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College of Naturopathic Medicine - Should Hospitals Promote Junk Food? Dr Aseem Malhotra

Thumbnail of the video “College of Naturopathic Medicine - Should Hospitals Promote Junk Food? Dr Aseem Malhotra”
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Author: College of Naturopathic Medicine
Categories: Health Nutrition Education
Tags: health, nutrition, education
Views: 4 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 23:20 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Hospitals should not promote or stock junk food, and healthy eating should be treated as a priority for both NHS staff and patients. The speaker says this is already established NHS policy, lobbied for by him and backed by the British Medical Association and the Academy of Medical Colleges. He argues that healthcare workers should lead by example, but that they lack the education, training, and information to do so.

Key Points

  • The speaker co-authored an editorial with Terence Stevenson, former chair of the Medical Royal Colleges, which was written with the blessing of Simon Stevens, CEO of NHS England, and argued that healthy eating should be a priority for better health outcomes.
  • The speaker criticizes the Royal Free hospital for tweeting that it was happy to receive free donuts from Krispy Kreme, calling this a contradiction and a lack of accountability.
  • Nutrition education is basically non-existent in medical school; the speaker says he learned nutrition himself after qualifying, even as a cardiology specialist registrar.
  • A BMJ Nutrition publication found that most doctors and medical students see nutrition as crucial to good health, with 99 percent saying nutrition plays a role in maintaining good health.
  • Despite this agreement, a majority of those surveyed felt they lacked the knowledge, time, and confidence to discuss nutrition with patients.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: The transcript gives no step-by-step method for patients or staff. The only actionable advice is that hospitals should stop promoting or stocking junk food, and that health workers should inform patients and the public about diet, lead by example, and be given education, training, and access to information to do so.
  • The editorial was co-authored with Mahi Ben Marathapu, who was clinical fellow to Simon Stevens and a guest of NHS England.
  • The speaker describes the disconnect between hospital policy and practice as "bizarre," since the Royal Free is a hospital he once worked in.
  • The BMJ Nutrition publication is cited by the speaker as a source the viewer can look up.

Bottom Line

Hospitals and healthcare workers are expected to model healthy eating, but the speaker's evidence suggests the bigger obstacle is that clinicians are not yet equipped with nutrition training, time, and confidence to counsel patients.