MIDLAND, TEXAS, april 28, 2016 (Fronteras Desk): A leading hospital in Texas is making a name for itself by taking on the ranching industry, an iconic fixture in the history of the Lone Star State. The hospital is now promoting a plant-based diet rich in vegetables and whole grains for patients and visitors.
Nurturing cattle, sending them to the feedlot and then onto the slaughterhouse is a part of the culture here, burnished into a big part of what makes Texas, Texas. Now, Midland Memorial Hospital, a major medical player in the heart of cattle country, has become the first in the state to buck that culture.
“We decided to embark on offering plant-based meals first for the patients as a prescribed diet,” cardiac surgeon Dr. Staton Awtrey said. “And then to roll that out and offer that to staff and visitors.” “They might change their diet to not have a heart attack. But they have all these collateral benefits they never anticipated,” Awtrey said. Awtrey also claimed a plant-based diet will mitigate or reverse and ultimately cure arthritis, diabetes and hypertension. Awtrey said plant-based food promotes weight loss and the ability to get off certain kinds of medications.
[The full article includes an entertaining audio interview with a Texan fully converted to a vegetarian diet.]