Dietician Disasters #1

I intend for this to be a series of posts here on The Clean Weigh, because it is a topic that is near and dear to my heart and because the issue is so pervasive.  What am I talking about?

"Dietician" designed meal plans in hospitals, schools, and the like.  Dietician

It is appalling to me that we feed our children, our sick, our elderly, and our disabled food of the lowest quality and in ridiculous quantities. How does it make any sense to feed those fending for their lives in hospital beds meals that even the least food conscious of individuals finds unappetizing? That's right. It doesn't.

Meals provided in hospitals, schools, and facilities run by health care organizations demonstrate a complete dearth of adequate nutrition, an overabundance of processed foods filled with GMOs, cheap vegetable oils, trans fats, sodium/MSG, and the countless food additives/preservatives/fillers known to be carcinogens or cause immediate health issues.The vast majority of these foods comes from large chain stores like Sam's Club and GFS. Until I began working in this field and preparing these meals on a daily basis, I had no idea what a dire issue this is.

We're making our sick sicker.

Issue 1:  The menus don't make any sense.  Who has three starch items in their meal?!  Who has chocolate cake with lunch every day?? And a dietician thought of this?

Issue 2:  The menus lack choices of fresh fruit and whole, raw veggies.  There are no whole grains. And everything is laced with high fructose corn syrup.

Issue 3:  Simply TOO MUCH FOOD.  These menus provide roughly 4000 calories a day (not including the sugary baked goods they choose for snacks, or sodas, etc.).  Think about it logically, if you're stuck in a hospital bed, or you're elderly and live in an assisted living facility, how much physical activity are you truly getting? Definitely not enough to need 4000+ calories in a day.

In this series I'll highlight some of the most offending meals served at my job. Lets start with tonight's dinner.

As per the dietician:

1 Frozen Chicken Cordon Bleu (From GFS - Breaded chicken breast stuffed with ham and a gooey cheese-like substance)

10 French Fries - Yeah right

1 Slice Whole Wheat Bread- Three bread/carb options? Also, they rarely have 100% whole wheat
1/2 cup Green Beans
1/2 cup Mandarin Oranges - soaked in "light syrup"
1 cup 2% Milk
1 T Margerine 

Lets look at the totals.

Calories:  1000 (not including ketchup for the fries/chicken)
Fat: 48g
Sodium:  1700mg (not including added salt on fries and green beans)
Carbs: 90g!!!
Protein: 39g

The list of ingredients for the Cordon Bleu takes up half of the box. The ingredients of most of these items include an abundance of added sugar (HFCS), canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, modified food starch, and a whole host of chemical additives that I can't say or spell.

The lunch menus are equally confusing. I won't go into such detail, but really , who eats like this??

1 Hot Dog with Bun
1/2 cup Green Beans
1/2 cup Peaches
1 slice chocolate cake
1 Dinner roll
1 T margerine
1 Cup 2% milk

Our sick get sicker and our healthy get sick, and that is how we make money.