Unfortunately, I had to be admitted to Macon Hospital after trying to fight a deterioration in my asthma state after accidentally inhaling some powder.
The care I had was wonderful, but I was shocked at the amount of waste in the food. The portions were far too large, especially for inactive people and there can’t have been any vitamins left in the vegetables.
I asked the dietician if I could have smaller portions and it seems that the kitchens do not alter the portions. I am wondering at the huge amount of waste, both in food and cost and also what is done with this amount of waste.
Does it go to landfill or what?
Just to be true to form, I had another false diagnosis. I was told that there anomalies on my ECG’s and it was likely that I would need a stent.
When I had my ultrasound, the doctor asked me why I was there as my heart was fine.
It is wonderful to be home!
Good to hear that Jane.
It’s one of my bugbears (sadly) that food in hospitals generally is so appalling. It’s an area where there is complete lack of understanding of the importance of nutrition and healing and so the money is just not there. As I’ve said elsewhere, I used to take smoothies and salads into my brother when he was in Atkinson Morley hospital after his operation because the food was just so bad. Friends here talk about being faced with nothing but a plate of smashed potato after an op.
Nutrition is finally beginning to be taught in some medical schools so I’m hoping within the next 1-2 generations nutritionists will be in much higher regard in hospitals and as a result recovery of patients will be speedier and indeed whole treatment protocols may change. Here’s hoping.
And here’s hoping that you are now fine. Take care.
In my hospital in England we have returned to a system of serving everyone’s meals individually and it works in that you know your good eaters and the ones who only like small portions etc
Maybe I’ve been lucky but the food I have been presented with whilst at Angoulême Girac has always been appealing and balanced.
Glad to hear you’re home in one pice @Jane_Williamson
Thought you’d been quiet… snorting coke is not for the feint hearted 
Interestingly at each meal, I was presented with a sheet of paper listing the values of the meal presented…
OH has “enjoyed” several hospital stays here, in France.
First time, he was so ill… he wasn’t able to eat anything anyway… but when he finally was well enough to munch, he was astounded to be offered a choice.
He later found that it was not always the same in every hospital. The larger ones seemed to be less personal, but he still had a balanced diet… although it was very differently offered to what he was used to at home.
One friend complained about her food… no goodness here Stella. I pointed out that she had fresh fruit, cheese, bread, meat… where’s my green veg, she mumbled…
I pointed to the green beans but she didn’t reckon they counted… 
Food waste hopefully goes to a digester or some pigs…
We had a wonderful gym teacher doing community classes here, but his passion was nutrition and he finally got his dream job of working for health service to develop ways to provide healthy nutritious food for the minuscule budget, and within constraints. It’s not easy . OH is vegetarian and he had a very dull menu.
The half plate of green beans I was presented with only had any use as celulose. Totally dead.
I am being well medicated thank you and I now have a specialist I can trust.
Lunch today, chicken, leek and mushroom bake with a parmesan and parsley crust, carrots and broccoli and a Panettone bread and butter pudding.
Glad you are feeling better and are home.
Hospital food, a nightmare all over the world in terms of budgets, how to make it work etc. A private hospital I worked at was wonderful, a full time chef sho cooked home made food every day, home made cakes for afternoon tea etc. A nearby hospital in Oz (NSW Health) where my grandparents generally ended up would give out a menu sheet the day before and they would have to choose what they wanted plus portion size wanted. A good way to save waste I’d think. In the maternity ward I worked in the kitchen ladies came in with a trolley and the mums coudl go and choose what they wanted and portion size. If there was left overs there was one lovely lady who would load up some plates for us and leave them in the staff room, although this was of course not allowed. Why feed your hardworking midwives for free when you could just bin it all 
Blimey Jane, glad you are well(er) but not surprising on that gourmet array. 
I have often heard in more than one country, complaints about hospital food but, either I am easily pleased or have been very lucky that the few times I have been an inmate (both here and in England) I have been very well pleased with the food. 
And never any waste from my plate. 
The other thing that is amazing is that they are insulating the hospital externally, good thing, but Urgence is still left working out of totally inadequate facilities.
There are some very gay large rainbow coloured plastic sheets to welcome you, but I do think that someone has got their priorities wrong.
Glad to hear you are on the mend Jane! sending lots of love for a speedy recovery. x x x
and ps yes, re food - when James was in Bayonne for a week he would have starved to death had I not brought food parcels! It was dire.
So much of it and all cooked to death.
It was my artichoke capsule that came apart and the powder got into my lungs. I really should take one at a time and will do so from now on.
I was in the same hospital a year or so ago for a little blood clot in my eye nerve rendering me blind for a minute or so. Scary. So I came in through first aid, spent two nights there and was declared OK. What got on my nerves was the many young trainees who came in and did the same tests repeatedly. And that nobody ever told me what was going to happen next. I felt like a puppet and had to refuse to budge any further to get a serious doctor to speak to me. Everybody was lovely and friendly. And the food… a way to get your mind off the tediousness of the stay, but only to think:“What is in here?” I sent some photo’s home to have them analysed but my wife couldn’t tell either. Everything overcooked and bland, made by a cook who obviously hates his job, patients and people in general.
I’ve found that the answer to hospital food is to have someone bring sandwiches, quiche, doughnuts, and coffee from the cafeteria situated in the entrance foyer. Perhaps not the best nutritionally, but it’s better than slowly starving.
Seems to me that there is a wide range of food-standards in hospitals across France .
Thankfully, never needed to take food in for OH and he has never needed to return the favour for me…
But I shall do my best to ensure neither of us needs hospitalization in the future… just in case things have changed for the worst … 
How sensible.
I asked two dieticians if I could have smaller portions, but they said it was impossible.
No, one of the capsules I take came apart and the powder went into my lungs.
Not the same effect at all.
I was hoping that it would go to a digester too, but so unnecessary.