Health and Fitness

August 20, 2007

Preston Maring, MD, Shares Healthy Harvest in Podcast

Preston Maring, MD, continues to be a leading voice at Kaiser Permanente. His revolutionary idea of bringing farmers' markets to health care facilities, and his emphasis on the importance of a healthy diet make him a wonderful proponent of good food as good medicine.

Dr. Maring, associate physician in chief at Kaiser Permanente's Oakland Medical Center, shared in a recent interview the latest news about Kaiser Permanente's farmers' markets, as well as his work to encourage incorporating local, organic produce into meals served at Kaiser Permanente hospitals.

Kaiser Permanente now hosts farmers' markets at 38 of its sites nationwide, and plans this year to purchase 60 tons of organic, sustainably farmed produce for patient meals in Northern California alone. It's a stunning rate of growth in a program that started in May 2003 with a farmers' market at Kaiser Permanente's Oakland Medical Center.

Yet Dr. Maring says his work has just begun. He said he's working on programs to let Kaiser Permanente's employees buy "farm boxes" of organic produce that can be delivered regularly to workplaces. Nothing, he said, is more important for preventive medicine than the food we eat.

Hear more about Dr. Maring's news and perspectives in this KP News Center podcast .