Hospital food - high sugar

[Pebbles16]

I will probably not come back to this tonight as I am very tired after 48 hours of my lovely MIL being admitted to hospital for a stroke. Luckily all is now much more stable.
However, I am flummoxed by the food on offer. She has diabetes and would normally eschew sweet treats. In hospital she has: marmalade/jam on her toast; offer of a biscuit at elevenses; a pudding with lunch; cake or biscuits with afternoon tea time; a supper with another pudding.
It has taken us four years to wean her off sweet treats but, because she's in hospital, she now thinks they should be back on the menu.
I would have taken fruit in but she doesn't need any more sugar.
Not really a question, just an observation that vegetables are in short supply, fish and chips and then macaroni cheese is hardly what I would call a balanced diet. Yes, I could bring in nice fresh food, but she likes the hospital food and unlimited access to sweet puddings etc.

If MIL is a diabetic, then all nursing staff must be aware of her meals . There is always a diabetic option at meal times. So staff are not doing there job, if she is eating regular foods. You need to speak to the matron or nurse in charge to ensure MIL gets diabetic options.

I’m a doctor working with patients who have complications of diabetes. The housekeepers and nurses are not allowed to ‘discriminate’ against patients with diabetes .
Everyone is offered fruit juice , biscuits , puddings jelly ice cream etc and it is up to individual patients to choose an option which is better for them .
So frustrating …

Of course the nurses are aware and would prefer her to make good choices…

There won’t be diabetic meals / sugar free jam etc

As far as I’m aware, the patient makes their own food choices. Nursing staff have nothing to do with what those choices are.
I don’t think hospital food is terribly healthy, tbh. It’s usually white rice and pasta. You may get brown bread, but it’s not wholemeal. And yes, far too much sugar.

The menu is usually coded to indicate healthy or dietary needs but the patient has free choice unless there are swallowing issues or limited diet due to allergies. Some so-called healthy options are dubious like sugary puddings and carb heavy dishes. Does she have cognitive issues that lead her to make poor choices?

How old is she? There comes an age with diabetes T2 where long term complications just aren’t something you need to worry about any more.

If she’s T1 or T3 then her diet doesn’t need to change she can have everything with the right insulin dose.

That’s awful that nobody is ensuring she only has choices which are appropriate for her needs. Hospital food I had was sadly lacking in veg. I’d have been constipated if I’d been in any longer. There was no fruit at all. Just stodge.

Ha, my mil is T2 and loves a hospital stay for the same reason!
my Bil and Sil who she lives with have her on a regimented diet and she’s miserable with it. She was a fantastic cook when she was young and loves all things sugar. She’s many other health concerns and mid 80’s. Food is her last joy really. It’s tricky but I think I veer towards enjoying yourself - in her case, no predicting how many good dinners are left…

My friend was in hospital due to very sudden and serious health issues and this turned out to be that he was diabetic. However they were still serving him up doughnuts and jam and toast even before he had medication. The communication system in hospitals can be lacking. For example it can be true that notes are updated by one member of staff but they don't appear on the notes immediately and it can take a day or two for the system to fully up date and make that new update appear to all staff who might be checking. To me this seems unacceptable as critical information could be overlooked. To be clear this is what I was told directly by the registrar at a hospital near me last year. Hopefully the system is better now but I am not sure.

When I was in more recently for surgery I was in for a few days recently then the day before I was discharged the nurse came to me and explain about everything that would happen prior to my discharge, dressing changes, medication I should get and so on. Then the next day the staff on the ward all changed and I was literally just turfed out with none of the things the other nurse had discussed for my discharge being done because the new nurse had no record of that. Very disconcerting and as a result I ended up with an infection in my surgical wound.

The care in the NHS is typically good but the communication is often poor.

I found hospital food a lot better than expected when in for 3 weeks a couple of years ago. The one real fail was broccoli boiled to a mush. Mind you all the ABs I was on made everything taste a bit weird - I came out 5 kg lighter!

This is a particular bug bare of mine. DH spends months at a time as an inpatient, often in a diabetic ward. He was diagnosed as T2, in remission (no drugs required) having lost weight , on my advice, by avoiding sugar and starchy carbs

he started to suggest that my advice may have been wrong g given he was asked ‘how many spoons of sugar’ he wanted in a cup of coffee there or four times a day and being smuggled extra packets of his favourite ginger biscuits. Then his blood sugars started to rise again and he was feeling groggy ..

Avoiding sugar and starchy carbs has literally transformed my life. I’m so sorry that the NHS guidelines continue to ignore the evidence and continue to advise diabetics to eat ‘plenty of sugar for energy ‘. Grrrr.

I find that crazy! Granted I’m in Ireland but diabetics are given diabetic specific diets and catering staff inform us if diabetic patients ask for sugar in their tea, extra biscuits etc. The idea they would be given food such as doughnuts is just not right.

Hospital food is largely unhealthy.

My son was in for an extended period of time until the beginning of this year and the children's menu was standard kid food such as pizza, chicken nuggets etc.

They do have various menus that cater to dietary needs and a cultural menu but you had to specifically ask for them at my sons hospital.

She’s probably choosing the sugary things from the menu. I was in for days when having my kids (various health issues including diabetes) and someone came round to show you the daily menu and note the choice down. They weren’t connected to the HCPs, at least some of them were volunteers. Foods more suited to diabetics (and other diets) were clearly indicated on the menu but it was up to you what to choose.

I thought the food was quite nice and varied. Portions too small and the evening meal was far too early at 5pm! There were some stodgy puddings on offer (presumably aimed at getting calories into older people) but there was plenty of veg, fruit and yogurt available too.

When DH was in hospital I kept telling them that he was diabetic but they said if he asked for pudding they couldn’t refuse him.

I suspect people of a certain generation think it must be fine if I’m being giving it in hospital.