‘World’s First’: Hospital Serves Patients Exclusively Vegan Menu After Ditching Animal Products

A hospital says it is the first in the world to ditch animal products and serve its patients a 100 percent vegan menu. 

Hayek Hospital is a family-owned private practice located in Beirut, Lebanon. On March 1, it altered its menu to exclusively feature plant-based foods.

Vegan hospital

The hospital revealed the news on Instagram. It uploaded a picture stating: “Our patients will no longer wake up from surgery to be greeted with ham, cheese, milk, and eggs. The very foods that may have contributed to their health problems in the first place.”

Hayek captioned the post: “There’s an elephant in the room that no one wants to see.

“The World Health Organization classifies processed meat as a group 1A carcinogenic – [the] same group as tobacco – and red meat as a group 2A carcinogenic. So, serving meat in a hospital is like serving cigarettes in a hospital.

“The CDC declared that three out of four new or emerging infectious diseases come from animals.

“Adopting a plant-based diet has been scientifically proven not only to stop the evolution of certain diseases but it can also reverse them.

“We have the moral responsibility to act upon and align our beliefs with our actions. Taking the courage to look at the elephant in the eye.”

Should hospitals serve processed meat?

Last year, a survey showed a staggering 83 percent of patients favor hospitals banning processed meat to ‘reduce cancer risk’.

The data came from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) who surveyed 200 patients in two Washington D.C hospitals.

It also found that 69 percent of patients feel it is ‘not important’ that hospitals offer bacon or sausage.

Dr. Neal Barnard is the President of PCRM. He said: “Now it’s clear that patients overwhelmingly agree that they’d like to see healthy food on their hospital trays.

“It’s not uncommon for patients to wake up from surgery to be greeted with bacon and sausage. [These are] the very foods that may have contributed to their health problems in the first place. It’s time to create a healthier food environment.”