Employers - Are you sabotaging your employees’ health goals with crappy food?

Is the steady influx of non-stop free food wreaking your healthy eating plan? 

 When we step into the office we are overwhelmed everyday with lots of food options: free bagel day, birthday cake celebrations, free pizza lunch, candy jar, free soda…   It can be hard to stay on track when you see and smell food everywhere. 

Today more employers are offering free food as a perk.  A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that American workers eat an average of 1,300 calories at work every week.  That is not a ton of calories but much of it is from unhealthy processed foods that are high in bad fats and sugar.  Employees that were surveyed reported items like pizza, soda, cookies, brownies cake and candy being made available at work. 

The 2018 Employee Health and Wellness Checkup by Robert Half shared their research on what employees think of office food. This survey of 1,006 employees and 306 HR managers in the US found that workers listed their biggest obstacle in achieving their health goals as: 

• Food at office celebrations – 30%
  
• Snacks brought in by coworkers – 22%
• Free meals – 10%
• Vending machines – 10%
• Office candy jar – 10%
• Happy hours/after-work drinks – 9%
• Business trips – 8%
• Bagel Mondays – 3% 

What we eat, and drink impacts our health in so many ways.

• Our ability to concentrate and focus.
  
• How well we manage stress and cope with pressure.
• Our energy levels.
  
• The way our brain works and how well it works.
  
• Can increase or decrease our risk for chronic lifestyle diseases like diabetes or obesity.

I can’t think of a bigger factor that impacts workplace productivity, energy, creativity, stress, and health than just eating real whole foods.  

Employers Can Do More

One way to greatly improve your employee’s health is with nutrition.  Nutrition is the foundation of our overall health and well-being.  What we eat does matter.  The food choices we make daily impacts us in surprising ways:  our stress and energy levels, digestion, moods, focus and memory, aches and pains and even our ability to get a good night of sleep.  What we eat can also set us up to develop chronic lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes and pre-diabetes, heart disease and depression.  And if you think about, if we don’t address the food choices that people make, all the interventions and wellness services that many companies provide may not have the impact needed to make positive health changes. 

For more ideas on changing your work food environment check out the webinar that I did for Colorado Health Links,   Link to webinar:  Nutrition Strategies for Workplace Wellness. 

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To learn more about my nutrition worksite services visit:  http://www.nutritionsavvy.biz/worksite-nutrition-services.html