- Healthy food options
Most people eat what’s near them, especially if they are on a tight schedule and have to take a quick break for lunch. Provide a wide variety of healthy options at your workplace. You could add fresh fruits, nuts, vegetables and other healthy snacks to your office break room. You may also want to reduce or remove unhealthy snack choices from your office.
- Encourage hydration
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- Catering to allergies and dietary restrictions
Diets and tastes are as varied as your team. Healthy eating habits can be encouraged by meeting the needs of your team.
Offer a variety of foods to accommodate different preferences, religious and cultural diets, food allergies, intolerances. Add dairy-free options, vegetarian and vegan food, gluten-free treats, and halal foods.
- Optional nutritional information
Nutritional information is essential for making healthier food choices. You can empower your team by providing nutritional information.
It is important to have this information available online, or with your food choices. This information allows employees to track their food intake, make informed choices, and achieve their health goals.
- Offer free snacks and drinks
Do you prefer to spend your hard-earned money on a mediocre vending machine snack or choose a healthy snack that your office provides you with for free?
Most likely the latter.
Consider adding this to your company’s benefits: a breakroom stocked with healthy snacks. You can distribute healthy snacks for free throughout your company and store unhealthy snacks at out of the way locations.
Snacks that beat the afternoon slump
Healthy eating at work starts with lunch. A balanced meal of seasonal fruit and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, lean protein, fibre and whole grains will carry people through the afternoon far better than processed food or takeaways. Keep sweet treats to a minimum and skip over-caffeinated energy drinks, which can make energy crash later.
When energy starts to dip, the right snacks help. Raw, unsalted nuts and seeds are a good choice: walnuts for omega-3, almonds for vitamin E, protein and fibre, and pumpkin seeds for healthy fats. Even a handful helps with hunger and fatigue. Bananas offer fibre, vitamins, potassium and enough carbohydrate for a lift, which is why endurance athletes like them. Overnight oats also make a good afternoon snack, and making your own lets you control what goes in.
Water matters too. Swapping coffee and sugary drinks for water makes a real difference to energy, and slices of citrus, cucumber or strawberries add flavour without empty calories.
Smaller portions and better snacking habits
Healthy eating at work is about how you eat as well as what is available. Most people finish whatever is on the plate even when they are already full, which means plate size rather than hunger decides how much we eat. Using a smaller plate, such as a side plate, is a simple way to control portions, and smaller meals eaten more often can help keep energy steady through the working day.
Eat slowly rather than rushing lunch at the desk. It takes around 20 minutes for the stomach to tell the brain it is full, so taking your time helps digestion and makes overeating less likely.
Drink plenty of water through the day and avoid fizzy drinks, which can undo your other efforts. Cutting down on unhealthy snacks makes a real difference, and there are healthy options to suit most needs, including people with allergies or intolerances to nuts, dairy, wheat or gluten. Staying active completes the picture.