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Losing weight, eating healthier foods and cutting out sugary beverages are among the most common New Year’s resolutions. But sticking to them isn’t always easy.
The roll-out of a new BWH program, called Your Health, Your Choice, can help. “Your Health, Your Choice is part of our initiative to create a healthy work environment for our employees, as well as for our patients and visitors,” said Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN, senior vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer, who is a co-executive sponsor of BWH’s Healthy Eating, Healthy Living task force along with Art Mombourquette, interim vice president of Human Resources. “The hospital officially became tobacco-free this fall, and the healthy eating program is the next step in creating an environment of wellness.”
Beginning Jan. 9, signage and labels in the Cafeteria will help employees understand the nutritional value of their selections. Food and beverages will be marked with green, red or yellow stickers, denoting items to choose frequently, occasionally or rarely.
“You want to try to guide yourself to the green foods most often, which are healthier,” said Kathy McManus, MS, RD, LDN, director of Nutrition and Behavior Modification. “But this is not a total elimination of red- and yellowlabeled foods; we want to educate people about making the best choices for their health. You can maintain a healthy diet, eating mostly from the green group and occasionally adding in an item from the red or yellow groups.”
Your Health, Your Choice takes into account portion control, fats, carbohydrate content, calories, added sugars, sodium and fiber.
“The Brigham is taking a bold step forward by drafting a number of parameters to help people make healthy choices,” said McManus, who along with Joanne Hogan, MS, RN, associate chief nurse, co-chairs a committee of employees who participated in developing the Your Health, Your Choice program. “A lot of organizations focus only on one or two parameters, like eliminating added sugars or highly caloric-foods, but we are looking at the larger picture.”
The program is beginning in the Cafeteria and will extend over the next year throughout the distributed campus to vending machines and other eateries on site. Faulkner Hospital will begin educating Cafeteria patrons about sugar-sweetened beverages this month and roll out the Your Health, Your Choice stickers on foods later in the year.
The Your Health, Your Choice committee is also working to measure the effectiveness of the program. “A key component of the program is the evaluation, and we are conducting surveys along with following cafeteria sales,” said Jason Block, MD, committee member. “This multi-step evaluation is another innovative aspect to this program and will provide novel results.”
In December, McManus and other staff established a baseline by surveying 200 employees and volunteers who eat in the Cafeteria about their daily food intake. Data will be collected again through daily sales records to measure if there is a change in the way people eat due to the labeling.
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