Banning Bacon Won’t Heal the Sick

By Vlad Yurlov

If you thought hospital food was bland now, get ready to hear this. The Oregon Legislature is considering a bill that bans hospitals from serving bacon and every other salted, smoked, or cured meat. Because House Bill 2348 also requires hospitals to make plant-based food available, proponents argue that this is simply about promoting good health. But who’s to say that a room full of legislators knows more than a hospital full of doctors?

Being stuck in a hospital bed is bad enough. Patients need to eat to keep up their strength. And comfort food is one secret that gets people eating and happy to be alive. So if the bedridden want bacon, give them bacon.

Politicians are ready to trade your range of choices for their own agendas, especially if they don’t have to eat the results. So let’s save the health food kick for home. If the “bacon ban” passes, buying comfort food from a hospital will only be harder for those that could really use some comfort.

Vlad Yurlov is a Policy Analyst at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.