Johns Hopkins Health System Implements Healthy Beverage Initiative

Share On Social!

Healthcare systems across the country are reevaluating the types of beverages served on their campuses, and the Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS) is the latest institution wanting to help their community make smarter, healthier drink choices.

This September, five JHHS-affiliated facilities—Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital, Suburban Hospital, and Sibley Memorial Hospital—will implement the Healthy Beverage Initiative, a program meant to help faculty, staff, and guests choose healthy options.

Stickers will categorize every drink sold in vending machines, cafes, and cafeterias and at hospital-sponsored events. The lowest-calorie beverages, like water and unsweetened tea, will have a green sticker next to them. The sugary beverages, like soft drinks and high-calorie sports drinks, will have red. And the beverages in between, like low-calorie juices and sports drinks, will have yellow.

Johns Hopkins also will shift prices so that green- and yellow-labeled drinks are more affordable.

“At this point, health is taking precedence over beverage profit,” says Richard Safeer, medical director for the Employee Health & Wellness Center at Johns Hopkins Healthcare.

Facility managers at the university’s buildings on the East Baltimore campus are discussing implementing the Healthy Beverage Initiative as well.

Read more here.