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"Hospital food is a recipe for disaster "

rowan

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,462
Location
Tamar Valley, West Devon
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I've been in many different wards but never in a diabetic ward. Do they make any attempt to cater properly for diabetics? I've seen the 'D' next to various meals but never took much notice before. Although i seem to remember that all the diabetic desserts were milk puddings!
Reading this article doesn't give me much comfort, the photo is a diabetic nightmare! www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/02/hospital-food-nutrition-recovery-ministers?CMP=fb_gu
I've got a week or two in hospital coming up later this year so am wondering what I can expect? (Not in a diabetic ward, I'll be in colorectal surgical).
And what I should take in with me to ensure I don't starve?
 
From what I've read I'm pretty sure that you will get the NICE interpretation of what's good for a diabetic. The only way round this I think is to convince your GP to write a letter stating what your dietary requirements are and see how that stands up against the surgeon's whose rule is law otherwise I believe.
 
Yes but I think you will find Rowan is not wanting the high carb diet Poohtiggy and what they gave you would be considered high carb I am afraid, ie crackers, potatoes, quiche etc. Quiche has a surprising number of carbs!! Best of luck Rowan, never heard of a diabetic ward by the way and I have a lot of experience of hospitals one way or another.

Ali
 
It's a while off for you yet, but when the time comes make sure your visitors come armed with goodies for you. Full fat yogurts, berries, cream, boiled eggs, cherry toms, whatever can be packed in plastic containers. The nurses will keep them in the fridge for you. One other thing I noticed when I was an in-patient (before diabetes) was they do not use salt in cooking and none is provided. I advise you to take your own!
 

Exactly, quiche and jacket spuds are definite no-nos for me I've spent months in the same hospital but was always too ill to eat much and don't really remember what they had. I do know that each time I've been in for 2 weeks I went on a long-term patient menu which had more choice and I had an omelette most days. can't remember what other choices I had, I lived on omelettes
And breakfast is always toast and cereals, both out for me, but I've ordered a load of low carb bars that I'll have instead 3.57 and 1.38g carbs per bar.
 
@rowan, not sure there are 'diabetic wards' in hospitals now.
 
The last time I was in visiting my mum, I ordered her meals for her, and looked at the diabetic options. I would starve so as the others say make sure you have other food to take in.
 

Salt, thanks, good idea, I do show low sodium in most of my blood tests! Will also take in green tea with lemon teabags so i don't have to have milk or their horrid sweeteners
I'm not expecting to go in for a few months yet but things have a habit of turning serious quickly with me and past surgeries have all had to be brought forward, so I'm getting sorted early just in case.

And I've just learnt something - I googled to see how long boiled eggs stay fresh for, and in their shells but not in fridge, 2 hours! I often boil them in the evening and leave them out to cool down till I make egg mayo next morning!
Think I'll take in a big jar of pickled eggs, don't think they need to be kept in fridge
 
Yes there are diabetic wards just before Xmas l was talking to a lady who had been on one in fact only come out about the week before with Diabetic ketoacidosis and horror stories about food. Lunch and dinner they were offered apple pie and ice cream or jelly or custard or cake. Full carb meals spuds, rice, pasta, bread all the high carb gems really. This was down Dorking way l forgot to ask the hospital
She was interested in LCHF and l pointed where to look as she had such a scare and bloods are out of control she is T1, she was a converted person even before l showed her my meter.

I have told hub that if l end up in hospital to bring me in food and if they try get me to eat their crud l will quote the human rights act at them and threaten them with suing on the basis.... If a muslim or jew doesnt eat pig and others have their own diets for religious or health reasons it is against my human rights to push carbs on me as l do lchf
 

That doesn't sound right at all! If they don't go off uncooked, how come they go off boiled? I often have boiled eggs the day after cooking and I'm still alive!
 
noblehead said:
@rowan, not sure there are 'diabetic wards' in hospitals now.
Click to expand...

Ok. I know when I was in once the ward I was in only had showers and I needed a bath, so they took me to the diabetic ward which they said was the only ward with a bath. But that was around 7-8 years ago.
 
rowan said:
Ok. I know when I was in once the ward I was in only had showers and I needed a bath, so they took me to the diabetic ward which they said was the only ward with a bath. But that was around 7-8 years ago.
Click to expand...

Just 7-8 years ago, thought it would be more like the 1950's/1960's when they would have separate wards.

Anyway good luck and hope everything goes well for in hospital and you make a full recovery.
 

