NURSES at Musgrove Park’s cardiology department have challenged patients and hospital staff to cut down on the amount of junk food and drink they consume.

It follows a hospital-wide initiative aimed at drastically reducing the availability of food and drink with high sugar and fat sold at the hospital’s retail outlets and snack machines.

Diana Cooper, senior sister at Musgrove’s cardiac catheter lab, said: “We are pleased to build on the hospital’s commitment to actively encourage people to swap junk food for more healthy options.

“We all know that junk food tends to have high calories, little nutritional benefit and is generally not good for you. And while we can all choose to eat what we would like, we probably aren’t always making an informed choice.

“Our student nurses have launched a healthy eating awareness campaign, called Junk Free June. Every week in the month they will display information at our cardiology department about the risks of junk food – from sugar and fat content to calories in food.”