Catering for health in a Scottish Health Board

This paper describes the first steps taken in Grampian Health Board to change hospital staff menus in order to provide meals higher in starchy carbohydrate and dietary fibre but lower in fat and sugar, as recommended in several recent reports. These changes are discussed with reference to the alterations made by the catering department. A nutrition education programme was used to promote these changes and the methods used for this are also described. An overall evaluation was carried out by means of a dietary intake questionnaire administered before and after the programme and the results of this show a significant decrease in fat intake and increases in carbohydrate and dietary fibre intakes.