At the end of November, the governor of NY Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into effect which requires from all state hospitals in New York to provide plant-based food options to their patients.
This bill is good news for NY. Unfortunately, heart illness is the culprit for 40 percent of all state deaths and approximately 1.6 million New Yorkers suffer from type 2 diabetes.
With this in mind, in hospitals where patients are placed due to a certain health problem, it’s pivotal they get the needed nutrients from healthy foods to match the medicines they’re receiving.
New Bill Makes Plant-Based Meals in NY Hospitals Compulsory
According to the bill, the hospitals need to have a menu list with plant-based meals, as well as snacks free of animal products that will be available upon request.
This isn’t just a positive change for the patients, but it will also save the hospital money. How is this possible?
Namely, a report by St. Joseph Health System in California showed that vegetarian entrees cost around 50 percent less than the price of meat options.
This bill was promoted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a non-profit from Washington D.C. whose focus is bettering people’s lives through meatless diets and ethical research.
They’ve also helped pass other similar bills in D.C. and California and created bigger options for plant-based meals and removal of processed foods like hot dogs and bacon from the menus in hospitals.
Healthy & Versatile Food Should Be an Option for Everyone
Susan Levin, director of nutrition education at the committee, claims that making plant-based meals compulsory puts NY hospitals in the forefront of a growing movement trying to encourage hospitals to provide patients with healthy and plant-based meal options to fight off obesity, heart illness, and diabetes.
The committee’s healthy hospital food webpage provides quality plant-based recipes, as well as useful tips on how to implement plant-based meals to your diet.
They also show case studies of hospitals where healthy food is of utmost importance.
Founded back in 1985, the committee promotes preventive medicine, does clinical research, and empowers higher ethics and effectiveness standards in research and education.
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