During the day, most of our time is spent in our workplaces. Thus, it is not possible to provide our daily nutrition in a residential environment. In fact, the heavy workload that most of us are in obliges us to eat at work.
The long working hours spent at the desk, in front of the computer, the shift system and frequent travels in today’s business life bring tension with it. This lifestyle causes the prevalence of obesity to increase day by day among employees. Be aware of your negative eating behaviors and never give up on real and healthy eating, even if we are working individuals.
Healthy Eating = Satisfaction = Success
When the diet in the workplace is healthy, truthful and satisfies, it also directly affects the health, workforce and productivity and work motivation of these employees. With this comes success and satisfaction.
Recently, some workplaces are aware of the importance of the issue.
For example; The number of workplaces that receive consultancy from dieticians on Healthy Nutrition and Menu Planning, and ensure that their employees are informed about healthy nutrition and implemented, is increasing day by day. Because, as the healthy nutrition of the employees affects the employees positively in every aspect; It also positively influences the prospective boss.
So what shall we do?
- Definitely start your day with breakfast in the morning. Hunger causes fatigue, reluctance and low blood sugar in the person, all of which negatively affect the work motivation and efficiency of the person.
- Take 15-minute walks during the day at work to reduce work stress.
- Prefer to walk more on your way to work or get off a few stops earlier or park your car far away.
- Use less elevators.
- Employees at the workplace can be given a menu prepared on the basis of a Dietitian at lunch, so that the employees have a sufficient and stable diet at the workplace; health problems that may occur will also be greatly reduced; may even disappear. Because with a healthy diet, the body resistance of the person will increase and thus the risk of catching diseases will decrease.
Thus; absenteeism at the workplace will decrease, attendance will increase, so any disruptions that may occur will be eliminated.
- Instead of consuming soft drinks, take a jug of water to your tables and add lemon slices + fresh mint and cinnamon sticks, this will make you feel more fit.
- Prefer herbal teas instead of tea and coffee. Consume fennel to eliminate indigestion that may occur during lunch, and sage and linden for the immune system, especially as it relieves tension. Choose green tea and mate tea to increase your metabolic rate.
- People who have to travel frequently have to eat little and often in order to maintain their weight and eat healthy. Fat-free crackers and ayran, dried apricots, dates, walnuts or almonds, 1 portion of fruit, half a tea glass of roasted chickpeas, half a bagel and cheese, fat-free toast and ayran are practical and healthy choices that can be found anywhere.
- Avoid cookies served at meetings. Instead of these, you can choose lean crackers, diet biscuits, wholemeal breadcrumbs, quarter bagels, dried apricots, raisins with seeds, walnuts, wholemeal sandwiches with cheese, raw vegetables and herbal teas.
- Meals served to individuals should be a pleasant part of the social environment, a neat, clean, airy, and comfortable dining room should be prepared, so that the meals consumed will also be effective in strengthening human relations. This too; It will increase work efficiency and success, especially when the work part is required, such as cluster work.
- The image, taste and smell of the food served should be liked so that it satisfies the consumer in every way; when the person gets up from the meal, he becomes full and does not turn to junk food.
- As a result of the work done by the International Labor Organization (ILO); It has been proven that malnutrition in the workplace negatively affects the health and work efficiency of employees.
In the study; malnutrition and obesity are very common in developing countries and only for this reason; It has been stated that there is a 20% loss in work efficiency all over the world.
In the research, it has been determined that nutrition in the workplace is mostly seen as a “necessity” or “trouble” by the bosses, thus missing the opportunity to raise productivity and employee morale at work.
