Mayor Adams’ Plant-Based Hospital Initiative Sees High Patient Satisfaction Rate

Patient acceptance and satisfaction with default plant-based meals in New York City hospitals is more than 90 percent, according to a new report.

The Study – named An Innovative Program for Hospital Nutrition – was published in Sage Journals earlier this month. The research found that patient acceptance of these meals is over 95 percent, while satisfaction is more than 90 percent.

Plant-based meals are served for lunch and dinner to patients at 11 hospitals, unless they opt out of them. Dishes such as Root Vegetable Tagine, Orange Cauliflower with Edamame, and Jackfruit Carnitas with White Rice and Jicama Slaw are among the meals on offer. Plant-based diets have been shown to reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, but most hospitals serve meat and dairy products to patients.

‘Proven success’

A hospital worker serving a patient a plant-based meal — Adobe Stock Patients have enjoyed the plant-based meals

The NYC plant-based program began in 2021, and more than 1.2 million meals have been served. According to the report, hospital emissions have fallen by 36 percent since the new menus were introduced. The food is also cheaper, costing $0.59 less per meal than before. According to the study, more hospitals should follow suit.

“The proven success of New York City Health + Hospitals’ plant-based meals programs should inspire hospitals across the country to implement similar programs,” Anna Herby, dietitian, co-author of the new paper, and manager of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Healthy Hospital Program, said in a statement. “Hospitals that offer patients plant-based meals provide a teachable moment on how to prevent or reverse obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other diet-related conditions that are so often the cause of hospitalization.”

Mayor Eric Adams endorses plant-based diets

The plant-based hospitals scheme came from a partnership between Sodexo Culinary Center, NYC Health and Hospitals, and NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who is mostly plant-based himself for health reasons.

After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he reversed his condition with animal-free foods. Mayor Adams has since become an advocate for plant-based diets. “We feed 1.1 million New Yorkers every day at school, people in hospitals, correction facilities, senior centers,” he previously told the Guardian. “How about giving them all healthy food?”