Farmers markets bloom at hospitals (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

updated 9:32 a.m. EDT, Wed June 3, 2009

By Madison Park
CNN

(CNN) -- For years, hospitals have embodied a paradox

As patients are tethered to dialysis machines, and many lay bedridden from obesity-related diseases, the hospitals' fast food joints and cafeterias dispense fried goodies and slick burgers that contributed to such conditions.

"With fast food establishments, hospitals are sending a message that food is not important to health," said Jamie Harvey, a food coordinator of Health Care Without Harm, a coalition of hospitals and health-related groups. "But we know that's wrong. We're starting to see in a sweeping way that food is essential to health. Hospitals are adapting to that message."

Some hospitals around the country have gone on a diet: Deep fryers have gone cold, trans fats have been banished, and the glow of the golden arches (and other fast food symbols) have dimmed as leases have quietly gone unrenewed.

Instead, these hospitals are offering an alternative food source: farmers markets.

Patients who've been warned to improve their diets can now walk out of the hospital and find locally grown strawberries, apricots and baby red potatoes sold on the parking lot. Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest not-for-profit health system, has 30 farmers markets in mostly Western states like California, Washington and Oregon.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/03/farmers.markets.hospitals/index.html




I never saw a hospital with a fast-food franchise, but I am not at all surprised, sad to say. x(

[aquart]

1. Sounds like they hired someone with a functioning brain.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[KittyWampus]

3. when my Mom was dying, they had a huge flower market sale in the parking lot under her window