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In this article, we critically discuss a Swedish hospital foodservice reform by puttingfoodservice in a historical and social context and analyzing a case, “the most flexiblepatient foodservice system in Sweden,” by using Bacchi’s what’s the problem representedto be (WPR) approach. We show how hospital foodservice governance in Sweden hasbecome more focused on the individual patient as a consumer. Our analysis points outhow in political protocols and related policy materials freedom of choice, flexibility,and efficiency were articulated as drivers of change. Freedom of choice was argued toenhance quality, increase food intake, diminish demand for special diets and lower costs.This can be seen as empowering patients, but also shifting part of the responsibility ofnutrition care and health over to individuals, whether they want it or not. Flexibilitywas seen as beneficial for patient logistics regarding medical treatment and argued toimprove allocation of staff resources. Inefficiency was a characteristic attributed tothe old system, while the reform was an opportunity to modernize and be more costefficient.The new organizational structures may lead to tensions between foodserviceand healthcare. The changes, system flexibility and patient freedom of choice, are salientwithin a broader neoliberal discourse.

Objective: To explore the experiences of female dietetic students strictly following 2 different isocaloric diets.

Design: A qualitative study as part of a randomized controlled feeding trial with a crossover design. Data were collected through individual interviews conducted 1–35 days after the intervention.

Setting: A university in Sweden.

Participants: Normal-weight, healthy female dietetic students (n = 17), aged 18–30 years, who completed the full intervention.

Intervention: Two 4-week diet periods with a washout period in between. Participants followed either a diet based on the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations or a ketogenic low-carb high-fat diet, consuming preprepared meals.

Phenomenon of Interest and Variables: Participants’ experiences of following the imposed diets.

Analysis: Data were analyzed using content analysis techniques, resulting in 1 main theme, 2 categories, and 5 subcategories.

Results: Participants reported challenges with loss of control over food choices, unexpected effects of diet restrictions, and social visibility. They also highlighted the importance of contributing to science and the benefits for their future careers.

Conclusions and Implications: First-hand experiences of strict diets provided valuable insights into the complexities of dietary adherence, enhancing empathy and competence in future dietetic practice. Integrating practical diet experiences into education could improve dietary counseling skills.

The objective was to reflect on the experience of working collaboratively across education programmes, departments, and faculties from the perspective of university teachers at a higher education institution. Nine teachers from five programmes working together to develop a new curriculum for interprofessional education (IPE) participated in a focus group discussion. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings suggest that teacher experiences can be understood in terms of teamwork processes valued from both professional and IPE experiential variations within the group. Since findings illustrate pedagogical collaboration across department and faculty boundaries, they can inspire teachers who are planning a similar process.

The early years of twentieth-century Britain were a transitional period for the way that food was understood. Diet adequacy was now being increasingly thought of as not simply a matter of the quantity of food but the qualities that food needed to have to sustain optimum health. A number of ‘fad diet’ books were circulating and proposed what readers should eat or avoid, and even how to eat. Science, meanwhile, was making progress with the identification of vitamins and these were added to the discourse. Newspapers in the 1920s had an important communication role in the struggle to separate dietary fact from fiction and this study examines how they represented ideas to their readers. Rather than giving a voice to ‘fad diets’, press stories endorsed the ‘common sense’ of normal varied diets although these could be socially and economically variable. Using fad ridicule and other techniques, as well as the reported opinion from well-known medical figures, newspapers emerge as responsible intermediaries in the transition.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore patient satisfaction with hospital foodservice in the Swedish setting, using a validated instrument, adding this context to the existing body of research.

Methods: The study was carried out at three hospitals employing cyclic menus and conventional cook-serve foodservice systems with centralised tray assemblies and hot-trolley distributions to the wards for service. Patient satisfaction was explored using a translated version of the validated Acute Care Hospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire. Groups were compared with Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal Wallis test with a set significance level of P < .05.

Results: Questionnaires from 439 patients were included in the analysis. The majority (80%) reported an overall satisfaction of "good" or "very good." Questions related to Staff and Service received mostly the highest possible ratings, while questions related to Food Quality and Meal Size had slightly lower ratings and higher variation. Comparisons between groups showed that differences were small even when statistically significant. Low appetite and a long hospital stay had an adverse effect on overall satisfaction and food quality-related questions. Men and younger patients reported more often being hungry after and between meals.