I was wondering about that. A low carb diet is as valid as any other that they cater for, especially if carbs push up your BG to such high levels! When they take all your details when you frst go in I think they ask about special dietry needs? If they do I'll say I'm allergic to carbs. And that's not far from the truth - I tried a slice of bread last night with my otherwise low carb fry-up and went from 10 to 19.9 in 2 hours!
 
I care for my parents, both type 2 on insulin. Whenever they go into hospital all they are fed is carbs. Mum was running around 20 last year, I asked the nurses what the hell they were doing about it...... precisely nothing!!! I asked why the diabetic team weren't dealing with it, they looked at me as though I was an alien. She has dysphasia due to a stroke, ie can't talk properly, so they were just slapping any old thing on the menus each day without giving her any guidance. Toast and cereals, everything else was white white white white white be it spuds, pasta or rice, sigh. Does my head in. Best of luck Rowan.

Ali
 

Thank you. My worst experience was when I had my colon removed and an ileostomy formed. There are strict guidelines for a while after surgery because teh risk of blockages is high until the swelling goes down, and often certain foods remain off limits for ever. But the food on offer was all the stuff we were told not to eat!
 
I think the OP was talking about hard boiled eggs OUTSIDE of a fridge? Rowan I despair, how can hospitals be getting it so badly wrong? At 86 Dad had his thyroid out due to cancer, he was meant to be first down to theatre...... he went last, they starved an 86 year old diabetic all that time, for goodness sake!

Ali
 
Ali H said:
I think the OP was talking about hard boiled eggs OUTSIDE of a fridge?
Click to expand...

Yes I was. In a fridge it's a week or so.
Just think how many millions of picnics there have been over the years, with hard boiled eggs getting gradually warmer in the summer heat before they're eaten, I bet no-one thought they wouldn't be safe!
 
I found the hospital food to be one of the worst things about my stay and recovery from a DKA two years ago.
The undiagnosed nerve damage prevented me from keeping food down and the anti-nausea meds were not too helpful. I was bullied by the catering staff for wasting food or meals were forgotten and the nurses brought me cuppa soups instead!

In ICU all the food tasted very strange and made me sick, I asked my partner to bring in tomatoe soup and was so relieved each day when he arrived and I could get it heated up. I'd always had fruit and yoghurts when ill before, but these were to acidic and off the menu, not that I knew, it took four days of bringing them back up before one of the nurses suggested they might not be suitable.

On the ward after a week I managed to keep some porridge and milk down, so asked for milk to drink. However I couldn't eat it until after the anti nausea had kicked in, the nurses were adamant that I had to wait 9 hours between shots, so after stomach convulsions in the night, planning to have a dose 9 hrs before breakfast was not exactly on my mind. Resulting in me missing the regular breckfast session and annoying the nurses later asking them if the might actually fetch me something to eat. That worked along with the daily soup from my partner. I was not informed I could ask for some or biscuits/crackers (which I sucked) at any time and was ravenous by the time he arrived.

Cauliflower cheese seemed to be the only diabetic option on the menus, which includes flour in the sauce, so not low carb. I regularly ordered the farmhouse soup or some such, but never received it.

Upon discharge the nerve damage remained undiagnosed and I spent two weeks on a liquid diet of soups and milk at home' continuing to take anti-nausea meds.

The ICU care was phenomenal, they saved my life! But the food and general diabetic care was abysmal
 
Bluetit1802 said:
That doesn't sound right at all! If they don't go off uncooked, how come they go off boiled?
Click to expand...

Fascinating, I thought I remembered something Heston Blumenthal had said, so had a google. Some eggs will contain Salmonella, whatsherface wasn't completely wrong, just a bit alarmist. I couldn't find what Blumenthal said but found this (which is what I thought he'd said anyway)

"According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, hard-boiled eggs are actually more susceptible to bacterial contamination because the cooking process damages a protective layer on the shell of the egg".

Mind you, there's loads of people on different forums saying that they've been OK leaving boiled eggs out for 24 hours. However, leaving hard-boiled eggs at room temperature for extended periods of time allows for dangerous bacteria, including salmonella, to grow at a rapid pace. A friend of mine had salmonella poisoning and was very ill for 3 weeks, it really isn't worth the risk.

BTW, the recommendation is to cook food for at least ten minutes at 75 °C and that's the temperature at the centre of the food being cooked. So boiling and egg until it's hard may not kill off all the bacteria even if the outside of the egg has been at 100 °C.
 
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