Should hospitals sell unhealthy food?

The question is should hospitals SELL unhealthy food not about food that patients are given.

Except for one helping of broccoli that was boiled to a mush, must say I found the hospital food fine when I was in for 3 weeks a couple of years ago. There was always a choice of meals.
My only problem was that after the first week, whatever ABs I was on, were making everything taste weird or horrible, so I was eating very little anyway. I lost at least 5 kg, but alas soon put it all back on once home…

I spent 2 weeks in hospital in 2024 and really struggled with the food as it was not very nice. The staff were great though OH bought me salads and fruit in and if I was hungry they made me some toast. Doctor daughter says she has to take her own food in as there's never time to eat in the hospital and it's quite expensive and when on nights, there's only vending machines.

Our hospital has an NHS award winning kitchen which supplies both the wards and the restaurant where staff, visitors and patients can eat. In the restaurant it has plenty of healthy options and ingredients are listed - it usually has 2 vegan choices in the restaurant's cooked options. I'm a hospital volunteer and I enjoy eating there.

From another perspective the young medics are so rushed off their feet that they grab any convenient food they can, the quicker the better. Energy drinks might just help on those 12-14 hour shifts. I wouldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole personally but I am not in the position under that stress.

So many people these days in the UK rely on Ultra Processed Foods ( UPF) that its seems as normal. Almost anything you buy that's in a packet with a list of more than about 3 ingredients is a UPF . These could be considered unhealthy when they constitute such a large proportion of some peoples diet.

Birmingham’s QE hospital has a busy fruit and veg stall outside with a wide range of fresh healthy food. Another local hospital has a café serving a choice of mostly healthy meals at reasonable prices. On the other hand some wards in the city send round a free snack trolley in the mid-afternoon, a little fruit but mostly less healthy options!

I'm coeliac and my last admission as a day patient all they had GF was tinned pears and ice-cream, usually it's brick hard jacket spuds so it made a change....but having worked in hospitals for years I do think that 'unhealthy' foods are demonised.
Few foods are completely unhealthy if eaten in moderation and also thought must be given to so many variables - preparation time, cost and equipment, time allocated to staff breaks in which to refuel tired and hungry staff who very likely work long hours and have a fairly physical job. 13 hours with 2 30 minute breaks for example.
Patients who are ill may need energy dense nutrition as they have little to no appetite.
Hospital food is a debate that will go on and on as it is a complex problem requiring huge investment and innovation as does most of the NHS

People talking about doctors eating unhealthy food reminds me of the time my father was in intensive care, seriously ill because of his lifelong smoking. When we met some of the staff outside they were all smoking. When we asked them how they could carry on smoking when they spent their days treating people who were dying from the effects of smoking the answer was "If you were working here and dealing with the things we see you would be smoking too" I imagine eating junk food would get the same answer.

I guess it’s hard, when I was waiting for my dear mum to come round from an emergency op, I was in the “waiting” area, alone at midnight with most of the lights in public areas off, I’d have given anything for an unhealthy bar of chocolate, accompanied by a hot hot chocolate. It wasn’t to be!

Right next to our Heart Department is a vending machine full of fizzy pop, crisps and chocolate bars.
and sadly when my brother was in hospital he was given a cheese sandwich that was packed with plastic wrappers and cardboard and ingredients were full of colourings flavourings and preservatives

I work in the RVS cafe in a large teaching hospital used by patients, staff and visitors. We find that healthy 'nudges' like the sugar tax on fizzy drinks do actually work. I think it is fairly well established there is such a thing as an unhealthy fizzy drink and its what our customers call 'full fat' i.e. loaded with sugar. They are free to buy such a thing, but it costs a lot and is not included in any of our meal deals. Since the tax was introduced it has definitely decreased consumption. The tax is to be extended to milk based drinks (pre-packaged) and ready to drink coffee. I think this more subtle approach to encouraging healthier consumption is the way to go. It doesnt deny choice to anyone, but if they want the unhealthy option they have to pay more.

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The shops on the Ground Floor of our two leading Teaching Hospitals are full of snacks and sandwiches that are mainly high in calories and low in nutrition. I

I've even seen people in dressing-gowns hauling their wheeled drips etc in the shops buying rubbish!!
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Where I am most hospital cafes are run by concessions. Used to be in the good old days run by WRVS. There was a staff canteen, used 24 hours as WRVS wasn't open "out of hours"
Yes, current cafes have cabinets filled with the usual drinks,sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bars etc. Counters have cakes,traybakes, pasties and close in the evening. Hot drinks machine if you want a cuppa. Feel sorry for staff who now have to take their own meals when on late hours. That's progress.

