Blog — Worksite Wellness Nutrition

Eating at work

We all know this by experience, we as employees, spend a lot of our time at work— about 1/3 of our days! Because of this large chunk of time, the habits we follow at work make a HUGE impact on our overall health and wellbeing.

Americans eat A LOT of their snacks and meals at work…

It’s estimated that a typical employee eats 1-2 meals and 2 snacks while at work. Multiply that by 5 days per week and 52 weeks per year and that equates to 245-520 meals and 520 snacks. That’s a lot!

Let’s begin with a background of eating in the workplace.

We all know this by experience, we as employees, spend a lot of our time at work— about 1/3 of our days! Because of this large chunk of time, the habits we follow at work make a HUGE impact on our overall health and wellbeing.

So what exactly are employees eating?

This is where it gets worrisome! National surveys show that now more than ever, Americans are eating more food prepared outside the house. Instead of cooking from home and packing meals and snacks for the workday, employees are resorting to ordering takeout.

Eating food outside of the home has been linked to poor food choices, increased prevalence of obesity and overall poor nutritional status.

And of course, the food environment doesn’t help.

Our food environment is often the culprit and reason why people make the choices that they do. Some experts describe the American food environment as being obesogenic or obesity-causing.

Here are 4 reasons the food environment is preventing you from reaching your 2019 goals:

Unhealthy food is super accessible, it tastes good, it’s quick and inexpensive.
Food companies and restaurants are spending billions of dollars to advertise these foods to people, even those who are extremely susceptible and vulnerable, like children.
Not only are these foods everywhere, they’re served to us in larger than life portions. Large food portions have become the norm in this country.
There are social norms that lead to overeating. A few that are common in the workplace include: having a candy bowl at a workstation, keeping cookies and cakes in the breakroom, having a cookie platter at staff meetings and ordering daily takeout for lunch as a department. These are all social norms that have become routine in the workplace. They’re all social norms that when done repeatedly promote poor eating habits, chronic diseases and weight gain.

Chronic diseases in the workplace:

Unhealthy employees are less productive and use millions more sick days than healthy workers. This translates to astronomical costs to not only the individual, but to employers and society.

As an employee wellness dietitian, I help people understand and recognize the influence of the food environment around them.

I am devoted to breaking these social workplace norms with new norms that are health-promoting rather than health-deteriorating.

Here is what I recommend for a healthy food environment:

Work with your team to order fruit platters at meetings.
When meetings are catered, I recommend ordering healthy options like sandwiches or wraps with whole grain bread and salads with oil and vinegar-based dressing.
Always have water instead of caloric beverages.
If your office has vending machines, ask your manager if you could explore other snacks that are carried by that vender.
And lastly, since it is difficult to change the behaviors of others it may be difficult to change the foods in the break room and the candy bowl on your coworker’s desk. As the culture in your office changes, your coworkers may be on board to switch out the foods they bring into the workplace.

I hope you can implement one or two (or all!) of these recommendations so that you can improve the culture of health in your workplace!

Tell me, what is your workplace food environment like? Is it easy to or hard to stay healthy? Comment below. I look forward to hearing from you!

XOXO

Nikki