It’s kind of ironic that some Cleveland Clinic healthcare professionals devour McDonald’s during their lunch breaks. (No judgment – I write about healthcare and I had a succulent burger yesterday.)
But much like smoking bans have been put in place at such facilities, now the fast food is getting ditched. This emphasizes how we all can be susceptible to temptation.
“Every now and again I stray just a little,” Rodney Maynor, a clinical technician at the hospital, confessed between bites of fries, according to Cleveland.com. “I don’t eat too much of it. I just wanted it right now.”
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McDonald’s has operated at Cleveland Clinic for two decades, but it will shut down on Sept. 18.
“We want to demonstrate that we can walk the talk by being a healthier organization,” said spokeswoman, Eileen Sheil.
While the chain might serve as a convenient meal option for many busy workers, the fast food mentality doesn’t exactly match up with meeting healthcare needs, especially when it comes to obesity and diabetes.
About two-thirds of the country’s population is now classified as overweight or obese, according to a recent report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Risk of heart disease, strokes, cancer and type 2 diabetes can all increase when people are overweight.
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Not only that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates obesity costs about $147 billion annually in medical bills, as well as another $3.4 billion in lost productivity, as Cleveland.com reported.
For many, the quick, satiating option of fast food is tempting, but if it just wasn’t there, things could change rapidly.
Dustin Thomas, a 35-year-old researcher at the Clinic, said he would be “okay” with removing McDonald’s, but right now it’s the only place at the hospital where he can buy a regular Coca-Cola. Only diet soda is sold everywhere else on campus.
“This is my vice,” Thomas said as he sat before a partially eaten Big Mac. “I consider myself an adult and I like to think I can make my own choices.”
“We are not going to begin to control the cost of health care until we deal with things that cause chronic disease,” Clinic chief executive Toby Cosgrove told Cleveland.com, adding that private employers are in the best position to take up that fight. “The government,” he said, “is not going to do it.”
Photo: Flickr user Mike Mozart