Photo: Andy Li via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
New York City's public hospitals are now serving plant-based meals as the default option for patients, and the patients are loving it.
Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Health + Hospitals CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz announced today that culturally diverse plant-based meals are now the primary dinner option for inpatients at Lincoln, Metropolitan and Woodhull hospitals. It builds on a plant-based lunch default launched in March, which now has a 95% satisfaction rate.
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health system in the US and serves about 3 million lunches and dinners a year. About half of all inpatients are eligible for plant-based dishes, and 60% have chosen them since the default was introduced, adding up to around 864,000 plant-based meals a year. There are 14 new dishes, including Thai noodle bowls, Spanish vegetable paella and a Southern black-eyed pea casserole. Patients who want meat can still ask for it.
Mayor Adams, who has long championed plant-based eating and helped launch Meatless Mondays in the city's hospitals in 2019 as Brooklyn Borough President, said:
When it comes to preventing diet-related chronic disease, there is a growing recognition that it's not our DNA, it's our dinner. Since January, we have introduced Plant-Powered Fridays into schools, introduced fresh produce into the nation's only municipal emergency food system, and expanded Plant-Based Lifestyle Medicine Clinics to public hospitals across all five boroughs. Now, we are proud to announce the successful rollout and expansion of default plant-based lunch and dinner options at all H+H sites. This transformative program is already changing lives.
Dr. Katz, a primary care physician, added that "our new meal program is rooted in evidence for health benefits and environmental sustainability".
The health system plans to offer plant-based dinners at all of its hospitals this autumn and, by the end of the year, plant-based supplements and tube feeds too.
It makes perfect sense. Hospitals are meant to make people well, and the city's own announcement notes that plant-based eating patterns are linked to significantly lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and certain cancers. Even Dr. Rafael Ortiz, president of the American Heart Association's New York City board, pointed out that the AHA recommends people get their protein "derived mostly from plants". Serving patients a hot dog while they recover from a heart attack was always a bit odd.
Plant-based diets have already been shown to help reverse type 2 diabetes, the American College of Cardiology recommends plant protein and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists now recommends a plant-based diet. Canada ditched the dairy group from its food guide, and earlier this month Haarlem became the first city to ban meat adverts.
Food really is medicine. New York is finally putting it on the tray.