A Few Good Words About a Former Employer

I read recently about the FDA's push to restaurants to cut portion sizes in the name of our country's health. It reminded me of something I heard from a friend at a former employer. The employer, a health plan, recently changed their menu at their annual Family Day event to cut out all fried foods and to try to improve the nutrition content of all items being served.

At last, something that seemed so obvious to me was done! It never made sense to me for a health plan, which should encourage all of their members and certainly their employees to eat well, to serve a menu of predominately fried and fat-laden foods. They should encourage a healthy diet, which on a large scale would cut the number of claims they'd have to pay significantly, and cut down on sick days taken by employees.

My former employer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has made improvements in this area, and I must applaud them for that.

Now, the next thing I'd like to see is for hospitals to remove fast food establishments from their premises. I guess in the hospitals case, such set-ups are good for business - except, again, for making their own staff more unhealthy - but there just is something wrong with fast food restaurants in hospitals in my opinion. Here's one guy who agrees with me.