LLUH offers new expanded whole food plant-based therapeutic menu

Loma Linda University Health has launched an expanded therapeutic menu, with more than 20 whole food, plant-based therapeutic meal offerings designed to treat and reverse chronic disease at the Troesh Medical Campus Medical Center, one of six hospitals throughout the Loma Linda University Health system.

These additional items on LLUH hospital menus now include more meals built around vegetables, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds - each of which is served in a way that's designed to support healing.

"We believe every meal is an opportunity to enhance health, and we're excited to offer our patients food that nourishes, heals, and maybe even surprises them," said Pareena Kaur, MD, MPH, a preventive and lifestyle medicine resident physician at LLUH.

Options include:

• Sundried tomato humus with vegetables

• Chili relleno

• Southwest power salad

• Club sandwich with tempeh

• Red lentil soup

• Chia and berry pudding parfait

• Beet, citrus, and walnut salad

• A variety of fruit and green smoothies

The whole food, plant-based therapeutic menu was developed by LLUH executive chefs, registered dietitians, and lifestyle medicine physicians. Patients can order from the menu, and doctors can order the new "whole food plant-based therapeutic diet" for patients based on treatment recommendations.

LLUH's new therapeutic menu designed to be free of animal products, processed foods, oils, or refined sugars - as this is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and all-cause mortality.

The new menu is an expansion of a 2023 initiative that offered limited therapeutic meals as part of the hospital menu for patients admitted to the hospital. The launch of the comprehensive whole food plant-based therapeutic menu has been long awaited with plans to expand to other hospital campuses in the future, Kaur said.

Using food as medicine is a growing evidence-based movement in healthcare, backed by the American Heart Association, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other leading medical organizations, Kaur said.

"The evidence is clear: what we eat can help prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic disease," she said.

This initiative was supported by a grant from the Ardmore Institute of Health.