Conclusions: Hospital foodservice faces the challenge of catering to multiple patient needs. Monitoring patient satisfaction is crucial to ensure that foodservice operations remain evidence based. The Acute Care Hospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire provided a general overview that indicated foodservice areas with potential for improvement, although patient satisfaction overall was high. However, patient satisfaction is a complex measure and reflexivity is required when interpreting empirical results.

"Invalid food" was still widely understood in the 1920s and 1930s as a special category of food for people with chronic conditions and those who were convalescing from illness or injury. In an era when there was still limited capacity to restore full health quickly with effective treatments, even for those who had access to the best medical attention, being an invalid was often protracted. Care at home was commonplace especially for the poor in a period of significant economic and social change. Generally, the impact of nutritional science on medical education was minimal and households often turned to mass market cookery books, newspapers, and the radio for practical advice about the preparation of meals to give some benefit to the patient, or to stimulate the appetite. By reference to period materials, this article explores the nature of that advice and the transition to more targeted publications offering a greater menu range and guidance for those preparing food.

Serving special meals to invalids is long-established as a way to encourage better nutritional uptake and improve patient well-being. As recently as the 1920s and 1930s, the term ‘invalid food’ was still widely understood as a special category of food for people with chronic conditions, and those who were convalescing from illness or injury.

At a time when there was still limited capacity to restore full health with effective treatments, even for those who had access to the best medical attention, being an invalid was often protracted. Care at home, usually by family, was commonplace especially for poorer households in a period of substantial economic and social change. Generally, the impact of nutritional science on doctors was minimal and households often turned to mass market cookery books, newspapers and the newly-available radio for practical advice about the preparation of meals to stimulate the appetite, or to give some other benefit to the patient.

Alongside the special meals that might be prepared at home, several commercial products were advertised to improve health in some way. These classified or display advertisements were regularly seen in period newspapers and little regulation existed to ensure product safety or dietary effectiveness. However, considerable claims were made: ease of digestion and appetite stimulation were the usual selling points although sometimes the fear of inadequate domestic efforts was used to suggest the value of a consistent commercial product. For reassurance, professional endorsement suggested product usefulness for a broad range of feeding needs. This profitable invalid food market even attracted the attention of more prosaic branded goods that might be advertised also as beneficial to those with delicate appetites.

By reference to period materials, primarily cookery books and digital newspaper archives, this paper explores the problems confronted by invalid households and the role of commercial products at a time when nutritional science was developing but not widely embedded in medical education, and was even less well understood by the carers who needed to provide meals every day with little to guide them in the task.

Women with celiac disease are often described as being exposed to negative emotions and experiences related to the treatment of celiac disease, the gluten-free diet. To explore the daily consequences of diagnosis and their daily experiences of living with celiac disease, interviews were conducted with seven Swedish young women who had been diagnosed with celiac disease by screening in early adolescence. The semi-structured interview transcripts were content analysed using a gender perspective. The analysis showed that these young women`s daily experiences were coloured by the conjunction of their dietary treatment, their social relationships, and social norms. This means that recurrent food situations often clash with the normative constructions of femininity and social norms of eating with an adverse effect on dietary compliance.

From earlier studies, men diagnosed with celiac disease are known to be less troubled by their experiences of living with the disease than are diagnosed women. Previous studies, concentrating on men with celiac disease have been mostly quantitative, and have a bio-medical emphasis. The aim of this study was to explore the social experience of young men with screening-detected celiac disease and to highlight daily life situations five years after diagnosis. Seven young men, diagnosed with celiac disease when they were 13 years-olds through a large Swedish school-based celiac screening-study, were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed from a gender perspective which resulted in three themes; being subjected to changes, striving for normality and emphasizing commitment. These were underpinned by several sub-themes. The young men dissociated themselves from being seen as a person with a life-long chronic disease. The analysis also showed that the young men’s daily experiences of living with celiac disease largely depended on their use of characteristics known to be associated with masculinity: such as being self-assured, demanding, and behaving authoritatively. In food situations, where the young men had the ability to make use of such characteristics in their informal group, they experienced fewer negative aspects of the disease. If the young men did not hold a strong position in their informal group, their situation was insecure and vulnerable and this could lead to avoidance of contacts and social meal situations.