Despite the direct correlation between food and health, as highlighted in various medical and scientific studies worldwide, our universal health care system has been slow to put this knowledge to good use in relation to the food available for hospital patients. Instead of offering fresh, healthy, nutritious food, most hospitals and health care facilities opt for quick, easy, inexpensive, prepackaged, heavily-processed foods that are often high in salt and fat. A reality which embodies a serious health concern. These foods are in significant measure animal, rather than plant-based, and substantially contribute to various health concerns, including high cholesterol and blood pressure, and increased risk for several cancers. Additionally, not only does animal agriculture require more land, energy and water usage than growing plants for direct human consumption, but it also results in more greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, habitat destruction, and pollution than any plant-based products. According to the most recent comprehensive analysis, animal agriculture is directly responsible for nearly 20% of global warming.

Despite this grim reality, there is hope for improvement with the incorporation of more plant-based food choices within your diet. Plant-based food brings multiple significant health benefits, including the reduction in cholesterol and blood pressure levels (high levels are associated with cardiovascular disease), better gut health and immunity, obesity, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Recently, cities around the world, such as Singapore, New York and Vancouver, have begun to act on these considerations by incorporating plant-based hospital menus. These three cities are “planting the way” to a better future, for individual health and environmental sustainability.

Singapore: An Early Approach to Plant-Based Hospital Food

Singapore is one country that recognizes this reality and is responding accordingly. To date, four Singapore hospitals offer patients plant-powered food. In 2018, Alexandra Hospital (AH) became the first hospital in Singapore to incorporate plant-based food options with, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKWCH), and National University Hospital (NUH) following this example over the course of the next five years. In addition to offering more plant-based foods, AH and NTFGH also decided to eliminate beef and mutton, two of the most carbon intensive produced meat, from their food menu and replacing them with soy-based proteins.

Singapore’s plant-based initiative is fairly simple and comes at no extra cost to patients. These plant-based food options are created with the primary goal of being healthy and nutritionally balanced, low in salt and, of course, delicious without any compromise on taste. At NUH, plant-forward food options are offered everyday for each meal, while the other three hospitals only offer these options two to three times a week for lunch and dinner.

New York: A Positive Reaction to Plant-Based Hospital Food

Similarly, three years ago, New York City decided to offer more plant-based food for hospital patients after achieving success in 2019 with its “Meatless Monday” program. In 2022, plant-based lunch and dinner menus became available as the default option at all eleven of the city’s hospitals. Although patients can choose animal products if they like, most opt for the plant-based meals. These locally made plant-forward food menus center around nutrition and ethnic diversity. They have been well-received by patients and strongly supported by various healthcare and government officials. This positive response highlights that individuals are more likely to choose plant-based options when they are made more prominent and are educated about the health and environmental benefits.

Since March 2022, over 1.2 million plant-based meals have been served to patients, demonstrating various health, environmental, financial, and ethical benefits. New York City hospitals are furthering their approach as a way to extend good healthy habits. In addition to healthy and nutritious plant-based hospital foods, patients are also provided with education, and guidance surrounding plant-forward eating to support individual’s overall health and well-being and prevent future health problems. On the environmental side, serving plant-based meals has significantly decreased the carbon emissions of New York City’s hospitals by an estimated 36%. Financially, plant-based food meals are more cost effective, at approximately 59 cents less per tray than one with animal products, which results in over $1.2 million in savings in just four years.

Vancouver: A Recent Step in the Right Direction

Last year in Canada, the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) launched the Planetary Health Menu Pilot Project. This six month pilot project was spearheaded by Dr. Annie Lalande (who is both a resident physician at the hospital and a PhD student in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC), and Tiffany Chiang, Food Service Transformation and Strategic Projects Director at Vancouver Coastal Health. The project involved various dieticians, clinicians, food service staff, planetary health experts, and even professional Canadian Chef chef, Ned Bell. VGH’s plant-forward menu included twenty different meal choices, created with nutrition, health, and environmental sustainability in mind. According to Darcia Pope, Vice-President, Strategy, Innovation and Planetary Health at Vancouver Coastal Health, the aim of this pilot project was to create “flavorful, comforting meals using fresh, nutritionally dense ingredients [to help patients with] their healing and recovery. . . . [and explore] how [VGH] could adjust [its] food services program to be more environmentally sustainable.” Since this pilot project has only recently finished, results are still being analyzed and have yet to be published. However, the plant-powered meals most liked by patients from the menu have, or will be, permanently incorporated into VGH’s food menu.

Hope for the Future

While each of these initiatives has its own approach and considerations, they collectively contribute to the positive shift toward plant-powered food in city hospitals, paving the way for healthier and more sustainable dining options. Research has shown there are significant health, and environmental benefits of eating more plant-based meals, along with financial gains and better animal welfare. Singapore, New York City, and Vancouver are all “planting the way” by showing that not only can more plant-based food options be easily incorporated in hospital menus, but also that they should be for both the environment and people’s health. In the years to come, hopefully plant-forward menus in city hospitals and healthcare facilities will become normalized as more cities around the world will follow in these examples.