As part of its commitment to patient’s well-being, Whitfield Clinic introduced a Food and Health Initiative which ran in tandem with RTE’s popular health programme Operation Transformation. For the last two months an Operation Transformation hot meal option was made available each day at the Atrium Café and also on inpatient menus. The meals were developed to provide a similar nutrient profile to the RTE Operation Transformation recipes and clearly labelled to help patients, staff and visitors make a healthier choice.
While nutrition plays a big role at Whitfield Clinic, so does taste and quality menu choices. Good nutrition is especially important to patients because illnesses and their treatment can affect one’s energy levels, ability to recuperate and appetite. Certain treatments can even affect ones’ body’s ability to tolerate certain foods and best use of nutrients.
The Whitfield Clinic catering department’s Nutritionist Charlotte Cummins emphasises the importance of a healthy and nutritionally balanced menu. As patients present themselves at Whitfield Clinic it is essential that the menu offered provides optimum nutrition for people with illnesses and recovery plans. “I nutritionally analyse the operation transformation meals to ensure the nutrient profile is suitable for patients; these meals are low fat, low salt, source of fibre, suitable for vegetarians or made from ingredients containing no gluten to ensure there is something healthy for everyone.”
Whitfield Head chef Romain Bierry outlined his team’s commitment to giving patients a healthy choice. He said, “Our commitment to patients and visitors is to ensure that we provide them with daily, tasty, fresh and nutrient rich choices. We work with local producers to ensure market-fresh ingredients in all our recipes. Each morning the kitchen team creates every meal from scratch to ensure that our customers enjoy higher quality food with more taste.”
“We are determined to ensure that all patients at Whitfield are assured of a meal that is fresh, tasty, packed with nutrients and in some ways goes to assisting recuperation. The Operation Transformation healthy meal options were a resounding success and we intend to continue offering a varied and tasty selection of health options for all our patients.”
The daily menu at Whitfield included Operation Transformation favourites such as Stir Fried Pork with Ginger, Lemon Aioli Marinated Chicken, Chorizo Spiced Haddock and a range of vegetarian options.
“We are delighted to see that our patients and visitors supported our Food and Health Initiative with almost 70% of patients choosing our Operation Transformation option,” explained Whitfield’s Catering Manager, Alan O’Connor.
“Every day we invest a huge effort into helping our patients and visitors eat right by making the healthy option the easy option. The food on our plates is the result of intensive work and commitment by our dietician, food development team, chefs and local suppliers.”
If you would like to learn more about Whitfield Clinic’s health food options, offer some suggestions, or if you just want to see what they have for lunch, please contact us on whitfieldclinic@ksg.ie