 The food industry spends billions on advertising. Promotion costs for individual candy bars could run in the tens of millions, and this was years ago. McDonald's alone spends a billion dollars on advertising every year. Such figures dwarf the National Cancer Institute's million-dollar annual investment promoting fruits and vegetable consumption, or the 1.5 spent on cholesterol education. And that McBillion goes a long way. McBillion's food preferences are being molded by McDonald's even before they learn to tie their shoelaces. By the early age of 3 to 5 years, preschoolers preferred the taste of foods and drinks if they thought they were from McDonald's. This was true even for carrots. Babycars placed in a bag with a McDonald's logo reportedly tasted better. And then if they get sick, then continue to eat McDonald's in the hospital. In 1 in 3 children's hospitals had a fast-food restaurant inside, leading parents to have more positive perceptions of the healthfulness of McDonald's food. Or they can just buy the naming rights altogether, the Ronald McDonald's Children's Hospital. In teaching hospitals, Krispy Kreme tops the list. Hospitals may wish to revisit the idea of serving high-calorie fast food in the very place where they also care for our most seriously ill. This is reminiscent of the fight back in the 80s to get tobacco out of hospitals. When public health advocates made radical suggestions like, cigarettes should not be sold in the hospital. By working to make our hospitals ultimately smoke-free, we become part of a global campaign to completely eliminate the tobacco scourge. This task is difficult, but so was eradicating smallpox. Maybe it's time to stop selling sickness in hospitals.