Florida Cancer Center Partners with Chef Michelle Bernstein to Create Plant-Based Menu Options

The health benefits of a plant-based diet are overwhelming. After decades of research and numerous studies, mainstream American culture is finally starting to catch on to the biggest revelation of our time: animal products are killing us.

And while many hospitals are still serving traditional box lunches and other nutritionally bereft options, some innovative organizations are starting to embrace the notion of food as medicine. One such organization is the Memorial Cancer Institute. The group is introducing plant-based menu items under the expert culinary guidance of award-winning chef Michelle Bernstein.

Bernstein is a Miami-based chef, entrepreneur, television host, and author. When her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer last year, she was appalled at the available food options, reports the Huffington Post. So, she partnered with South Florida’s Memorial Cancer Institute (and the hospital where she was born: Memorial Regional Hospital), to create a menu of healthy eats for oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

“My mother has had cancer twice, and I’ve seen her through a lot of chemo, I’ve seen her through a really hard time to be eating and to be cooking, so through her I’ve learned cooking for people who are going through chemo is a very delicate process,” said Bernstein in a video. “They’re not always given the right choices. And so what I really wanted to do was come in and change that give them food that was a little more fresh; a little cleaner yet more flavorful and of course very sensitive to all the things they might be going through.”

This concept is right in line with the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine’s campaign to get whole, plant-based foods into hospitals—and junk food out.

The menu will be available to chemotherapy patients at Memorial Regional Hospital, Memorial Hospital West and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. Dishes include triple crumb berry muffin, raw chocolate cashew and almond energy bar, margherita quiche and cauliflower soup, reports the Miami Herald.

“Patients who receive their chemo treatments often spend several hours here, and we provide snacks and food to them during this time,” Maggie Wiegandt, vice president of oncology services for Memorial Cancer Institute said in a press release. “What you choose to eat during treatment makes a big difference in terms of staying comfortable and feeling better. We are thrilled to have someone as widely respected as Chef Bernstein provide this unique service to offer our patients food options that will better agree with them.”

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