I am a Coeliac, cannot eat gluten. My husband brought food in when i was admitted with heart problems. They had nothing.

In the end I resorted to taking food in for her, but cold meals are not great when you are ill, and the staff didn't want me to use the microwave.

cc I'm sorry your mum had this to contend with as well as her illness.

No help to you now, but for anyone else facing the same problem my daughter has bought wide-neck food flasks which are great for keeping food hot. They use them for their winter picnics.

keepingquiet

Maybe if people ate healthy food they wouldn't need to go to hospital in the first place?

Rather a sweeping statement. While many people suffer from illnesses because of lifestyle choices, clearly many are not. I cannot imagine that my two mastoidectomies (major ear operations) were because of what went into my mouth. Having said that, as a ten-year-old when I had the first operation, I very much enjoyed the ice cream that was a pudding option each day and considered very suitable to help heal the throats of those who had had their tonsils out - the most common operation on the ENT ward. There was nothing wrong with my throat but ice cream was a rare treat under normal circumstances.
As to the food sold in shops and cafés in hospitals, l agree that it could be much better but, as has been said upthread, sometimes a bit of treat food can help with recovery.

Ziplok

keepingquiet

Maybe if people ate healthy food they wouldn't need to go to hospital in the first place?

I see your point, however, not everyone who goes to hospital is there due to eating a poor diet (in fact, I’d imagine the majority of people needing hospital treatment are there for reasons other than as the result of poor diet).

If only.

keepingquiet

Maybe if people ate healthy food they wouldn't need to go to hospital in the first place?

I see your point, however, not everyone who goes to hospital is there due to eating a poor diet (in fact, I’d imagine the majority of people needing hospital treatment are there for reasons other than as the result of poor diet).

Furret

There is plenty of evidence that eating unhealthily can cause illness, eg cancers, diabetes type 2, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, kidney disease, gallstones, mental health issues, to name a few,

I agree- but the contentious issue is what constitutes 'healthy' food?

We have evolved to eat a mixed diet and therefore no food should be considered 'unhealthy' unless consumed out of proportion to other foods.

Any way I stepping away from this thread because we are going round in circles and hospital food whether for staff or patients isn't going to change because of comments made on here.

When my daughter was pregnant with her first baby she had frequent ante natal appointments and occasionally had to stay in all day for a blood transfusion. We liked nothing better than going to the canteen for a massive jacket potato followed by sponge pudding and custard! We could hardly walk afterwards but we did enjoy it!

My mother was in hospital about 15 years ago and, as a Coeliac, the food she was given was awful. She chose a salad and it was a saucer with flabby lettuce and one slice of tomato. She was regularly given normal bread rather than GF and there were few filling foods that she could eat other than very small portions of rice or potato, both of which came with other foods which she didn't or couldn't eat. In the end I resorted to taking food in for her, but cold meals are not great when you are ill, and the staff didn't want me to use the microwave. I'm hoping that the food is better now.

There is plenty of evidence that eating unhealthily can cause illness, eg cancers, diabetes type 2, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, kidney disease, gallstones, mental health issues, to name a few,

My husband was in a cardiac ward some years ago and I resorted to eating in the canteen as the sandwiches were mainly white bread and, by 1.30, all the fillings were things like vegan coleslaw or grated carrot with falafel.
The canteen was worse, sausages, pizza, burgers etc. Just one dish sounded OK, stuffed peppers, but when I tasted them they were so salty that they were not edible. Many of the staff were using the salad bar, taking away a polystyrene box full of just salad as there was no real alternative. How hard is it to produce an edible healthy meal?

Sallywally1

I was in hospital in the summer having had a shoulder replacement, so I could not use the operated arm or hand at all. The canteen staff just dumped the meals with no thought whether I could actually eat them. Luckily I had DH to help, but it does worry me the elderly patients who cannot feed themselves and could quite easily leave hospital malnourished.

I sympathise Sally I know how painful and debilitating a shoulder replacement can be. The level of nursing care on wards is sometimes dreadful.