under News.
Tags: Childhood, Health Risks, Post Exercise Nutrition, Social responsibility
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August 11th, 2009 at 9:49 am
The strict nutritional requirements are a great idea. Any word on what they are?
Thanks.
August 11th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
The guidelines stipulate that:
At least 50% of the menu must consist of the Green light type foods & beverages including lean meat, fish, chicken, fruit, vegetables and plain water.
Less than 30% of the menu must consist of the Amber light type foods, including ice cream, muesli and snack bars, canned fruit, diet drinks and fruit juice.
Less than 30% of the menu must consist of the Red light type foods including all the popular children’s choices including chips, deep fried foods, chocolate bars, lollies, chips and soft drinks.