BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Eating healthy when dining out can feel overwhelming, but Ochsner’s Eat Fit program is putting a seal of approval on restaurant menus and inside hospital cafeterias so diners know what’s good for them before they order.
A small logo next to certain menu items at Ochsner cafeterias and participating Baton Rouge restaurants marks the Eat Fit seal, indicating the nutrition work has been done.
“Those items on the menu are the ones that you can feel confident choosing,” nutrition specialist Allie Foreman said. “And whenever you go to order, all the work has been done, and you can just feel confident that you’re putting something nutritious into your body.”
Program expands from restaurants to hospital facilities
Foreman said Eat Fit launched in New Orleans in 2013 and expanded to Baton Rouge around 2019. Ochsner has now brought the program inside its own facilities with a major incentive.
“It’s been such a success in restaurants that Ochsner has decided to bring it inside of the facilities as well in the cafeterias and even take it a step further to offer 50% off of any item that fits the eat fit criteria,” Foreman said. “So it’s making healthy foods more affordable and more accessible.”
The seal is showing up at local restaurants like Barracuda Taco Stand on Government Street, where manager Blair Kornegay said joining the program was an easy call.
“It was just kind of an easy yes, in my opinion,” Kornegay said. “It benefits us because it gives people the knowledge at their fingertips, and it makes them more comfortable, and they feel like they’ve got a little more ownership, if you will, of the menu.”
Barracuda Taco now has around five to six Eat Fit items on its menu. Kornegay said customers, especially those managing health conditions, appreciate knowing their options before they walk in the door.
“A lot of people, actually, I think, have started using the app because we still see a lot of the same faces that come in, but it gave them something at their fingertips, and it makes it a lot less awkward,” Kornegay said.
Foreman said the program now has about 32 unique restaurant partners in Baton Rouge and roughly 500 statewide. They are always looking to add more to the list.
The Eat Fit app is free and available in the App Store. Users can search participating restaurants and browse approved grocery items and recipes.
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