San Francisco Seeks to End Meat and Dairy in Hospitals and Jails

“As the world turns its attention to the risk of eating meat, the city of San Francisco plans to reduce the consumption of animal products in city jails and public hospitals.

The City Board of Supervisors passed this vote last week stating: ‘Jails must reduce purchases of animal products by 50 percent in 2024, and public hospitals, including Zuckerberg General and Laguna Honda, must reduce animal product purchases by 15 percent in 2023,’ according to San Fransico Weekly.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that eating less meat and dairy reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other harmful health conditions. Yet, hospital food served to patients routinely still contains these products, and doctors are finally beginning to push back. One such doctor, Saray Stancic, MD, made a documentary about the urgency to switch hospital food to plant-based for the health of patients and doctors alike, Code Blue,which chronicles her struggle to get hospitals to get rid of fast food in the offerings to visitors and meat and dairy from patients’ trays.

In fact, fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Chick-Fil-A are hosted in some hospitals and advertise throughout the buildings, increasing the cravings for unhealthy food to the most vulnerable people: The sick and their families who are worried sick. Fast food has always had to fight against the reputation that it preys on poor neighborhoods with inexpensive food, but to be in hospitals is a step too far for most medical professionals who try to get their patients to eat healthier for future risk reduction.

‘People will look back in 20 years and say, “Wow, I can’t believe that we were eating all this meat,”’ says Sandra Lee Fewer, who is a member of the SF Board of Supervisors.”

View the whole story here: https://thebeet.com/san-francisco-to-reduce-meat-and-dairy-served-in-hospitals-and-jails/

Originally published at https://www.focusonthegoodnews.com on August 24, 2020.