The evening's menu featured grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef over pasta, fresh seasonal vegetables and fresh organic peaches -- items right at home in the city's finest restaurants. Instead, the dishes were prepared for visitors, staff and bed-bound patients at Swedish Covenant Hospital. The Northwest Side hospital is one of 300 across the nation that have pledged to improve the quality and sustainability of the food they serve, not just for the health of their patients but, they say, the health of the environment and the U.S. population. For many of these institutions, the initiative includes buying antibiotic-free meats. Administrators say they hope increased demand for those products will reduce the use of antibiotics to treat cattle and other animals, which scientists believe helps pathogens become more resistant to drugs.
According to the Association for Healthcare Foodservice, the institutions spend about $9.6 billion on food and drink a year. An early adopter of healthier hospital menus, Swedish Covenant's director of nutrition, Maria Simmons, started serving grass-fed antibiotic- and hormone-free Tallgrass beef nearly five years ago. While the hospital's purchases of other sustainable foods have fluctuated with budgets and availability, this item has been a constant. Simmons said the hospital uses the beef in one menu item a day served to patients and in the cafeteria, including "meat sauces, Salisbury steaks, meatloaf, beef stew and in our Korean seaweed soup."
Diane Imrie, director of nutrition services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Vermont, also started serving antibiotic-free beef at the hospital in recent years as part of her plan to switch to local, seasonal, sustainable food. "When we started a sustainability council at the hospital a few years ago, antibiotic reduction was one of the first things on my list," she said. "I think it has the most impact on farming, the environment and public health." Imrie estimated that her food costs rose about $67,000 last year when she switched to antibiotic-free chicken from conventional. "But that's also about the same cost as treating a single MRSA infection," she said, referring to drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria. Like Simmons, Imrie said she has found inventive ways to offset the cost of the antibiotic-free meats, such as choosing ground beef and stewing cuts instead of more expensive options.
Simmons said the beef she buys ranges from 50 cents to $1 more a pound. Simmons also said she is able to negotiate with vendors because the hospital buys food in large amounts. "Once they realize the volume and the fact that you will keep buying this, they work with you," she said.
Carolyn Lammersfeld, national director of nutrition at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, oversees a menu full of organic, antibiotic-free chicken, beef and dairy at the organization's facilities across the country. Using the ingredients is primarily a response to patient demand, Lammersfeld said, but the centers are also "watching the controversy over the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics and their potential to cause resistant strains of bacteria." The issue is of particular concern for cancer patients, who have compromised immune systems, she noted. "Many also might already being taking antibiotics, so they don't want additional ones in food if they can avoid it," Lammersfeld said.
Simmons said she buys the Tallgrass beef "not only because is it antibiotic- and hormone-free but it's higher in omega-3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acids and lower in saturated fats." But she is also aware of the effects that creating a demand for the meat may have on animal raising practices. "The push was for healthier food all around and the fact that it was antibiotic- and hormone-free and could support the new legislation on antibiotic resistance just worked well together," Simmons said. "It's a natural progression."
Bonnie - this is extremely exciting!
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