Hospitals in Madrid Will Start the Day with a 'Spanish Breakfast'

By Pandora Penamil Penafiel

Jan. 19, 2012 11:04 UTC

Summary

The Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional Organization and HM Hospitals in Madrid have partnered to make the “Spanish Breakfast” a staple of healthy menus at various hospital centers. The agreement, signed by representatives from both organizations, aims to promote the health benefits of olive oil and expand the Spanish Breakfast concept internationally.

Pedro Rubio Aragonés, vice president of the Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional Organization and Dr. Juan Abarca Cidón, managing director of HM hospitals.

The Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional Organization and HM Hospitals signed today a partnership to make the “Spanish Breakfast” the base of a healthy menu in all of the centers in the city of Madrid. The centers include the HM Universitario Madrid, HM Universitario Montepríncipe, HM Universitario Torrelodones, HM Universitario Sanchinarro and HM Nuevo Belén.

The signing of this manifest took place this morning in Madrid, in the Sanchinarro HM University Hospital. The document was signed by Pedro Rubio Aragonés, vice president of the Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional Organization and Dr. Juan Abarca Cidón, managing director of HM hospitals.

From now on patients of these centers (1,000,000 visits in 2010) and its 1,700 employees will start the day in the most healthy and delicious way, “because we have an obligation to cure, but also to take care of our patients,” said Dr. Abarca during the presentation of the manifest. “Spanish olive oil is really healthy and has an incredible flavor,” he added.

HM Hospital will offer the proposal at their centers to promote the Spanish Breakfast“which rather than an effort, is a pleasure for us,” Dr. Abarca said, adding that these medic centers are convinced about the health benefits of olive oil. “It has been shown that, among other many things, olive oil helps to reduce loads of diseases such as cholesterol,” he said.

Pedro Rubio was pleased with this commitment from HM Hospitals, “the first one we have signed in the field of health,” he said. Rubio said it was another step in the development of a strategy that has to consider the Spanish Breakfast a global culinary reference. “We started here, but the Spanish Breakfast has been to Russia when we started the promotion campaign. In a short period of time, this proposal will also reach other international markets.”

“That does not mean that the “Spanish Breakfast” has not set new goals in our country,” he said, adding that the next agreement to be signed will be with Telefonica, the largest national telephone operator in Spain. The big challenge for the spanish olive oil sector is now in schools, where it is still not required to use olive oil. “We care about the health of our children,” concluded the Interprofessional’s Pedro Barato.