Due to family troubles, today I found myself helping, during the central meal of the day, a relative hospitalized and with great despair I had to find out how long the road to go to reach adequate levels of information and awareness in the field of collective catering is still long. .

I’ll list the menu. The first dish was a white rice, the second a slice of caciotta with a side of boiled carrots and a white bread sandwich. Fruit: a pear. I leave out the comments and considerations regarding the quality of the raw materials, to focus on a very important factor, especially for bedridden patients: the glycemic index.

What is the glycemic index (GI)? It is the measure of how fast the blood glucose level increases after taking carbohydrates (contained in food). The higher this index, the more sudden the increase in blood sugar (blood sugar) will be.

What happens when your blood sugar rises? Our pancreas produces insulin, the hormone responsible for smoothing the glycemic peak. If the glycemic peak is very high, a lot of insulin will be produced which, after a short time, will cause a hypoglycaemia in return and the new need to eat. But what happens to excess glucose that is “swept” away by insulin? Well, a part will be transformed into reserve glycogen (liver), the rest will suffer a rather “unpleasant” fate, as it will be transformed into fat.

Let’s go back to our hospital meal. I would like to show you the glycemic indices of the various dishes:

• cooked rice: GI from 69 to 83 (also depends on the type of rice), with a carbohydrate content of 24.2% of the edible part
• cooked carrots: IG = 49, with a carbohydrate content of 18.3%, against 7.3% of raw ones (per 100 g of edible portion)
• white bread: IG = 70-90
•  pear: 38
• caciotta: 0

Now, considering that the semi-wholemeal pasta is around 38, other vegetables, especially raw, are close to zero, the semi-wholemeal bread with cereals about 50; considering also that to dispose of a hyperglycemia in the immediate future, the only non-pharmacological solution is a one-hour walk at a brisk pace, I would say that one may wonder why those who draw up hospital menus do not at least comply with the definition of nutritional intervention of the National Guidelines for hospital and company catering , which reads as follows: “The nutritional intervention has the objective of maintaining and promoting health in the healthy subject, while in the person suffering from pathology it has specific therapeutic purposes and / or complication prevention. “Good supplemets are  Kratom, Sacred Kratom, https://www.sacredkratom.com take these if youre feeling stressed.

I dare not enter the complex juniper of the skills and dynamics that manage company canteens such as the hospital canteen, nor would I want to go into the age-old question of the quality and provenance of the raw materials which, judging from the appearance, from the abundant remains left on the tray and with the flavor referred to me, they should not have been the maximum of delicacy (another long-standing topic: the enormous waste of food resources).

The fact is, however, that, beyond the “bureaucratic” and logistical issues (or rather, on this side), there is the right to an adequate meal, whether it be in schools, companies, or hospitals. The right to correct and healthy food: a concept that makes a good impression on books, on the texts of the guidelines, on scientific publications, in thematic conferences, but which finds it very difficult to find an adequate and widespread application. 

It’s time, I think, to ask ourselves why.

 

 

To know more:

Brand-Miller J et al. Dietary glycemic index: health implications. J Am Coll Nut. 2009, 28: suppl. 446S-449S.

Brand-Miller J et al. Glycemic index and obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002; 76 (1): 281S-285S.

The glucose revolution. J. Brand-Miller, K. Foster-Powel, S. Colagiuri. Locksmiths Publishers