Some Private Hospitals In NYC Decide To Get Rid Of Junk Food

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg's food patrol is taking aim at private hospitals.

The Health Department has convinced a number of private health care facilities to follow the lead of city hospitals and get rid of any junk food in vending machines, cafeterias and patient meals.

"If there's any place that should not allow smoking or try to make you eat healthy you would think it'd be the hospitals," Bloomberg said. "We're doing what we should do and you'll see, I think, most of the private hospitals go along with it."

Critics call the plan another example of Bloomberg's overreaching health agenda that recently banned the sale of super-sized sugary drinks.

However, Bloomberg said obesity is a major problem that needs to be addressed.

"We see a dramatic rise in people going blind and losing limbs," Bloomberg said. "The effects of eating too much will kill more people than the effects of starvation worldwide this year for the first time in the history of the human species. It's just a disaster."

It is unclear how many hospitals have signed on to the program.

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