The state of hospital food in America is a sad one to say the least, with the likes of mystery meat, green jello, and even soda pop making up the menus of some of the country’s most “prestigious healing centers.”
Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram and Dr. Garth Davis on the new prescription fruits and veggies program.
While a small handful of hospitals like this one have begun making rational changes to their menus involving organic food, one promising new project could up the ante, and in the process change the way hospitals do prescriptions forever.
“We have created a project where my organic produce co-op and his clinic are going to start recommending and prescribing fruits and vegetables instead of or in place of prescription drugs,” said Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram, founder of the Rawfully Organic Co-op in Houston, Texas, which is considered to be the largest in the United States, about her new project with Dr. Garth Davis.
“The first physician ever, Hippocrates, said let food be thy medicine and medicine by thy food, and that’s what I really want to teach my patients, and not just teach patients, I want doctors to start getting that message too.,” Davis said.
“No doctor sits down with their patients and talks about diet, they reach straight for prescription pad and talk about medication.
“I want them to think about other ways of treating patients.”
Dr. Davis hands out an organic produce box at the hospital. Photos via FullyRaw on Facebook.
“Changing People’s Ideas”
Davis is a bariatric surgeon who also specializes in programs for weight loss, diabetes, high blood pressure, and nutrition in general in his clinic at the Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston, where Bucaram’s co-op is located.
He’s also a vegan and competitive runner who once dealt with health problems of his own and was told he’d have to be on medication for the rest of his life.
Instead of accepting his fate, Davis began questioning.
He went on a vegetarian yoga retreat and experienced firsthand how good clean eating and the right kind of exercise can feel, before returning to his practice and reevaluating things.
The new plan involves the writing of actual prescriptions for fruits and veggies from her organic co-op for patients who have certain health conditions.
They can then sign up to a receive a box of produce from Rawfully Organic for pick up at the hospital’s “Farmacy,” something that is practically unheard of at hospitals in the U.S.
“Just that visual of people going with prescription to pick up fruits and vegetables is going to be a real powerful one, it’s going to start changing people’s ideas.”
“I’m so speechless and elated by this, I can’t even express how monumental this,” Bucaram said.
Davis plans to encourage other doctors to also prescribe from the Farmacy, and Bucaram said that the program could expand to the whole hospital if all goes well. See more in this post from Bucaram’s Facebook page.
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About Nick Meyer
