The Hospital Diets Technical Manual (address below) was issued by the War Department in October 1941. As such, the material is obviously dated. I suspect some of the recommendations for specific diets may have been changed due to further research and as such are no longer valid. However, taken as a whole, I feel the information contained is quite valuable and well worth printing up a copy. And one reason is that this manual uses real foods. There are no recommendations for Pedialyte, Gatorade, Ensure or any other electrolytes or protein drinks. They had to use real food back then, just as we will have to do in our future.
Ideally, we’d all have access to a registered dietician with experience in planning patient menus, but it’s probably best not to plan on that. This manual makes a respectable Plan B as a guide for feeding patients with specific medical conditions to facilitate the most rapid recovery. It provides the requisite information on dietary needs vary based on the medical condition being treated. Burn patients need a lot of protein. So do those with broken bones. Others need high amounts of certain vitamins or minerals.
At the time this manual was being written, the understanding of vitamins and minerals was still expanding and the authors recognized that things they believed were true today might have to be changed tomorrow. Nevertheless, one of the first great items in this book is the extensive lists of foods that are excellent sources of essential vitamins and minerals.
The next really intriguing section included the “recipes” for tube feeding those patients who could not eat normally. There were recipes for patients who would need to be on the tube for several days or more, as well as for those who were only being tube fed for a short time. And while eating raw eggs (one of the ingredients for the liquid diets) is no longer a good idea, pasteurizing them is easy enough so that these tube feeding recipes can still be safely used.
The chapter on soft and regular diets was likewise informative. Foods that I wouldn’t have categorized as “soft” apparently are if they are minced. And there is no way I would have ever considered tenderloin steak as part of a “light” diet. I guess my husband will be happy if he ever has to eat a “light” diet… assuming tenderloin steak can be found. The inclusion of bacon just about everywhere made me happy.
The second half of the Hospital Diets Technical Manual is nothing short of amazing. In just a few minutes you will recognize where hospitals got their well-deserved reputation for cuisine. Egg broth. Prune fluff. Creamed cauliflower.
There are all kinds of therapeutic and special diets for ulcers, lead poisoning, liver and gall bladder disease, colitis, gout, arthritis, pernicious anemia, tuberculosis, and much, much more. There is one page one the feeding of infants when breast milk is not available. (It does not include recipes for infant formula. I think a lot of us would be horrified at the recommendations, but I suppose they worked to keep a child alive.) Not only are there recipes, but there are also full menus. Those with more refined palates will be delighted to know that there are even sample menus for the officers’ mess. (Page 199 has an example in case you don’t believe me.)
There is also some good information in the appendices. My favorite is the table for normal weight and height. Of course this information is “dated” and totally out of line with current medical and insurance industry height-weight tables. It says I’m not overweight. I think I might print and frame it.
And finally, the pièce de résistance, for your patients who need to up their liver intake: 57 ways to hide liver in recipes, including cherry lemonade, liver chop suey, and liver ice cream.
All kidding aside, the Hospital Diets Technical Manual actually looks like a good supplement to your collection of medical texts. No, it’s not something I’d ever carry with me into the field, but it’s a good reference to keep at home in case you have to treat someone needing a specific diet.
References:
https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/dw/33320860R/PDF/33320860R.pdf
