"Across all of Australia diabetic menus I've seen are all the same"

It’s disgraceful, truly disgraceful in my opinion - diabetic menus. I’m in a Sydney hospital at the moment. I've been seeing this over the last 50 or 60 years, but it’s still the same issue. I’ve been raising the same issue for 60 years, but excuses change. Because life has changed too, funnily enough, and how companies label products. Whether or not they’re more liable or what they can get away with is relevant, in my opinion.

I’ve spoken with the Num who is a really pleasant guy. He shakes his head with me. He can’t believe why these things appear on a diabetic menu. He said – I don’t understand why they’re on there. I’m not in charge. I think he’s made a note with dietary people. I believe it’ll fall on deaf ears. In my experience, it goes round and round and nothing ever happens. I’ve been seeing this on menus for 60 years.

I believe they (being hospitals) all wriggle the same way. I understand it’s all to do with the diabetic whether they “have it mildly” or “how taller or shorter or fatter than you”. There’s always a reason, with this hospital at the moment, I get a diabetic menu (type 1 since I was 11 years old, 60+ years ago). I’ve been having this conversation, even with Royal North Shore Hospital before when I was a kid. They used to have juices on their menu. They are all sweet, they all have sugar in them. 50 or 60 years ago, there was a gentleman that said, “yeah but it’s natural”. But there is sugar in it, glucose in it.

On the menus here, crickey!, three meals a day. (separate meals). You can have orange juice and or apple juice, in each breakfast lunch and dinner, they’ve got all sorts of yogurts – it doesn’t bother me because I don’t crave sweet things, but it bothers me that these things are still on the diabetes menu. How could it be a diabetes menu with all this stuff on it!

Other diabetics the same age as me, they can order jam and they can order honey – it goes on and on. They think it’s okay as well. It’s taken me a long part of my life to say something. I’m in a spare room/office, for visitors and can see the 1300 number. I was watching iview and I thought nah I’ll make the effort. I’ll phone and see what happens.

They say it’s ok, I don’t know where it comes from, but someone somewhere says it’s ok – that’s ok for diabetics. They cover themselves, in my opinion. They’re “right” that’s the mentality, I believe.

I was told by someone here that it was to do with ACI. In Western Australia I have experienced this in two other hospitals as well.