NYC Announces Vegan Pilot Program for City Hospital Patients

A newly announced pilot program by NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and Brooklyn borough president Eric L. Adams will provide intensive support for patients who wish to adopt a healthy plant-based lifestyle.

The Plant-Based Lifestyle Medicine Program involves helping patients switch to a whole-foods, plant-based diet to improve, and in some cases even reverse, chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

The initiative will serve as an intensive resource for adult patients who want to lower their cardiometabolic risk by changing their diets to include more legumes, whole grains, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds and to reduce animal products, fried foods, refined grains, and added sugars.

In a statement, Adams said:
This clinic will champion a new paradigm for health care in New York and beyond, one in which patients gain freedom not only from debilitating, life-threatening chronic diseases but also from the harsh side effects and reduced quality of life associated with traditional, less effective treatments. The power of plant-based diets allowed me to reverse my Type 2 diabetes, and I’m elated that through this clinic, it will do the same—and more—for countless New Yorkers.
Adams knows firsthand the health benefits of a vegan diet. Over a year ago he was told he had Type 2 diabetes and a sugar level so high his doctor was surprised Adams wasn’t in a coma. After consulting with health professionals and doing some research, Adams became convinced that a plant-based diet was his path to better health. Since then, Adams has seen amazing results from his switch to a vegan diet, losing 30 pounds and completely reversing his diabetes!


Countless studies prove that plant-based foods are significantly healthier than animal products and that a plant-based diet reduces one’s risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In fact, a recent study from Harvard Medical School found that at least one-third of early deaths could be prevented if everyone switched to a plant-based diet.

What’s more, researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that long-term vegetarians lived on average 3.6 years longer than their meat-eating counterparts.

But eating vegan foods isn’t just great for your health; it also protects the planet and spares farmed animals a life of misery.

At factory farms, animals are subjected to intense and horrific abuse: gruesome mutilations; cramped confinement and overcrowding; and violent, bloody slaughter. If we treated just one dog or cat the way the meat, dairy, and egg industries treat billions of animals, we’d be behind bars for animal abuse.


So what are you waiting for? Protect animals and your health by switching to a vegan diet. Order your FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide today. And check out our Pinterest page with hundreds of vegan recipes!