‘Health food’ in hospitals too high-cal
A QUARTER of supposedly healthier dishes given to hospital patients contain more calories and salt than guidelines recommend.
Recipes spotlighted include a bread-and-butter pudding with nearly twothirds of an adult’s recommended daily sugar intake.
The chilli glazed salmon noodles, had 749.7 calories A Big Mac has 493.
The findings follow a review of 150 “healthier eating” hospital dishes “inspired by global cuisine”.
TARGETS
Bake Off judge Prue Leith advised health chiefs on catering but did not create the recipes herself.
NHS Supply Chain, which provides 40% of hospital food, says threequarters of its recipes have 600 calories or fewer and meet NHS calorie and salt reduction targets.
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: “It beggars belief that so many of the ‘exotic’ meals are laced with ingredients that render them not far short of being junk food.”
NHS Supply Chain said recipes had be “wideranging” to meet patients’ varying dietary needs.