NASHUA – Hospitals are synonymous with health.

Southern New Hampshire Medical Center no longer is an institutional oxymoron – a healthy place serving greasy, fried, unhealthy food.

Mez Camino, the director of Food and Environmental Services at the hospital, was challenged about a year ago to come up with a healthier menu.

Camino has brought forth a healthy initiative centered around the idea of choices. He said that normally the healthier the food is, the more it costs. He made it his goal to flip that idea and reward those who choose to eat healthfully by making their food less expensive. The staff can also go online each morning and see what will be on the menu for the day and week.

Karen Lindquist said checking the menu online is the first thing she does when she gets to work. Lindquist has been a radiology technician for 11 years, and says the kitchen has done a better job controlling food portions.

She normally brings half her lunch and then fills in the gaps with whatever looks good in the cafeteria. She was eating a bologna sandwich she made at home, because the kitchen no longer serves bologna for health reasons. She bought mushroom and barley soup to go with her meal. Last year, she spent more than $1,000 in the cafeteria.

“I think they really have more healthy choices,” Lindquist said.

Camino said the kitchen has tried to make every item healthier, from using yogurt to make macaroni and cheese to lowering the cholesterol in omelets and scrambled eggs. There are more fish, chicken and salad bar options.

Many things have been added, but the biggest impact may have come from a subtraction. No one is crying over the removal of the deep-fryer, he said.

“We use the simple method: By taking the fryers out, you can’t go back,” Camino said.

Pat Marsh said she’s happy the fryer didn’t survive the renovations because now she doesn’t have to rely on her inner strength to resist fatty french fries. She is the nurse director of Emergency Services, and has been with the hospital for 34 years.

Marsh said she usually tries to get a meat and a vegetable. She was eating pork tenderloin and brussels sprouts.

“Price-wise, I don’t think you can beat it,” Marsh said.

Joanne Brinley, who has been a secretary for the hospital for 25 years, said she misses some of the “bad things” she used to eat. She reminisced about the days when they had fried onion rings, chicken nuggets and chicken fingers, and thinks the cafeteria has gone away from common dishes.

“I think they have gone too extreme on the ethnic food,” Brinley said.

She said the soups are still very good, but that they used to be thicker and tastier. She said she has noticed that the kitchen has tried to make things healthier, but she wouldn’t say healthier is less expensive. She said salads and fish are generally pretty expensive. She was eating a cafeteria favorite, the buffalo chicken wrap.

Camino has seen more than a 30 percent increase in consumption of healthy foods from last year. However, the buffalo chicken wrap has remained one of the highest-selling items the cafeteria has ever had, he said. The popular wrap has 1,460 mg of sodium and 400 calories from fat, compared with the less expensive flank steak with vegetables, with only 130 calories from fat.

“We did not want to take the choice away,” Camino said. “We did not want to force people to eat what they did not want to eat.”

Dan Podziewski was happy to eat the chow mein over rice with minestrone soup that cost him $4.50. Podziewski has been a telecommunications specialist with SNHMC for 22 years, and he eats four meals a week at the cafeteria. He said the variety of healthy choices is incredible and always allows people to find something they’ll like.

“If you don’t like what you see on the service line, you can go to the sandwich bar and they will make you what you want, or you can go to the salad bar,” Podziewski said.

He says he has Type 2 diabetes, and the nutrition guide labels on each item are helpful for him to monitor what he eats. He said everything is affordable, whether it be the nutritious food or the pizza in which he indulges on occasion.

“You pay in some cases one-third here what you would pay compared to other places,” Podziewski said.

Cyndi Chasse and her daughter Madison Warchol were having a mother-daughter afternoon and decided to pop in and have lunch in the cafeteria. The two always used to eat in hospital cafeterias after appointments and were pleased with the new and improved menu.

Warchol, an alumna of Nashua High School North, said that the hospital cafe was much better then the food at school and healthier. She ate a tuna wrap and vegetable soup.

Her mother had a salad and was impressed with the food and feel of the cafeteria, saying it doesn’t even feel like you’re in a hospital.

“Just like ordering at a regular restaurant, definitely coming back, everything is listed,” Chasse said. “More people should visit hospitals for lunch, especially in this economy.”

Camino is pleased with how the healthy initiative is going, and soon, the patients will be eating off china and using silverware. He has revamped the presentation and overall health without sacrificing taste for his patients who can enjoy their room-service dining capabilities.

Gregory Meighan can be reached at 594-5833 or gmeighan@nashuatelegraph.com.