Yup, there’s actually such a title. A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the growth of a new genre – upscale, more palatable cuisine now offered in healthcare facilities.

The typical hospital fare such as jello, soggy sandwiches and tasteless chow that we’re all familiar with, seems to be a thing of the past. Think Machaca Steak with Sauce and Curried Banana Pierogi. Hospitals are now competing with the likes of five-star hotels and restaurants by installing sushi stations, organic salad bars and pizza ovens.

The National Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management recently launched an annual cooking competition. “We want to show the world that health-care food is so much different. It can be creative. It can dazzle,” said Betty Perez, a society board member and a hospital food administrator in New Jersey. “We have chefs that can compete with the best of them.”

However, hospital chefs must play by different rules than their glitzy restaurant counterparts. Their creative offerings must be in tune with doctors orders, as well as nutritionists and cost-sensitive food administrators.

600 calories, 20 grams of fat, and 1,000 milligrams of sodium were the max for each contest dish and the production cost per dish could not exceed $5.

So pass the Green Apple-Jicama Slaw and enjoy your stay.

Everyone knows that breakfast’s good for you. How good just became a little clearer. A team of British Researchers have pinpointed scientifically how your brain craves high calorie food when you skip your morning meal.

Utilizing MRI’s of the brain, they studied 20 healthy, thin people who went without breakfast that day. When those people were exposed to an array of food photos, both high and low fat, their brains become more active at the sight of the high-calorie options than when they saw low calorie foods. When this test was repeated on another day 90 minutes after they ate breakfast, there was no significant difference in their brain’s reaction to different caloric foods

Corresponding to the MRI findings, were ratings of appealing food pictures. After skipping breakfast, participants found calorie laden food choices to be much more tempting. After eating, however, the group did not show a strong preference for the high-calorie foods.

According to Tony Goldstone, MD, PhD, a consultant endocrinologist with the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College London, “Our results support the advice for eating a healthy breakfast as part of the dietary prevention and treatment of obesity, When people skip meals, especially breakfast, changes in brain activity in response to food may hinder weight loss and even promote weight gain.”