An apple a day: Workers eat healthy to stay healthy
Say goodbye to fast food, trans fats
In an example other employers may want to strongly consider, hospitals around the country are re-creating their cafeterias as they strive to become healthier places to work. Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA, opened farmers' markets at hospitals to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for employees and visitors and added healthy selections to vending machines.
"Kaiser Permanente is about health care, not just sick care. We try to focus on prevention," says Preston Maring, MD, associate physician in chief at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, who set up the hospital-based farmers' markets. "What better place to focus prevention than on your own employees? Without healthy employees here at work every day, my patients don't get taken care of." Fast-food restaurants are not permitted on Kaiser campuses.
As a physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, Maring had spent much of his career counseling patients about diet and nutrition. In his spare time, he enjoyed cooking and he shopped at farmers' markets. So, about six years ago, he came up with the idea of hosting a farmers' market at the hospital. He started with seven vendors, who sold organic produce in front of the hospital. "It was like a block party. Staff people came out, local neighborhood people came over, patients came out," he says. The success grew. Today, there are 30 farmers' markets in Kaiser facilities in five states. The markets have three guiding principles: They provide certified organic food; they don't sell food that requires refrigeration, such as meat or dairy; and they are designed as a complement not a competition to on-site cafeteria food. Maring posts a recipe every week on a Kaiser blog. "It's something that I personally have cooked," he says. "I'm not a trained chef. If I can cook this, anybody can cook this."
With all the talk about healthy eating, some employees dubbed Maring "Dr. Broccoli." They stop him in the hallway to tell him about the new recipe they tried or a new salad they made. "I think I've had much, much more impact with this than I ever would have had in my entire life as a doctor," he says. In a survey of 1,200 shoppers at the farmers' markets, 71% of respondents said the markets have influenced them to eat more fruits and vegetables. "Having the market there puts the fruits and vegetables right in front of the employees when they came to work," says Maring. "It's awful hard to walk past a fresh peach in the middle of summer." Maring's mission is "making good fresh food easily accessible to people." That includes patients' menus, which now include fresh foods from pesticide-free local farmers.
If you want to help employees make healthy food choices, you need to give them information about nutritional content. That is the concept behind a new "healthy picks" program at Kaiser facilities. Fifty percent of the items in vending machines must be healthy juice instead of soda, an apple instead of chips. The vending companies were skeptical at first, and worried that vending sales would drop, says Jan Sanders, RD, director, national nutrition services in procurement and supply at Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser created a task force and pilot tests of vending machines with 100%, 75%, and 50% healthy items. The 50% mark seemed best, she says.
When the switch was made, vending sales actually went up. "We feel we need to be a leader in supporting the health of our members as well as our staff and even beyond that, trying to support the health of the communities that surround our facilities," Sanders says. Kaiser cafeterias also offer "healthy picks" and are eliminating items with trans fats. In a pilot program, some facilities provide information about nutritional content in the cafeterias.
In an example other employers may want to strongly consider, hospitals around the country are re-creating their cafeterias as they strive to become healthier places to work.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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