– The food here is good, but I wish there was more choice and more greens to choose from, says Magnar Aske. He is a patient at Stavanger University Hospital (SUS). For dinner he was served meatballs in brown sauce with potatoes, peas and cranberries. If we are to follow the dietary advice coming next year, we should have meat for dinner less than half the week. But as of today, most meat dinners are served to patients in many Norwegian hospitals. The new dietary advice recommends that Norwegians eat less than 350 grams of meat a week. Photo: Erik Waage / news Giving patients what they want Oddveig Fossdal Drøpping is head of the nutrition committee at SUS and section head for clinical nutrition. She says the hospital adheres to the guidelines that apply today for diet in health institutions. – Patients can usually choose between two dishes each day. Either meat-based or fish. In addition, every day there is a vegetarian or vegan and a halal menu. Head of the nutrition committee at SUS, Oddveig Fossdal Drøpping. Photo: Erik Waage / news Patients can choose to eat meat every day if they want. – It is important to distinguish between dietary advice for the population that aims to prevent disease and what food you need to get well again. We must take into account what the patients need. Nevertheless, she expects the Norwegian Directorate of Health to now reconsider guidelines for food in hospitals. – We can reduce the use of meat in hospitals in the country, says Drøpping. – Smaller cream cakes Beth Aarskog is also a patient at SUS. She agrees with Drøpping and says the patients themselves must be allowed to decide what to eat. But: – I think it is good that the hospital tries to plan for change when the dietary advice comes. Beth Aarskog is a patient at SUS. She is delighted with the food she is served at the hospital. Photo: Erik Waage / news Aarskog himself will change his diet to follow the new advice. – There will be less meat and more vegetables. There will be an end to the good fat cheeses, and there will be less cream and cream cakes in the future, she says, laughing. Post host at SUS, Cecilie Nchama Mabale, serves today’s dinner to the patients. Photo: Erik Waage / news Expect the institutions to follow the recommendations The dinner that is rolled in to the patients in Hospital Norway is similar to the one in Stavanger. At the four hospitals in Helse Fonna, there are four days of meat and three days of fish, with the option of ordering vegetarian food. – In some of the hospitals they have a vegetarian day every two weeks, says Olav Vikre who is head of the food supply department for four hospitals in Helse Fonna. In some places, patients can choose quite freely. Elsewhere it is like in Haugesund – meat four days, fish three. Patients who ask for a vegetarian dinner get it. Professionals from Nordic countries have joined forces on a large report summarizing knowledge about diet. The report, which was presented earlier in June, calls for a lower meat intake than the Norwegian authorities have so far recommended – from 500 grams of red and processed meat to 350 grams a week. The aim is to promote public health and prevent chronic diseases, and the report will form the basis for new Norwegian dietary advice from the Directorate of Health next year. They will land on a recommendation of less than 350 grams of meat per week. SUS provides approximately 120 grams of pure meat or 180 grams of minced meat per dinner portion. This means that one can already exceed the recommendation with three meat dinners. At the hospital in Haugesund, they calculate somewhat less meat per portion. Division director for public health and prevention in the Directorate of Health, Linda Granlund, says they expect the public institutions to follow the recommendations when they are changed. – But we know that it varies and we know that here there are price considerations that sometimes compete with nutritional considerations, she says. Division director for public health and prevention in the Directorate of Health, Linda Granlund. The vegetarian food is not eaten Vikre i Helse Fonna faces a slightly different challenge. – If we serve vegetarian food, many of the patients do not want it. And then it just stays there, he says. They don’t eat the food and then Vikre says the patients don’t get the nutrition they should have. – Then it is better that we give them meat or fish, or something that they really eat so that they get well faster, Vikre points out. But it is not certain that there will be four meat dinners a week in Norwegian hospitals next year. The most popular food in hospitals are meat dinners. The vegetarian food is eaten much less often. Photo: Erik Waage / news – We believe that the public large household kitchens and health institutions should of course follow the national dietary guidelines, says Granlund. Patient Magnar Aske at SUS praises the food, but hopes there will be more variety and selection in hospital food in the future. – They have a potential for improvement here at the hospital, just as we have privately too, he says. Patient Aske likes to eat a varied diet. He thinks SUS is doing a decent job, but says it can be better. Photo: Erik Waage / news
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Hospitals serve meat more than half the week – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
