[Crain's Detroit] Out with the fried, unhealthy food. In with nutritious, low-fat, cholesterol-free and heart-healthy food.

That's what hospitals want patients, employees and visitors to believe. On the whole over the past five years, it is mostly true. But not all hospital food is created equal for Michigan's 130 hospitals.

Despite a new food court with multiple healthy choices managed by Detroit-based gourmet market vendor Papa Joe's, Detroit Medical Center's Harper Hospital still has a Wendy's franchise, one of several fast-food chains discouraged by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an organization that frequently criticizes hospital food.

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit dropped Little Caesars several years ago. However, it still has Subway, a more healthy choice but one that experts call out for failing to remove harmful therapeutic antibiotics from its turkey, beef and pork, at its downtown hospital and at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital.

St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Beaumont Health and Henry Ford Health System are among many health care organizations in Southeast Michigan that have removed deep-fat fryers from their hospital kitchens, dramatically lowering the tons of fat sold to customers and employees. Like a few other hospitals, the health organizations also offer seasonal farmer's markets with St. Joe's owning one of the few hospital farms in the nation that also grows vegetables for its food service operation.

First promoted in 2010 by the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, a growing number of hospitals in Michigan have signed on to various healthy food initiatives, including its own Healthy Food Hospitals program and the Healthier Hospitals Initiative sponsored by Health Care Without Harm.

Standout hospitals for food preparation in Southeast Michigan are C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor and Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, experts say.Mott Children's is rated a best hospital by the Physicians Committee and Henry Ford West Bloomfield features the nation's only hospital greenhouse, a resident farmer and a gourmet cafeteria menu at Henry's, the hospital's cafe.

Despite the recent movement to offering more healthy food, Bloomfield Township cardiologist Joel Kahn, M.D., contends too many hospitals still sell too many high-fat, high-sugar, high-sodium foods.....(Continue reading).