THUNDER BAY - The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is looking at becoming a leader in the Northwest when it comes to healthy eating choices.
“The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is making this change for our population and our staff and the people who live here,” said Cathy Paroschy Harris, a dietitian and director of prevention and screening services at the hospital. “It indicates our commitment to health across the region.”
On Wednesday, the TBRHSC unveiled its Eating Healthy Together initiative, which is designed to provide healthy eating options for patients and staff at the hospital, as well as education for the public on healthy food consumption practices.
The initiative will be rolled out in the coming months and Paroschy Harris said she expects it to be completely in place by the summer.
“This will be the elimination of ultra-processed foods, so the foods people have to choose from will be healthy in nature,” she said.
According to Paroschy Harris, people still have the option to bring in their own food to the hospital, but the cafeteria and hospital menu will no longer include items such as cola drinks, either with sugar or with artificial sweeteners, deep-fried pastries or meats, and breads will focus on grains high in fiber content.
In 2016, the hospital reached out to the community and staff regarding the Eating Healthy initiative. The results showed that more than 93 per cent of respondents wanted to see the hospital be a role model in healthy eating, while 52 per cent said if healthier food options were available, they would be more inclined to purchase food at the hospital.
“The research is out there that if you have two choices, a healthy choice and an unhealthy choice side by side, we are human and we are more likely to go to that unhealthy choice first,” Paroschy Harris said.
“Educating people alone may not make them pick the right thing or make the suitable choices. With this whole change, we have been incorporating a lot of education about what is healthy eating, different things about sugars and fats, gut health, and what does ultra-processed food mean.”
Northwestern Ontario has a higher rate of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease compared to the rest of the province. Dr. Stewart Kennedy, executive vice-president of medical, academics, and regional programs at the hospital, said he was skeptical at first of the Eating Healthy Together initiative, but soon changed his mind.
“It was more because of a philosophical position I had in the sense of who is somebody to tell me what to eat and what not to eat,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking big picture, I was thinking of myself. But once I got the education from these wonderful individuals and leadership and how important it is to be leaders, and I did some research on the burden of chronic diseases, it is just so high, we have to do something.”
