Meals
Obviously, a very sick and confused patient will be in no condition to choose his or her menu. The patient may in fact be on an intravenous drip feed. Everybody else, however, receives a daily checklist from which to choose meals for the following day. The choice you are offered depends on any special restrictions placed on your diet by your physician, and these will be written on your order sheet. The food is brought to you by a member of the dietary department. A nursing aide usually checks to see if you need any help cutting up the food o with eating and drinking.
The food should be hot, and nowadays, great efforts are made to provide food that is appetizing as well as nutritious. Apart from regular meals, there is usually some provision made for snacks at regular intervals, and these are also specified on the order sheet.
Ask the dietician what sort of diet you are supposed to be on before accepting any food or drink brought in by friends and relatives. For anything but a “regular diet,” you should have nothing extra without your physician’s approval.
Special Diets
Special diets are used in the treatment and management of certain disorders. For instance, if a patient is suffering from an acute liver or kidney disorder, a low-protein diet may be prescribed. Low-residue diets are prescribed for inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, and high-residue diets for diverticular disease. Patients suffering from gout are occasionally advised to follow a low-purine diet. Purines are broken down into uric acid, and an excess of uric acid production can aggravate gout. Diabetics are kept on a carefully controlled diet. The catering department of each hospital produces these varied diets for the patients under care.
