What Not to Eat in the Hospital: Everything!
What is the problem with hospital food? You’re in the hospital, you’re sick, you’ve been given a thousand different medications that make you nauseous and rob you of your appetite. Everyone’s telling that you need nourishment to heal. What does the hospital do? They figure out a way to create the most bland, tasteless, unappealing, over-cooked food the world has ever seen. Then, just in case, you might be tempted to eat it, they leave it out long enough so it’s stone cold and then have it served up to you by the most surly hospital worker they can find!

Anyone who’s read a magazine or newspaper within the last fifty years knows that nutrition is important to your health and well-being. We’re encouraged to eat fresh vegetables and fruit. Plentiful portions of lean meat. Salad, greens. Doesn’t every hospital know this? Haven’t they heard yet? Don’t they have a nutritionist on staff who could give them some guidance?

I could never recommend hospital fare for anyone who’s trying to get better. It’s got no real nutritional value. The vitamins and minerals have all been cooked out. It’s got no life left in it, so it has no life to lend you. I don’t think hospitals will ever change. They must have to send chefs to some secret culinary school to learn how to make every dish so unappetizing.

I’ve given up trying to change hospital food. Instead, I tell the family to go out and get some healthy, delicious food prepared for take-out and bring it in to the hospital for the patient. Or better yet, whip up three or four great, home-cooked meals, and package them. Warm them up (every hospital floor has a microwave). Start putting some real, genuine, healthy food in your loved one! Oh, and be sure to bring some vitamins and supplements too!

Everyone wants to know about vitamins these days. I usually recommend a good, all-round daily multiple vitamin pill. I also add 1000-3000 mg of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). It’s a co-factor in laying down collagen (the stuff that wounds heal with), and it prevents urinary tract infections by making the urine acidic. Great stuff. I also add 400 units of vitamin E and 25,000 units of beat-carotene, the latter for five consecutive days only. If my surgery has affected joints (like spine surgery), I also encourage my patients to take chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine sulfate supplements. A little baby aspirin or subcutaneous heparin is also good for preventing blood clots from forming in the legs as long as there is no excessive concern about post-operative bleeding. I usually like to order a couple of heaping spoonfuls of fiber (like Metamucil) to help the bowel movements stay loose enough that the patient doesn’t have to strain. If the patient has to have a so-called “solid liquids diet” (an oxymoron), then I’m a great proponent of those wonderful fresh “smoothies” that are chock full of fresh nutrients. Pour in bananas, soy protein, wheat germ, yogurt, carrots, apples, or an entire steak if that’s what you want. If it’s a prolonged spell for your loved one on that kind of a diet, get a high-quality blender in your kitchen at home, and start mass-producing smoothies to bring into the hospital.

The question arises: what is to be done with the hospital food? Well, I wish they’d just stop making it and order out for some real food. Or give it to a food bank so it won’t go to waste. Alternatively, it could be slop for pigs.

Let me say one last but important tip about nutrition during recovery. Every patient who has been through surgery or on any antibiotic should eat at least three to four servings of live culture yogurt a day. The reason is that systemic antibiotics, including even the one or two doses they put in your veins during surgery, wipe out the normal bacteria that live in our bowel and help us to digest our food. When these “helpful,” benign bacteria get knocked off, harmful bacteria can quickly take their place. This can turn into a life-threatening problem if you consider the highly resistant bacteria we have floating around in our hospitals these days. But yogurt comes to the rescue. Yogurt is milk that’s been cultured with live Acidophilus bacteria. These are the “good guy” type of bacteria. So flooding your gut three or four times with bacteria from yogurt can really help keep the bad bugs at bay and help prevent antibiotic-related complications. Remember how your Mom told you yogurt was so good for you?

My last bit of advice about eating after surgery is simple: don’t. Drink. Drink lots of fluids, till you feel like your back teeth are going to float away and you are “peeing like a racehorse.” It takes days after general anesthesia for the bowels to get back to running smoothly. Naturally, many patients give in to their hunger and start wolfing down solid food as soon as they get the nod from their surgeon. Don’t. These patients usually pay for their premature ingestion of solid food with painful abdominal distension, and even nausea and vomiting. So my recommendation is stick to liquids till after you’ve had a couple of bowel movements and you’re passing wind again like a jet turbine. Then ease back into solid foods starting with some simple soups, shakes, and smoothies. You’ll be glad you did.