Office health might be the last thing from your mind when you are knee deep in paperwork or moving from one boardroom to another boardroom for back to back meeting. It is National Nutrition Week and the theme for 2015 is “Healthy Eating in the Workplace”. As we spend most of our day at work, it is important to address at eating behaviour in the workplace. In addition to the development of obesity with its health related risks, employees with an unhealthy diet have been found to have a 66% increased risk of lower productivity than those who ate a healthy diet.
Health and productivity can both be improved with a healthy diet at the office. Stress often results in poor dietary habits so if your stress levels are high, this may be the first problem to address. Do not allow stress to sabotage your healthy eating efforts as a healthy body can cope better during periods of stress.
While you may not be at home for most of your wakeful hours, most of your food intake should ideally come from your home as healthy convenience options are hard to come by and if available are more expensive than the not so nutritious alternatives. 
Eating breakfast before you head out to the office is the best way to start your day on a healthy note. Regular meals are essential to meeting your daily energy and nutrient prescription and skipping breakfast is likely to leave you with a nutrient deficit come the end of the day. These regular meals therefore also need to provide maximum nutrition.
Cereals, grains or bread eaten for breakfast should always be wholegrain. Add unsweetened dairy and fruit. Eggs make a good breakfast time protein if boiled, poached or scrambled.
Carry your own healthy snacks for in between meals. Fruit, raw nuts, plain yoghurt, dried fruit, air popped popcorn (2 cups) and raw vegetables sticks with cottage or hummus are examples of nutritious snacks free from added sugar and saturated fats. Healthy snacking is the answer to a mid afternoon slump. When you are in need of an energy boost, grabbing foods high in sugar or refined carbohydrate (white flour) will result in a rebound slump. Your blood glucose levels will respond more favourably to one of the snack options mention above.
Packing a healthy lunch not only satisfies the body’s need for good nutrition but it reduces stress related to food provision. If your lunch box is at the ready, sourcing a lunch meal will not be a focus or concern throughout the morning. Unplanned meal times can add surprising distraction and stress, not to mention unplanned spending.
Managing your beverage intake is also important. Avoid the consumption of sugar containing beverages and fruit juices at the office and limit the number of teaspoons of sugar consumed with tea or coffee. Limit tea and coffee to 3-4 cups per day with no more than 1 teaspoon of sugar added to each cup. Added sugar can add a large amount of energy to your daily kilojoule (kJ) intake while offering no nutritive value. Adding two teaspoons of sugar to a daily 5 cups of tea amounts to 10 teaspoons of sugar a day… 850 kJ added to your daily intake with zero benefit! This is also twice the daily intake recommended by the World Health Organisation for added sugar in beverages and food products combined. Drinking herbal teas and plain water for sugar free hydration is best.
As a rule, all meals and snacks should offer some nutrition in the form of fibre, protein, vitamins, minerals or unsaturated fats. Eating nutrient dense meals at regular intervals during the day will also combat pre-dinner hunger which leads to additional, unnecessary snacking before dinner or excessive portion sizes.
Be sure to move more during the day, being mindful not to sit for more than 20 minutes at a time. Standing up to make phone calls, fetching a glass of water or making a photocopy can improve the efficiency of the metabolism. And always, always take the stairs!
Making an effort to adopt healthy office eating habits this Nutrition Week will have a significant impact on both your health and office time performance. Challenge your colleagues to do the same.
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Do eat regularly but do not graze
