Sick in 400 BC and Hippocrates puts you on milk. Sick in 1200 and the monastery infirmary puts you on broth off the bone and an egg beaten in wine. Sick in 1780 and the physician puts you on beef tea, port and a raw egg at bedtime. Sick in 1860 and Florence Nightingale puts you on beef tea, cream and eggs, and writes a book insisting on it. Sick in 1900 with consumption and the sanatorium puts you on a pint of milk every two hours and eggs by the dozen. Sick in 1930 with diabetes and the ward puts you on meat and fat, because the ward has watched what bread does. Sick in 1955 on the NHS and the trolley puts you on mince, butter on the potato, a milk pudding and a malted drink at nine. Sick in 1985 and the tray puts you on low-fat spread, skimmed milk, orange juice and a note about your cholesterol. Sick in 2026 and the tray puts you on cornflakes, a sandwich in a triangle, jelly and a beaker of squash, with a diet sheet on the way out. For 2,300 years every doctor on earth fed the sick the animal, because the sick got better on it and everyone in the room could watch it happen. The tray abandoned that in a single decade, on the strength of a chart.Sick in 400 BC and Hippocrates puts you on milk.
— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) September 27, 2026
Sick in 1200 and the monastery infirmary puts you on broth off the bone and an egg beaten in wine.
Sick in 1780 and the physician puts you on beef tea, port and a raw egg at bedtime.
Sick in 1860 and Florence Nightingale puts… pic.twitter.com/QV6Crnik78
The patients did not get better. The catering budget did.
