Tribune. As part of the Climate and Resilience Bill, the weekly vegetarian option for all collective catering under the responsibility of the State and already serving several menu choices has been voted. This text will pass to the Senate in June before its final adoption.
As doctors, we too must take up the subject, outside any lobby, based on the data acquired from science. Indeed, food is a major element of health and healing, a major public health issue.
Malnutrition affects one in two patients in hospital, 15% to 30% of sick children, 40% of patients with cancer, and more than 65% of elderly people hospitalized for long stays. However, undernutrition in hospitals influences the course of the disease, the speed of healing, tolerance to drugs, the occurrence of infectious complications, and mortality. In addition, undernutrition increases the cost of hospitalization by more than 1,000 euros.
Up to 40% of patients do not finish their plate, with significant food waste. Indeed, when the dishes are not tasty, hospitalized people, who do not eat meat for philosophical, confessional or taste reasons, are sometimes forced to eat nothing at all.
Promote on-site cooking
Consequently, their protein intake is inadequate. As the production of meals in the medico-social sector is centralized, with constraints linked to the reheating of the dishes, the taste quality is not there.
The observation of food waste is omnipresent in collective catering. Like catering in hospitals, public service collective catering services suffer from junk food, whether in school canteens or in prisons. It is therefore urgent to promote local cuisine, with short circuits and quality products.
In mainland France, the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, fiber, and the overconsumption of red meats is one of the main risk factors for the appearance of cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (CIRC) classified the consumption of processed meats, including cold meats, as carcinogenic to humans and the consumption of red meats (corresponding to all butcher’s meats, excluding poultry) as probably carcinogenic.
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