Healthy Beverage Initiative

To the Johns Hopkins Medicine community

Dear Colleagues,

Choosing the right beverage is an important factor in maintaining a healthy diet and staying hydrated and energized. But it's often hard to make healthy beverage choices when we are constantly tempted by sugar-sweetened beverages, like sodas and fruit and sports drinks. These drinks contain lots of sugar and calories and have little or no nutrients. Scientific evidence consistently supports the association between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and an increased risk of obesity, which can contribute to the development of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

As a leader in health care, Johns Hopkins Medicine is committed to promoting healthy lifestyles. And as an employer, we care about our employees' health and are committed to providing the education and tools that make it easier to make healthier choices, such as becoming more physically active, eating healthier foods and decreasing consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks.

I am pleased to announce the start of the Healthy Beverage Initiative, a program designed to ensure that more healthy beverages are available to employees and visitors in the cafeterias, vending machines and retail outlets on Johns Hopkins Medicine campuses.

To do this, beverages have been classified into a color-coded system based on the density of calories per ounce and volume. Green choices are the healthiest selections, yellow choices are better but should be limited and red choices should be consumed sparingly.

These changes are already in effect at Johns Hopkins HealthCare and Johns Hopkins Home Care Group. They are being implemented at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital and Suburban Hospital.

The Healthy Beverage Initiative was developed by the Wellness Steering Committee, a multidisciplinary team that includes faculty and staff members from across Johns Hopkins Medicine and The Johns Hopkins University. This committee has been working for the past year on a number of initiatives to advance the part of our five-year strategic plan to "actively support a healthy workforce." On behalf of Janice Clements and myself, we want to thank the members of the committee and Richard Safeer, director of employee health and wellness at Johns Hopkins HealthCare, for their research and planning around this initiative.

I hope you will embrace the Healthy Beverage Initiative and rethink that drink the next time you reach for a 20-ounce bottle of soda. Just think about the 17 teaspoons of sugar it contains and select a healthier choice. For more information, visit the healthy beverage website. If you have any questions about the Healthy Beverage Initiative, please email hrbenefit@jhmi.edu.

Sincerely,

Pamela Paulk
Sr. Vice President, Human Resources
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Johns Hopkins Health System