My friend Paula’s husband had surgery recently and guess what he was given by the nurses in the recovery room?
Shasta soda! Above is a picture of Rick shortly after Paula walked in to visit right after his surgery.
Let’s check out the ingredients of the Shasta soda and see if medical personnel should really be handing this stuff out to vulnerable people who have just had major surgery:
Shasta Soda: Carbonated Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Potassium Benzoate (Preservative), Caramel Color, Sucralose, Natural Flavor, Salt
The big baddies I see in this ingredients list are:
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Calorie for calorie, high fructose corn syrup is more dangerous than white sugar as it is more likely to cause weight gain as published in the Journal of American Clinical Nutrition in 2004. Large amounts of fructose consumed such as what would happen with a can of soda turn quickly into triglycerides in the bloodstream or are stored as fat.
Not a very wise drink choice for recovering surgery patients or anyone for that matter!
Citric Acid: Manufactured from corn, very likely genetically modified. Citric acid coming from corn has traces of MSG in it which is a proven neurotoxin which triggers a wide variety of physical symptoms in many people some very severe.
Potassium Benzoate: A dangerous chemical preservative similar to sodium benzoate. I wrote a post awhile back on how sodium benzoate damages DNA and the link to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. Potassium Benzoate is in the same class of chemicals and should not be consumed particularly by vulnerable post-op patients!
Sucralose: This is an artificial sweetener that is manufactured by chlorinating natural sugar. The Sucralose Toxicity Information Center states that:
While it is unlikely that sucralose is as toxic as the poisoning people are experiencing from Monsanato’s aspartame, it is clear from the hazards seen in pre-approval research and from its chemical structure that years or decades of use may contribute to serious chronic immunological or neurological disorders.
Oh great. It’s slightly better than aspartame! Let’s serve it to hospital patients then!
Natural Flavor: The problem with “natural flavor” is that it is not natural. You never know what is hidden as this is an industry “catch all” label. It is best to avoid products that have “natural flavor” listed just to be on the safe side.
There is no doubt that it is highly irresponsible for hospital personnel to be handing out chemical and sugar laden drinks to post-op patients. What’s so hard about handing out plain carbonated water or at the very least, 100% fruit juice diluted with plain carbonated water to settle the stomach?
Why all the chemicals and dangerous sweeteners?
Do you really think it’s wise to be listening to these people for any sort of dietary advice?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
They tried to do the same thing to me after my oral surgery. I woke up in a very dimly lit room and the dental assistant tried to hand me a glass. I asked what was in it and she said “pop” (we don’t call it soda here because people think you mean soda water or seltzer when you say soda – it’s a geographical thing, I guess). I told her I wanted the bag I had brought with me because I had some freshly squeezed orange/lemon juice in there. She said “oh my, no, you can’t have that much acid right after surgery”. I said “Oh, but I CAN have sugar”??? I think not, thank you, there’s sugar in real orange juice and there’s vitamin C galore in lemon juice. She left to go talk to the dentist/surgeon and he came and asked me why I wanted orange juice. It took me about 15 minutes of arguing but I finally got my way. I told them if they weren’t going to give me my juice, to give me plain water and I’d handle it when I got to the car. My husband heard us from the waiting room (he had to be there to drive me home) and came back and told the dentist that he’s a former/retired EMT and he’d handle it. He lifted my hand and I got out of the chair and we left. The nurse at the front desk hollered, as we left the building – “we can’t be responsible for you once you leave the building”. My husband told her it was fine, he’d take responsibility. What a whacked out system we have. They actually get mad if you don’t follow their every order. We desperately need changes to stuff like that. I felt like a prisoner fighting for an attorney while I was in recovery!
I’m a nurse in the ICU and I feel constantly conflicted by my own personal beliefs about health and what they serve as “food” in the hospital. I know I wouldn’t eat any of it! The problem (at least for me), is that there is no alternative to offer. It’s either soda or “juice” which is basically high fructose corn syrup without the carbonation of soda, it’s not a better alternative. A lot of patients are on a clear liquid diet and need some sort of sugar in a liquid form. The “chicken broth” they offer is actually just msg laden chicken bullion packets that you mix in hot water, I’m not sure a better alternative to soda. I think for the hospital it comes down to money sadly. that stuff is cheaper than real food. Also, I’m not sure much of the staff cares since they eat the same soda/juice and food fried in soybean oil from the cafeteria. I could go on and on about the “heart healthy” diets we serve but I think I should stop! Plus most patients who come into the hospital eat that stuff at home, so they come in asking for soda and junk food. What are we to do??? It’s so frustrating!
