A Guide To Healthy Eating At Work

Tips For Eating Healthy At Work

Outlined below are some strategies you may want to implement to assist you in eating healthy at work:

Educate Yourself On Healthy Alternatives

First and foremost, learning about the nutritional value and impact of foods and drinks is crucial. A majority of people understand what is healthy and what isn’t, but nutrition is far more complex than just ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ There are also plenty of myths regarding various foods and drinks, such as sushi containing hardly any sugar.

Through education, you can make small, easy changes which are highly beneficial in creating a healthier dietary intake, and in turn a more favourable performance at work. A simple example of this is swapping a jam on toast breakfast for eggs on toast. Eggs are high in protein, zinc, iron, vitamin D and brain-boosting chemical choline, while containing significantly less sugar than jam.

Eat A Healthy Breakfast

Breakfast is widely considered to be the most important meal of the day, and it is crucial to take the time to eat breakfast before beginning work. If you are someone who is time-pressed in the mornings, consider preparing something the night before that you can easily take with you. Simple meals, such as wholegrain toast with peanut butter or yoghurt with fresh fruit, are both great options to start your day.

Remember To Hydrate

Staying hydrated in the workplace is critical to performance, as dehydration can lead to poor productivity, reduced cognitive abilities, slower reaction times and lower morale. Rehydrating with water, opposed to sugary and caffeinated drinks is important too as the latter can have adverse effects like hyperglycaemia, sleep disruption and further dehydration.

Consuming alcohol and excessive caffeine leads to further dehydration, which is detrimental to performance. Energy drinks (including those containing taurine) have been banned in some workplaces due to their lack of nutritional value and harmful health effects.

Workplaces need to walk a fine line when it comes to after-work drinking. While it positively impacts team building and culture, excessive drinking disrupts sleep and dehydrates the body, leading to negatively impacted performance the following day.

Leave Your Desk To Eat

Whilst many employees eat their lunch from their desks, it is beneficial to get in the habit of taking a break and finding a spot to enjoy your food. By reducing the amount of distractions in your surroundings, you are more likely to notice the internal appetite cues from your body, which greatly reduces the likelihood of overeating. Taking a lunch break also helps you reset, which can positively impact on productivity and creativity.

Build A Routine

By developing a routine and planning ahead, you can be prepared with choices of healthy meals. Purchasing healthy snacks like vegetables, nuts and seeds aids in reducing the likelihood of buying an unhealthy snack from the vending machine. A tip to consider here: get in the habit of making healthy food decision before you get hungry.

Pack Yourself Lunch From Home

Selecting appropriate lunch choices aids in sustaining energy throughout the day. Most people should choose a balanced lunch consisting of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients. It is beneficial to avoid high-carb lunch options, such as cereal or pasta, which will provide you with an immediate energy boost, however the boost is followed by fatigue which affects your focus and motivation.

Adding various fruits and vegetables to your daily lunch is highly beneficial, and in some cases fruit and vegetable intake is directly related to a person’s engagement, creativity and happiness.

Leftovers from dinner can be a great, easy option to take for lunch. For occasions where leftovers are not an option, combining some vegetables, a complex carbohydrate (like brown rice) and a lean protein provides you with a healthy, balanced lunch time meal.