A vegan in hospital

As you may already know there are many health benefits of a vegan diet. I could go into lots more detail here but ultimately this blog is about vegan food, I am not here to give you a massive reading list and reference everything. However, I will say that if you do not know of the many health benefit I do recommend you research them. All this said vegans, just like anyone else, get sick from time to time. But what about vegan hospital food?

At the end of last year, I was very ill and it involved a hospital stay. I found out that my hospital had a separate vegan menu and very helpful catering staff no matter what ward I was on. I had almost died and it is not the sort of thing you bounce right back from so I had serious appetite problems and could only eat tiny amount of very bland soft food. This let me know that not only do they have a vegan menu at my hospital but they cater well to the different needs of sick people. If, like I did, you can only manage soft band food they have it but if you need higher energy they have that too. Gluten free vegan? No problem. Healthy choice? Easy.

All this happened last year so why am I writing about it now? Well, my husband has just come out of hospital. I posted a photo of one of his meals on a vegan group I regularly use and it turns out we are luckier than I realised. I know that Derby hospital does a great job at catering to vegans but I did not know that in a many hospitals it is a LOT harder to eat.

I got told stories of vegans getting served chicken or fish. I heard that most considered themselves lucky if they got some mashed potato and carrots. I read of an amazing nurse who have up his vegan packed lunch for a vegan lady in hospital. I was told about many people bringing food to vegan family members while they hungrily awaited.

Since vegan diet is healthy then it really should be something that is encouraged in the very places that treat the illnesses that you have a higher risk of getting from eating animal products. I am not sure exactly how we can improve the situation so that everyone can access vegan food in hospitals but I feel it is an important thing to consider. I do not want to feel lucky that my hospital is good at this, I want it to be normal.

Photo of chickpea masala, which I am told tasted far better than it looked. Full menu below.