hospital cafeteria food

[Skippy1]

Not really a rant, more of a resigned moan.

I had 3 appointments at the hospital today between 11.30 an 3.30 pm with breaks between. I walked the length of the hospital - seems like 5 miles on a broken foot!) and went into the cafeteria (quite large, serving staff, patients and visitors) to see what was on offer.

Battered fish, chips and peas. Sweet and sour chicken with rice. Veggie pasta bake ... with chips. Hot dog ... with chips and beans. Jacket potatoes, assume there were fillings but none on show. A selection of meat pies with peas/sweet corn and new potatoes. Sandwiches and crisps. Nothing on the cold counter.

I eat LCHF where possible so I couldn't even find a few things I could pick out to make a decent meal. I went back down to M&S and bought some crispy bacon strips and a pot of humus. Actually, crispy bacon strips are a favourite, so I didn't feel too hard done by!

 

[NicoleC1971]

I was at a diabetes education course in Guildford today (got my freebie fsl sensors x 5 so yeah). Luckily bought my own salmon, egg, avocado salad but had to queue in Costa for my coffee with the queue snaking past the carb fest (plenty of fat nurses and doctors in the queue too). I love the crispy bacon strips but it might have been considered fairly provocative to eat them in front of our chubby dietician preaching the Traffic Light system... sat fat - STOP! salt STOP! My tongue got a bit sore because I had to keep biting it when this dogma was rolled out as it did not seem the time or place to challenge her authority.

 

[JohnEGreen]

I when at the local hospital tend to go to the cafe run by the hospital volunteers the choices aren't exactly low carb but somewhat better than the cafeteria and all the cold drinks are sugar free.

In fact was in there today but unfortunately the guy on the till got me started on a statin rant.

 

[Skippy1]

I do use the league of friends shops for cold drinks. Our hospital also has a several Costa cafes dotted around the departments, but I don't drink coffee so I don't have to run the gauntlet of the sandwiches, cakes and biscuits in there. Without the M&S, recently changed from Sainsburys, there is very little low carb food available.

 

[Flora123]

I felt the same having tried to find something suitable at three cafes. I eventually bought a Peperami and a block of cheese from the hospital shop. All very sad and annoying. I guess they thought they’d made an effort with the (high carb) salad and bananas. Sigh.

 

[Skippy1]

got my freebie fsl sensors x 5 so yeah

Good news @NicoleC1971 !

 

[Skippy1]

I guess they thought they’d made an effort with the (high carb) salad and bananas

not even any 'healthy' fruit on offer today @Flora123 - maybe I just caught an end of the week 'serve whatever's left' menu!

 

[becca59]

Always take own food and coffee everywhere. Don’t spend money unless I have to

 

[Hiitsme]

I really enjoy when my husband has to attend fasting and I join him for that as that hospital does a wonderful cooked breakfast, yes there are a few heavy carbs options but enough eggs, bacon, sausage mushrooms etc for me to be in my element. I hope no one tells them about the healthy plate options.

 

[Skippy1]

a wonderful cooked breakfast

Yeah for the all day breakfast!

 

[Hiitsme]

Unfortunately the hospital only does cooked breakfast until 10.30am

 

[T2#Me]

I was at a diabetes education course in Guildford today (got my freebie fsl sensors x 5 so yeah). Luckily bought my own salmon, egg, avocado salad but had to queue in Costa for my coffee with the queue snaking past the carb fest (plenty of fat nurses and doctors in the queue too). I love the crispy bacon strips but it might have been considered fairly provocative to eat them in front of our chubby dietician preaching the Traffic Light system... sat fat - STOP! salt STOP! My tongue got a bit sore because I had to keep biting it when this dogma was rolled out as it did not seem the time or place to challenge her authority.

So right! My wife and I are always stunned by the number of, to be blunt, fat, doctors and nurses we meet in the local surgery and the local hospital, also, as you say, the trash food on offer, even sold in machines in the corridors! Hardly a good advertisement for the NHS low fat diet, still trotted out ad nauseum ...

 

[Rachox]

I had no chance at the Café at one of my local hospitals!

 

[Boo1979]

When I was first diagnosed I was a hospital inpatient and the hospital restaurant was a life saver - it had a huge salad bar which gave lots of raw veg etc to go alongside grilled / steamed fish etc - choices that were far healthier than the high carb, nuked slop served up on the wards so I used it as often as I was well enough to .Alongside the nhs staff using it, there was quite a lot of patients with their drip stands.
I was very sad to see what had happened to it when I went to the hospital for a work meeting some years later and we adjourned to the restaurant for lunch -the choice was largely between sandwiches, burgers, chips, pies, fried battered fish and some kind of pasta dish with towers of coke cans and sweeties on sale - I had coffee.
There were a lot of v overweight nhs staff using it

 

[JohnEGreen]

In fact at the local hospital I find it is often difficult to get into the volunteers cafe and end up in a long queue. as it's packed out with staff who tend to avoid their staff canteen now prefering the fare there (the cafe that is) and especially as the cafe gives staff discount which the canteen no longer does.

 

[Dr Snoddy]

My local hospital restaurant has a fantastic serve-yourself salad bar with 16 separate salads on offer. It makes the occasional visit worthwhile. Unfortunately the hot food options are all carb heavy so this is not so good in the depths of winter.
Out-sourcing of catering to companies who are profit driven has had a big impact on the food offered in hospitals - sadly.

 

[Oldvatr]

Our local NHS centre has just kicked Costa lot into touch and engaged a firm that is reknowned for its Cornish Pasties and muffins of all sorts (except low carb). They ran a bakery in our town until recently but it got closed down suddenly in mysterious circumstances, They had a hard sell attitude with sales staff accosting people passing by in the street with 'special offers' 3-for ones etc. I do not think this is a positive move for us diabetics, but then who are we to complain? Us carb munchin, sugar gobbling overweight people with an agenda to air????? We bought it on ourselves, or at least bought their produce in the past. so why change? I know why.........

 

[Brunneria]

A while back (talking 15 or so years) I attended an endocrinology appt with a registrar at Cardiff hospital.
Nice man. His own size is totally irrelevant, so I am not going to tell you whether he was small, medium or large.

He suggested (with the air of a man donning a flak jacket and helmet) that I would benefit from losing weight.

I cheerfully agreed with him, and said
'Yup. I know exactly what to eat, and how to do it. Trouble is, I need a wife to cook it all for me. I'm working 17 hour days, 6 days a week, and if I'm not at work, I am sleeping. So I really don't have time for all the food prep, and always seem to have to eat ****** options I can eat on the move.'

He nodded with total understanding, and said
'I hear you!'

So while I agree that there are many people (including NHS staff) who are over weight, I REALLY dislike their shape being used to berate them on a thread like this. There are many, many, reasons that people get overweight, and when a person is working NHS shifts, in an NHS environment, surrounded by NHS thinking and Eatwell dogma, I do not think it is fair to judge them for their size. They are a very small cog in an enormous wheel, which takes decades to change. And they are basically just as much victims of bad info as we are/were.

 

[Skippy1]

Unfortunately the hospital only does cooked breakfast until 10.30am

I'd be looking to book the first appointments of the day!

 

[HSSS]

Can’t afford the parking to stay long enough for a meal. In fact tend to park a mile or so away in the 2hrs free area so get a bonus walk too