This month, I’m excited to showcase an example of something near and dear to my heart: using choice architecture (“nudges”) to facilitate climate-friendly behaviour change! I think most dietitians are well aware of the significant role the food environment plays on our food choices, and it’s one of the areas dietitians can potentially have the fastest, biggest impact on greenhouse gas emissions from the food system.
A project I’ve been following for a long time now is New York City’s Health + Hospitals default plant based initiative. Ever since it launched in 2022, I’ve wondered how this would go, what patients would think, and whether Sodexo would continue with it. Now we have some insight!
In September, a Practice Brief was published looking at some of the outcomes of New York City’s default plant-based menus in hospitals. So here are the highlights:
- 11 hospitals across NYC, all managed by Sodexo, made plant-based meals the primary lunch and dinner options
- Staff were educated about the health benefits of plant-based meals and the new menu items
- Culturally diverse cuisines were incorporated, to meet the diverse patient population in the city
- They used a step-wise introduction, starting with Meatless Mondays in 2019, moving to the lunch menu and then expanding to dinner
- Meat options were still available to patients upon request
The outcomes:
- 95% patient acceptance
- 90% patient satisfaction
- $0.59 reduction in per-tray food costs. In total, 800,000 meals were served for a total cost savings of $318,000.
- 36% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
This constitutes a solid piece of evidence for moving towards plant-based menus in institutions. Other research finds that switching to plant-based menus at universities would also mean substantial cost savings, meaning there’s growing consensus that significant, consistent cost-savings are available to institutions willing to try this.
I’m planning to reach out to some of the dietitians leading this program to find out more about any advice they have for dietitians wanting to try similar changes, and especially any lessons learned and things that didn’t work. For example, we’ve read in many different research papers that “Meatless Mondays” aren’t popular with the public, and there’s speculation that it’s more effective to focus on what’s being added (plant proteins) rather than what’s being taken away. But the success of this program indicates that maybe this isn’t the biggest issue, and using partial changes on the menus to test acceptance might still be worthwhile.
I’m looking forward to following this initiative into the future, and to watching how other jurisdictions implement plant-based menus!