Healthier and more sustainable food in healthcare? It’s possible! That became clear during the 5e national conference “Good Nutrition in Healthcare”, which Alliance Nutrition in Healthcare organized on March 5, 2024 in Ede. More than 60 hospitals and 30 other types of healthcare institutions are now working hard to achieve a better nutritional offering with more plant-based options for patients, employees and visitors.
Deal with resistance
Hospitals and healthcare institutions have an exemplary role for society. Good nutrition contributes to the recovery of patients, a healthy working environment for employees and to healthier choices by visitors. But achieving a healthier and more sustainable food supply can also provoke resistance from visitors and colleagues. In an inspirational lecture, behavioral psychologist Sabine Jansen showed the participants how to respond to motives and resistance that people experience during change. She said that people like to make their own choices and do not want healthcare institutions to determine what they eat. Her tips: find out what causes resistance, offer freedom of choice and change the default option.
New tool for protein combinations
There was also a first during the workshop “Protein transition in (malnourished) patients”. Pol Grootswagers, researcher at Wageningen University & Research, demonstrated live for the first time a smart online tool with which the amino acid puzzle can be solved with a plant-based meal for patients with a high protein requirement. He has supplemented the NEVO table with data on amino acids and digestibility of proteins. Grootswagers developed the Meal Protein Quality Score in which the score of meals is calculated on protein quality, quantity and digestibility. The live demonstration made it clear which amino acid is limiting in the recipe. By adjusting the quantities or ingredients of the recipe, you can immediately see the effect on the score. The tool is still in development, but the ultimate goal is that the program will automatically come up with suggestions to optimize meals in terms of amino acids. Grootswagers: ‘In the future, this could be a useful tool for complete meals and a sensible protein transition in patients.’
National Prevention Agreement
Tom van Loenhout, cardiologist and chairman of the Nutrition in Healthcare Alliance, said at the end of the conference that hard work is being done to achieve the ambitions of the National Prevention Agreement for hospitals, including a healthy nutritional offering in half of the hospitals in 2025. ‘As a healthcare system, we can do so much more by using lifestyle. With good nutrition we can add healthy days to people’s lives.’
Source: Nutrition in Healthcare Alliance
