Hospital Food ~ And You Call That “Nutrition”?!

Posted by Dr. Mom Online in Nutrition on February 21, 2010

canned fruit

A few days ago, the kids and I visited one of my aunts in the hospital after she had suffered a stroke. She has made enormous improvements and is back home now, thank God.

Anyhow, while we were visiting, I couldn’t help but notice the tray of lunch that had been delivered to her room right before we arrived. Overflowing with abundant nutrition, it was not! It was pathetic and displayed a complete lack of understanding of basic nutrition and the raw ingredients required for optimal physiologic function of the body.

The “low-calorie” lunch menu:

about 1/4 – 1/3 cup of low-fat cottage cheese

1/3 cup of fruit cocktail (canned!)

black tea… with an unlimited supply of refined sugar, Splenda and Nutrasweet to choose from

What?! Are you kidding me?

What’s my challenge with the menu, you ask?

1) The cottage cheese. Conventional dairy is toxic garbage. It’s loaded with hormones, steroids and void of much nutritional value whatsoever after it has gone through all the modern-day processing and pasteurization.

The biggest benefit dairy has to offer is the fat-soluble vitamins it contains in its whole fat form – they are vital for optimal brain function, hormonal function, mood regulation, as well as countless other functions throughout the body.Well, you can kiss the vast majority of those benefits good-bye once you choose low-fat or fat-free and process the stuff to death!

Without question, the most beneficial form of dairy is raw, unpasteurized and whole-fat.

2) The fruit cocktail. C’mon! You can’t be serious! Dead, processed, colored, sweetened fruit? That was pretty pathetic to see. Ohhhh, I understand that REAL fruit might cost more. Your point? Give me a flippin’ break! We’re talking about our health… and trying to help people get it back so they can get the heck outta’ that place. Canned food should be criminal in this setting.

3) The black tea. Not the greatest choice for someone trying to regain function and repair serious damage done. But, not as big of a problem as serving it up with “help-yourself-to-all-you-care-for” toxic sweeteners! I’m pretty sure that sending patients into the physiological stress response and providing inflammatory ingredients is not in their best interest for healing!

Ugh.This menu went far beyond “low calorie” – it was “toxic and deficient calorie”.

Even my daughter turned to me and quietly asked, “Mommy, this isn’t very healthy food, is it? How is she supposed to get better if she eats this?” Exactly. (Although, she may have just been testing me to see if there was any way on earth she could have a chance at eating something that came with bright red cherries in it!!)

Can you even imagine how disgusted I’d be if I had to look at the “meat” and pale veggies they serve?! Ewww!

Actually, I clearly remembering suffering through that exact philosophical battle when my mom was in the hospital for the last 3 weeks of her life. It’s brutal to witness someone you love being fed garbage as their bodies are just trying to hang on and get better. I did my best to bring her fresh food, but it didn’t “fit” with the system. Whatever.

A friend of mine whose husband was recently in a highly esteemed hospital out of state as he struggled to hang on to his life long enough to have a potentially life-saving surgery, was shocked to discover the same lack of pure nutrition available. This is a couple who has taken the personal responsibility of educating themselves about real nutrition and what it takes to re-build health. (The husband’s life-threatening condition goes back many, many years… long before they made this lifestyle change.)

My friend chose to pay a cab $60 per day to drive her to and from the Whole Foods Market that was closest to the hospital so that she could bring non-toxic, health-supporting food back to the hospital for her husband. She had spoken to doctors, nurses, even the head nutritionist of the hospital and was completely dumbfounded by the lack of accurate knowledge and the failure to provide physiologically compatible, safe and restorative nutrition.

It’s truly pathetic.

How are sick people supposed to get well when we feed them more garbage?

In all fairness, I know that some hospitals are attempting to improve things… their intentions are good, or so I choose to believe. Personally knowing a chef in one of these “new” hospitals that claims to offer real, healthy food, I know that much of the nutritional knowledge is still based on inaccurate, outdated and flawed thinking that has been mindlessly passed down by the “diet dictocrats” (thank you, Sally Fallon – Nourishing Traditions!) for far too many generations now.

They ARE trying though… at least on some level.

I still think our best bet is to do everything we possibly can to stay as far away from hospitals as possible! Building health helps us avoid chronic illness.

Dr. Mom Online

Common sense health tips, nutrition information, and exercise secrets from an experienced mom and doctor, specializing in optimal health & wellness!

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