{"id":343826,"date":"2026-07-17T20:15:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T20:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/343826\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T20:15:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T20:15:57","slug":"tampa-general-pledges-to-make-hospital-food-healthy-again-during-rfk-jr-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/343826\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa General pledges to &#8216;Make Hospital Food Healthy Again&#8217; during RFK Jr. visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Tampa General Hospital became the first in the nation to sign the &#8220;Make Hospital Food Healthy Again&#8221; pledge during a press conference Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. visited the hospital, along with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, to celebrate the announcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pledge &#8220;challenges hospitals to put nutrition at the center of care,&#8221; according to the <a data-ylk=\"slk:HHS website;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/maha-hospital-pledge\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">HHS website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Under the guidelines, hospitals are encouraged to limit servings of ultra-processed foods and foods high in added sugar and sodium, and to emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Hospitals exist to heal people, and the food they serve should help patients recover,&#8221; Secretary Kennedy said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why the Trump administration launched the [pledge]. Every patient deserves real, nutritious food that supports healing. I commend Tampa General Hospital for leading by example and encourage every hospital to join us.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TGH&#8217;s new menu includes organic produce and locally grown and harvested products. There are no added or artificial sweeteners and no processed foods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;By introducing patients to world-class, nutrient-dense, wholesome meals, we&#8217;re not only accelerating recovery, but we&#8217;re giving them the best possible chance at the best possible outcomes,&#8221; said John Couris, president and CEO of Florida Health Sciences Center. &#8220;We&#8217;re also establishing a foundation for healthy eating long after discharge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TGH has several locations across Florida, including five hospitals, and serves 23 counties surrounding the Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa General Hospital became the first in the nation to sign the &#8220;Make Hospital Food Healthy Again&#8221; pledge&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[140607,80586,6106,140946,140945,135,9019,3871,137,136],"class_list":["post-343826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-brooke-rollins","tag-florida-health-sciences-center","tag-jr","tag-processed-foods","tag-robert-f-kennedy","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-area","tag-tampa-general-hospital","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}