Thanks Emily! I work at a hospital too and the fact that good nutrition is WAY down on their list of priorities just galls me daily! (Not to mention the drugs that are doled out with no thought to their adverse effects; we even see the ads on tv that state that some of these same drugs are responsible for death and disorder!) AAAAgh! It is just so illogical! Anyway, I do what I can when I can and hope someone will investigate further for themselves! It always encourages me that others in “medicine” are concerned and upset at what is going on all around us. There are many of us who want to see change and REAL wellness encouraged! Hang in there!
Glad you pointed that out to the nurse, Paula. We have to start training these guys – the more they hear it, one day it will ring true in their minds that chemically laden products are inappropriate!
I recently took aside a manager at Walgreens who was wearing the ‘Get Your Flu Shot Here’
t-shirt. Of course he took me for a crazy…..but I don’t care anymore.
These people need to be SHAMED into changing their ways.
Shaming isolates. It doesn’t inform the ignorant.
Same thing happened to me and to my husband in the hospital this past year (ER and same day surgery). NOTHING was gluten free (which I need). And the only drinks offered were soda (could have been Shasta) and juice (didn’t check the ingredients, but I can’t imagine it was all natural). If at all possible, pack a bag quickly before going to the hospital. A small cooler of your own healthy food will send a message to hospital staff. If you need to be hospitalized, have a friend or relative being you food. It’s disgraceful how the places trying to get you healthy serve such unhealthy garbage to very vulnerable people!
My mother fainted while visiting my dad in a hospital. Her blood pressure was very low and they gave her Coke and banana bread, probably to try and raise it (?) or to get her blood sugar up quickly. Why not a banana or orange juice? I was given fruit juice and a muffin right after my colonoscopy, which you fast big time for, probably for the same reason; raises your blood sugar quickly, but then it was right off to a healthy seafood lunch on the way home!
I was watching American Idol, where the girl passed out and fell off the stage. I heard the adults there saying get her some Coke.
All the hospitals in my area, The Cleveland Clinic and it’s ‘branches’, have turned to all ‘health foods’. Now all their vending machines only have DIET soda and when I was there this past year to deliever my baby, the maternity nurse even told us unless we like DIET SODA, bring our own drinks because diet soda is all they are allowed to serve! Sounds pretty ‘healthy’ to me….NOT!
If it were not so tragic, this would actually be funny.
Just shows who NOT to go to for nutrition advice!
That Shasta soda can was promptly thrown in the garbage where it belonged and replaced with water. Once I got him home he had some nice soothing/healing homemade chicken broth. I am happy to report he is well on the way to a complete recovery despite their dietary ignorance!
Paula, I hope you dropped it in the trash right in front of the nurse or even better, the doctor! You KNOW I would have 🙂
Right in front of the nurse:) Doctor wasn’t in there. Told the nurse “we don’t drink sodas”. Her reply was “he doesn’t have surgery everyday either” to which I replied, “fortunately and all the more reason NOT to give him high fructose corn syryup”. She had no comment, you would have been proud.
Good for you girlfriend!
It is crazy, but I’m not surprised. Not when there is a McDonald’s in the lobby of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Seriously.
I was in ER for a finger avulsion from cutting up cabbage for sauerkraut and saw exactly the same brand of soda there. To appear to also offer “healthy” choices, a “diet” version was also stocked next to the “regular” version. Shyster I mean Shasta seems to have taken a page out of coke’s playbook.
Why do hospitals stock this garbage in their ER’s and OR’s? How about money changing hands? Oh, that same hospital also recently built an adjacent wing and added a “cancer center”, in an attempt to capitalize on local demographic trends of course.
Yes, handing out this stuff to vulnerable people encourages repeat business it would seem!