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PROVO — Hospital food often gets a bad rap. But at Utah Valley Hospital people are singing the praises of the chef's and nutritionists in charge of the Intermountain LiVe Well plate option.
Renee Harston and Janell Tyson work in the neonatology department and nearly every day for lunch they choose off the healthy menu. "I love the pizzas," Harston said. "They have more than one kind."
"It's different than hamburgers every day or French fries or any of that stuff, so this good," said Tyson.
Utah Valley Hospital registered dietitian Ann-Marie Shirley said," The LiVe Well Plates have to be less than 600 calories, less than 700 milligrams of sodium and less than 30 percent of the total calories from fat." And if it passes the taste test it's added to the lunch line-up.
In order to encourage its employees to eat healthy Intermountain Healthcare also offers a frequent diner type punch card. For every 10 LiVe Well plates an employee buys, they get the 11th one free. Shirley said.
"It's a pretty sweet deal," Shirley said. "Intermountain wants people to live the healthiest lives possible, and we want to help them do that."
Tyson called it her lunch ticket. The two employees wait for the perfect time to cash in their free meal. "We like to wait until there's something we really want, like salmon or tilapia and then we will spend our cards," said Tyson.
The two also said it's great that they don't have to think, "What's for lunch?" Harston said, "I probably don't buy some of the things I used to."
"They're choosing for me," Tyson said. "They're choosing more healthy things than I would choose."
