It is an "ironic and sad situation" that hospital patients are fed unhealthy foods such as burgers, chips and sugary drinks, which may have contributed to their admission in the first place.
The British report by a group of nutrition experts has criticised the food served in the nation's public hospitals.
"There is a notion that much of the UK population has lost its way around what a healthy diet actually looks like," it said.
The panel led by Peter Aggett, emeritus professor of child health and nutrition at the University of Central Lancashire, said while public health campaigns such as 5-a-day and Change4Life are well-meaning, they are missing the most vulnerable members of society.
It warned these public health initiatives may be inadvertently widening inequalities as wider uptake may come from more privileged pockets of society, while the vulnerable are left at risk of nutrient deficiency.
It used the example of women of child-bearing age needing to take folic acid supplementation as about half of pregnancies are unplanned and it is important to take it before conception to avoid babies being born with defects such as spina bifida.
But it said a "change of behaviour is simply off the radar for the most vulnerable groups".
The group of 10 experts in human nutrition and public health also cited a lack of training on the topic for health professionals.
They said it is up to medical schools to decide whether or not to incorporate nutrition in their programs, and the number doing so is "disappointing".
Other health care professionals, such as nurses, receive some training in nutrition but the quantity and quality of this is variable. One member of the group cited their own professional training - in pharmacy and life sciences - on nutrition as taking up just four hours within their four-year course.
They said research from the Malnutrition Advisory Group also showed three-quarters (74 per cent) of GPs had had no undergraduate training in nutrition and 60 per cent felt they needed training in detecting under-nutrition.
Because of a lack of sufficient training, the group warned that Dietary Reference Values, which help inform government policy and public information campaigns, have been inappropriately applied by health care professionals who take them as verbatim rather than a guide.
The panel warned they are not taking into account individual nutrition needs and are potentially putting the public at further risk of micronutrient deficiency.
Calling for a nationwide review of public health nutrition education, it said midwives must also play a more active role in warning expectant mothers of the importance of adequate vitamin D levels.
Professor Aggett said: "We can't expect people to successfully transition into habits supporting better micronutrient intakes if the spaces and environments which they operate in on a daily basis are riddled with barriers."
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