No More Junk Food in Hospitals, Mayor Bloomberg Says

Only a few weeks following the ban of supersized sodas and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now targetting victim hospital cafeterias.

Mayor Bloomberg's latest campaign, Healthy Hospital Food Initiative, aims to create healthier food environment in New York City hospitals, both public and private. Hospitals can participate by adopting the New York City Food Standards, a criteria that ensures employees, visitors and patients have access to healthier food. The initiative will impact more than 100,000 hospital employees and millions of patients yearly.

The New York City Food Standards initiative goes as following:

Cafeterias:

• Will increase availability of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains
• Promote healthier value meals
• Decrease the availability of high calories
• Eliminate fried foods

Beverage Vending Machines:

• Reduce the amount of high calories beverages
• Ensure machines are conveying healthy messages

Food Vending Machines:

• Will include nutrition requirements for calories maturated fat, sodium, sugar, fiber and other nutrients
• Portion size by making requirements per package, rather than per than serving

Patients Meals:

• Will provide nutrition requirements for individual foods purchased such as sodium limits for bread and cereal, as well as meals served such as two fruits or vegetable servings at lunch and dinner

Thus far, several hospitals have voluntarily elected to introduce healthier food choices to replace high-calories processed foods available in vending machines, cafeteria and patients meals. "Hospitals should set the standard for promoting healthy behaviors and with this initiative in New York City, they are doing just that," Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said in a release.

Mayor Bloomberg said, "If there's any place that should not allow smoking or try to make you eat healthy, you would think it'd be the hospitals. We're doing what we should do and you'll see, I think, most of the private hospitals go along with it."