Kudos to the Star for taking Sick Kids and other local hospitals to task for pandering to fast food outlets like Burger King.

Seems these hospitals (which also include Toronto Western, Toronto General and Sunnybrook) all have food courts that offer up fattening fair like Whoppers and pizza, the same kind of food that contributes to hospital visits in the first place.

Arguments from the two sides....

Dr. Bob Bell, President of University Health Network: "Hospitals are required to provide a balanced budget by the end of 2006. Revenue sources are important to us and revenue from food courts is one of the ways to do that."

Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine: "If you're going to serve fast food in a hospital, you're basically saying, 'We care about the cure, but we don't care about the prevention.' That's a terrible message."

Shame on the hospitals.