I had the opportunity to visit a cutting edge rehab facility in Metrowest this week, and was very impressed with their level of organization, cleanliness, and technology for rehabbing patients.

Unfortunately, like most others, their menu leaves much to be desired. They were proud of their prime rib, and the fact that they do not serve fried food. There is more to eating well than showing you have a budget, and the fallacy that fried foods are unhealthful is really getting on my nerves.

Top 10 ideas for institutional kitchens, to improve health, happiness and longevity of their clients:

1. Serve boiled or pressure-cooked brown rice every day, cooked with sea salt or kombu. This improves digestion, cognition, and has more protein than you think. It’s easy to make it different every time with so many varieties and additives. But it needs to be chewed well. Supplement with boiled millet, barley, quinoa, oats and buckwheat, as well as whole grain noodles, and sourdough bread.
2. Eliminate all ground beef and hot dogs, as well as any meats with nitrates, nitrites, MSG, artificial colors and flavors, etc.
3. Introduce fried vegetables (deep-fried also), especially onions, zucchini, sweet potato, carrot, mushrooms, and lotus root. They are delicious, relaxing, and helpful for joints in healing. Rather than adding salt or using ketchup, dip in long-brewed soy sauce, or mustard. Limit portions, and have a real (sea salt) pickle afterwards.
4. Serve blanched and pressed salads with broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, carrots, scallions, cucumber, radish, etc. Blanching means boiling for under thirty seconds, then spreading out to cool fast. This activates nutrients and improves digestion and adsorption. Pressed salads can be done by hand or with a heavy weight, with or without sea salt. Same benefits.
5. Reduce barbecued, broiled and baked animal foods such as beef, pork, poultry, fish or cheese, especially in the Summer. These meals add great stress and dry out the body, and the enormous energy of these meals is unnecessary for hospital patients, and can cause violence in a prison setting.
6. Do not serve any diet products, as the sugar replacements cause obesity, toxicity and cancer. If soda is desired, make your own or buy natural syrup. Use less soft drinks including fruit juices, and reduce coffee and tea. Main beverages should be twig tea, green tea and water.
7. Eliminate or greatly reduce milk, ice cream, cheese and other dairy products, as they cause osteoporosis, cancer, obesity, infections, allergies and skin problems.
8. Cook fruit in the winter, and reduce spinach, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes and peppers in the winter, making sure to cook them well. These “nightshades” cause acidosis in the body, leading to osteoporosis, arthritis and other diseases.
9. Replace table salt with sea salt, use agave nectar and rice syrup instead of sugar and corn syrup, and refrain from salting food after cooking.
10. Use more sea vegetables, fermented foods such as miso and tempeh, shiitake mushrooms, legumes, nuts and seeds.

In general, eating more fresh, organic, plant-based foods that are well cooked (more raw in summer), and de-emphasising fat, salt, sugar and chemicals, will lead to faster and more complete healing, and more happiness, for patients, inmates and staff.

I believe this can be done without an increase in food costs over the long term.