Why Hong Kong hospitals should serve patients more vegetarian food instead of meat – and not just overboiled cabbage
Being provided with good plant-based food options can help a patient’s recovery, so why do we hear so many complaints about what local public hospitals offer? Perhaps they should take the lead from Adventist
Quiche with spinach and broccoli; zucchini and wild mushrooms with sweet and sour sauce; tofu puffs stuffed with glutinous rice – all might sound like dishes from a fine dining menu, but are actually served to patients at Hong Kong’s two Adventist hospitals. And they’re all vegetarian.
The two private hospitals – in Happy Valley and Tsuen Wan – are the only ones in Hong Kong that provide exclusively vegetarian meals for patients, visitors and staff. Their precept of not serving any meat products flows from the health principles of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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“We believe that plant-based foods are good sources for healing the body, mind and soul,” says Wong Chi-wing, the registered dietitian at Adventist’s Happy Valley hospital. “A balanced vegetarian diet can provide good nutrients and at the same time provide some extra benefits such as phytochemicals and antioxidants, which can have a surprising positive effect on [recovering] patients.”
Wong is in charge of designing healthy, well-balanced and tasty meals and drinks for Adventist hospital patients. For someone undergoing treatment for cancer, for example, he ensures they receive a variety of foods high in protein and antioxidants. “Strawberry milkshakes are one of our favourite high-protein drinks,” he says.
Adventist Hospital’s long-held belief in serving quality vegetarian fare in hospitals seems to be catching on globally. In June, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a resolution calling on US hospitals to provide a variety of healthy food, including plant-based meals, to improve the health of patients, staff and visitors. It added that meals ought to be low in fat, salt and added sugars, processed meats should be taken off menus, and healthy drinks should be provided and promoted.
“The AMA came out with a resolution and the house of delegates of the AMA said that healthy foods should be in hospitals,” says Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), in a video news release. “Specifically, plant-based foods have to be offered to every patient, and get rid of the bacon, the sausage, the hot dogs, all the processed meats that have been shown to cause cancer.”