Continuing with my Ottawa Hospital Food Series, today I bring you The Greenery, otherwise known as the Ottawa Civic's cafteria.
Not surprisingly, much of it was junk.
Poutine.
Bacon Cheeseburgers.
Chicken fingers.
Chicken wings.
Pizza.
Sugared soda.
Giant muffins.
Potato chips.
And that's just the obviously unhealthy stuff.
While I was recording my brief video some folks alerted the cafeteria manager who cut my taping rather short.
She was extremely pleasant and helpful and clearly was very sincere in her desire to provide a good dining experience for the cafeteria's patrons.
She was excited to tell me that the cafeteria offered smaller poutine/french fry portions in 4oz containers - but was unable to tell me why it was important for a hospital of all places to serve poutine.
[conservatively 4oz of poutine (for my international readers poutine is french fries, smothered in gravy, smothered in cheese curds) would have a minimum of 1,000mg of sodium and likely a fair amount of trans fats.]
She was also excited to tell me that they've recently posted nutritional information on their soups. While I don't have a picture, the information was located on a laminated card that was actually not visible as it was tucked between items and was on its side.
I took a look at the nutritional breakdown when I got home and my jaw still hurts from hitting my counter. Here's a smattering (or you can click here to see them all):
Cheddar Cheese and Bacon Soup - 170 calories (that's fine), 10grams of fat (45% of it saturated and 30% (3g) of it trans) and 1,150mg of sodium.
Hearty Chili Style Mix with Beef - 230 calories, 1,540mg of sodium, 2 teaspoons of sugar.
or how about one that sounds like you couldn't go wrong:
Garden Vegetable Soup with 70 calories but 970mg of sodium!
Breaking out my calculator I found that the average amount of sodium in a soup choice at the Ottawa Civic cafteria is a brain swelling 957mg. That's 42% of your total daily Health Canada recommended daily maximum and 64% of your total daily Blood Pressure Canada recommended daily maximum in a tiny bowl of soup that you just bought at a hospital of all places and in many cases it came with an artery clogging amount of trans fats for added bad measure!
Is there really a good reason why a hospital would serve soups with 3 grams of trans fats and a day's worth of sodium?
Boy oh boy, after seeing the nutritional breakdown for soups I'd sure hate to see the breakdown for the burgers, fries, pizzas, liver steaks with onions, giant gobs of mashed potatoes and other cafeteria fare - good news I suppose that I'm told they don't have those numbers.
Ignorance surely is bliss.
Oh, and of course there's a Second Cup at the Civic serving gigantic as-many-calories-as-a-Big-Mac muffins and other wonderful sugar laden foods.
I've got to ask again, why are our hospitals serving such unhealthy foods?
I can only think of two arguments. The first is the, "we need them to make money" argument.
I have a tough time with that argument. Frankly folks in hospitals are fairly captive. There simply isn't anywhere within walking distance (aside from the chip truck that parks by the Heart Institute) to buy food and therefore if the hospital decided to eliminate unhealthy foods from its premises, people would still need to eat and with some effort, thought and creativity I'm quite confident that the cafeteria could manage to serve up exclusively nutritious fare.
The second argument is the, "patients and their families need comfort foods".
I don't buy that argument either. Really the hospital is divided into 4 categories of folks:
- The non-urgent emergency room folks who certainly don't need comfort because their problems aren't urgent.
- The urgent emergency folks whose problems are too overwhelming to worry about food at the moment.
- Admitted inpatient folks - who may well need comforting but their families and friends can certainly bring in any foods from the outside that they want including comforting junk.
- Allied health professionals and hospital staff where again, comfort's not an issue.
A hospital should not be serving foods its doctors and dietitans wouldn't recommend to their patients.Or at the very least they should post nutritional information such as calories, trans fats and sodium smack dab on the menu boards so that patients have a fighting chance of navigating through the far less than ideal options.
Sure is a shame you've got to fight to eat healthy in a hospital.
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If Jamie Oliver can change what's being served in school cafeterias across the pond, maybe you can do the same in hospital cafeterias over here? ;)
ReplyDeleteThe stuff they serve patients is no better. I don't know how patients ever recuperate on a diet of salt, fat, sugar and empty carbs. Don't hospital staff have to eat this stuff, too?
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ReplyDeleteam interested to see what happens when you hit the QCH. I had a baby there in August and the "room service" fare was so salty it was difficult for me to eat because I am used to eating clean food. Oh yeah, and I delivered the baby a week early thanks to a spike in BP at the end of my pregnancy. Thanks for the salt lick, but I don't think that goes far to help lower BP.
ReplyDeleteI spent two weeks in the antenatal ward prior to my child's birth - the food was usually exactly right - I was hyper-vigilant as I had gestational diabetes.
ReplyDeleteI had one complaint while there -- the hospital nutrition staff / dietitian was wonderful and addressed it immediately. (The floor delivery staff had mixed up the trays - I overheard a woman saying "Room xxx is diabetic, so take off the sugar packet." Yet the tray still carried lovely lemon dessert.)
The Greenery has healthy choices too. I recall its menu, during the 1980s, was relatively healthy.
I wonder what you think of the IKEA cafeteria? Maybe they could franchise their menu. ~yd
Forget about unhealthy...the food just looks gross. I don't think I'd eat it anyways...even if it wasn't laden with fat and salt.
ReplyDeleteI spent a week with my daughter in the hospital (in Alberta) last year and was glad that there was a fridge in the ward that we could use. I took a couple trips to the Safeway 4 blocks away to find some more nutritious (and cheaper) meals for myself.
Wow, you have a lot of guts exposing that at the place where you work.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! The fact is that most places serve very unhealthy food!!
I have to agree with the previous comment - IKEA has a more balanced offering. Although there are unhealthy options at IKEA, they have appealing options of fresh salad, fish etc.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they are losing money.
Its obvious from the sodium levels that these cafeterias are not cooking fresh foods, soup stocks, etc. They are using canned soups, vegetables, processed soup bases, etc. If they would just stop using processed foods and actually COOK food from scratch, not only would it taste better, it would be HEALTHIER! These institutional kitchens need a real CHEF, not a can opener! And they need to make Health a priority.
ReplyDeleteI wish they made it mandatory to post nutritional facts on all the menus at all restaurants and cafeterias like they do on canned foods, etc. Not often do we realize how much sodium is in vegetable soup!!
ReplyDeletehospital cafeterias are a self contained business run by a food service company (ie Compass). they are not affilitated with the hospital dietary dept. they will offer foods that will sell because they make a profit. I am a dietitian who brings her lunch to work everyday.
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