Truman et al., 2023
108 hospital patients in the UK. Patients were broadly happy to have red and processed meat removed from hospital menus for health and environmental reasons, but mostly wanted alternatives to be fish or chicken, not plant-based.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lim2.87
108 patients at King's College hospital in London were interviewed about the policy of reducing red and processed meat in NHS hospitals
After being told that Red and processed meat are bad for you and that they contribute to climate change
most patients did not consider serving processed red meat (74%) or unprocessed red meat (66.1%) important to them choosing the response ‘could take it or leave it’ or ‘not at all important’ (Table 1). Most patients (77.9%) were neutral or supportive of removing processed red meat from menus to reduce the risk of cancer (Table 2). Most patients (67%) were also supportive of removing unprocessed red meat from menus to combat climate change
| Remove processed meat to reduce cancer (%) (n) | Remove red meat to combat climate change (%) (n) | |
|---|---|---|
| Strongly agree | 27.1 (32) | 14.4 (17) |
| Agree | 28.8 (34) | 28.0 (33) |
| Neutral | 22.0 (26) | 24.6 (29) |
| Disagree | 16.1 (19) | 23.7 (28) |
| Strongly disagree | 5.9 (7) | 9.3 (11) |
TABLE 2. Patient attitudes towards removing all processed meats from hospital menus to reduce the risk of cancer and removing all beef, lamb and pork to combat climate change.
| Remove processed meat to reduce cancer (%) (n) | Remove red meat to combat climate change (%) (n) | |
|---|---|---|
| Strongly agree | 27.1 (32) | 14.4 (17) |
| Agree | 28.8 (34) | 28.0 (33) |
| Neutral | 22.0 (26) | 24.6 (29) |
| Disagree | 16.1 (19) | 23.7 (28) |
| Strongly disagree | 5.9 (7) | 9.3 (11) |
TABLE 3. Alternative choices if red and processed meats were removed.
| 118 patients, 186 options chosen (%) (n) | |
|---|---|
| Chicken | 39.2 (73) |
| Fish | 32.3 (60) |
| Meat alternatives such as veggie sausage or veggie bacon | 9.7 (18) |
| Tofu or soya mince | 7.0 (13) |
| Beans and lentils | 9.7 (18) |
| None of these | 2.2 (4) |
A total of 71.5% of participants chose chicken or fish for at least one of their options. Meat alternatives such as veggie sausage or veggie bacon were chosen by 9.7%. Tofu or soya mince were chosen by 7.0% and beans and lentils by 9.7%.