McDonald's Burgers, Fries Served at 22 U.S. Hospitals, Doctors Demand Removal

Grab a Big Mac, large fries, and Coke as you exit a hospital after a heart attack scare? After all, you're exhausted and in a hurry, detest bland hospital fare... and what the heck, you deserve a break today, to use McDonald's famed slogan.

Fantasy, right? The same medical professionals who bother you mercilessly about your all-American taste-buds wouldn't dare plop forbidden (but ferociously profitable) fast-food on hospital premises, right?

Believe it or not, wrong. Twenty-two U.S. hospitals and medical centers... including the esteemed Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, and Texas Children's Hospital in Houston... permit full-service McDonald's stores on hospital premises. 

Fast Food Purposely Saltier in U.S. to Boost Sales

The purpose of industrial food corporations is to make profits from hawking edible products. Period. 

Health and public good are irrelevant concepts to this singular goal... unless hefty sales will result, of course.

In U.S. fast food, the lure to reeling in rich profits is salt. Loads and loads of salt. As much as it takes to ensure big bonuses for fast food executives. Sort of like using special lures to bait fish... 

Pizzas, burgers, fries, breakfast concoctions, even salads served in the United States are intentionally loaded with more salt than that sold by the same fast food companies in Great Britain, Australia, Canada and often France and New Zealand, per the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).

This week, the CMAJ released results of their salt comparisons in 2,124 fast food samples:

Brouhaha in a Strawberry Frappuccino: Starbucks Tries to Get It Right But Falters

Give credit where credit is due: Starbucks tried to get it right. The Seattle-based coffee purveyor tried to avoid using fake-food chemical dyes in half a dozen delicious pink-to-red edibles. 

But Starbucks didn't foresee the public recoil as fans become increasingly educated about "natural" ingredients. 

The brouhaha started last month when an upset vegan-eating barista emailed a photo of Starbucks' strawberry flavoring label to website ThisDishIsVegetarian.com.

Included in the label's ingredients is cochineal extract, a natural-based dye commonly "used to produce a range of scarlet, red, pink and orange hues" in food, cosmetics, and textiles.

The problem is the origins of cochineal extract:  a tiny, cactus-dwelling insect hand-collected mainly in Peru.