How Important Is Nutrition in Post-hospital Care?

There’s a lot to worry about when someone comes home from the hospital. There might be a long list of care instructions and mobility might be awkward, depending on what the hospital stay was all about. But one thing that everyone needs when they come home is plenty of healthy, tasty food. A nutritious diet does a lot to help the healing process work its magic and post-hospital care providers are an excellent way to ensure that someone has the help they need to eat healthfully.

Nutrition Is Always Important

Nutrition is something that always affects health, but it’s easy to ignore at times, especially in favor of convenience. When it comes to helping someone recover after they’ve been hospitalized, nutrition is a key part of the care plan. The human body requires food that offers a variety of vitamins and minerals as well as other building blocks that are crucial in keeping the body going. Those nutrients are even more important when the body is healing.

Doctors Often Send Home Dietary Recommendations

The right foods are so important, in fact, that part of a patient’s discharge paperwork is likely to include information about dietary recommendations. Doctors may recommend that newly-discharged patients eat a certain amount of protein, for example, especially if healing from surgery or illness. Foods that are high in antioxidants that support the body’s healing goals are likely to make the list, too.

Healing Requires Energy as Well as Nutrients

Nutrients are one part of the equation when it comes to eating properly after a hospital stay. The other part involves energy, which people get from the food that they eat. The calories that are in food are used by the body to keep itself going. Eating too little or too infrequently can cause problems in recovery after a hospitalization.

Preparing Food Isn’t Easy While Recovering

One big barrier to eating healthy meals after a hospital stay can be the fact that it just isn’t easy to jump back into normal life afterward. And stocking up the fridge and pantry might feel impossible. Add cooking to that task list and most patients would turn to convenience foods that might not be all that nutritious. Post-hospital care professionals can help patients stay on a schedule of eating healthy meals.

Monitoring Symptoms Is Also Important

Another reason it’s important to have post-hospital care providers assisting with at-home recovery is that they can be alert to signs of trouble. If patients aren’t able to eat or are experiencing unexpected side effects after eating, they can keep medical providers in the loop about what is going on. Making adjustments to the patient’s diet in accordance with any symptoms or changes can help to improve recovery, which is what everybody wants.

Eating the right foods and the right amount of those foods is a crucial part of the healing process. The more help that patients have when they return home, the more likely they are to give their body what it needs in order to fully heal.