Hospital food to get health kick

We've all been unwell at some point in our lives. The last thing you want when you're feeling under the weather with no appetite is to have a plate of mushy, anaemic-looking food pushed under your nose - food that hospitals have something of a reputation for providing. Based on this, the government has announced rules to ensure hospitals provide better quality food to patients, staff and visitors.

Good health for all
According to the new rules, the dietary health needs of each individual patient should be met and a nutritional menu offered - whether this means fresh fruit and salads for obese patients or high-calorie food for frail and malnutritioned patients (who can comprise up to a third of hospital admissions).

Staff and visitors are to be given healthier, more balanced food too, with hospital canteens keeping within salt, fat and sugar recommendations. Canteen food must also be sustainably sourced, with consideration given to seasonality, animal welfare, product traceability and waste management.

Enjoyable food
The accompanying report states that hospital food should be 'a vehicle for improvement and a role model for food in the local community. Crucially, it should also be a source of pleasure and enjoyment.'

Is it enough?
The Campaign for Better Hospital Food have said the new rules don't go far enough and 'only reflect basic catering and care standards which are already commonly implemented in the NHS.'

Perhaps there is still work to be done before hospital food becomes both nutritious and palatable, but we think that any move towards a healthier, more sustainable menu is a step in the right direction.

 

Edible walls

A teacher in a deprived district of New York has created edible walls - made out of vertical planters - in the classroom with the help of his students.

Growing goals
Stephen Ritz says he is 'determined to put a plant in every classroom in New York City… When we teach children about nature, they learn to nurture.'

Measurable results
It seems his hard work is already paying off. With the students taking responsibility for the plants and gaining a sense of achievement through successfully growing them, attendance at the school has shot up from 43% to 93%.

Perhaps we should all be taking a leaf out of Stephen's book, finding new and inventive ways to teach our kids about where their food comes from, encouraging them to want to choose the healthy option rather than forcing it upon them.

Gardener on the Roof

An 'Allotment Roof' shed has won Shed of the Year. The shed, built by sustainability-enthusiast Joel Bird, is made from recycled materials, with solar lighting inside and fruit and vegetables growing on the roof.

Not enough space
"I was tight for space, so rather than put a shed on an allotment, I put an allotment on my shed," said Joel.

Next time you tell yourself you don't have enough space to grow your own food, try taking a look outside the box. Or on top of it, as the case may be.

The Great British Gadget Off

A new survey by Barclaycard has found that we are more in to our kitchen gadgets than ever before, with each kitchen owning an average of seven gadgets. The poll suggested that popular cooking shows including The Great British Bake Off and MasterChef have inspired many of us to pull on our chef's hats, open our recipe books and get creative in the kitchen. And with each TV cooking competition involving increasingly elaborate cooking methods, it seems the only way for us humble home cooks to keep up is by buying a few gadgets to help us along the way.

Healthy gadgets
The Great British Bake Off may be better known for its chocolate-smothered profiterole Eiffel towers than for its promotion of healthy eating but that doesn't mean that as a nation we don't try our best to make nutritious food - the survey indicated that just under a quarter of us own a juicer while just over a quarter own a steamer. However, we still like to treat ourselves now and again, with 1.6 million of us owning an ice cream maker.

Do we ever use them?
Whether our more gimmicky kitchen gadgets ever see daylight is a different matter; a question for a separate survey entirely. But here at Harvest we're glass half-full kinds of people and we reckon it's the intention that matters - owning a juicer in the first place surely counts towards your five a day by virtue of how hard you've tried.