Are you a grab-and-go snacker or lunch purchaser when away from home? A new study from the Harvard Medical School suggests that folks who eat less-healthy foods at work may make similar choices when eating elsewhere and that’s influencing their overall health and wellness picture…
Those who eat healthier at work enjoy overall lower risk of cardiovascular
disease and are less likely to be overweight or obese.
The vast majority of American adults work at least 8 hours a day five days a week and consume at least one meal there. And more than 1 out every 3 of them is either overweight or obese, and prey to all the negative health risks that implies. Researchers wanted to determine the influence of on-the-job eating on people’s overall health profiles.
What they did
Researchers looked at the dietary habits of 602 employees of the Massachusetts General Hospital who regularly used the facility’s cafeterias to source their lunchtime fare. As part of a Hospital-wide healthier eating program, all foods sold in the Caff were given ‘traffic light’ labels that indicated their relative healthiness. The employees were graded on how many ‘green light’ foods they chose as opposed to ‘red light’ foods. Food displays were also rejigged to place the healthiest food directly in a diner’s line of sight in an effort to make them more attractive.
What they found
Researchers analysed worksite food purchases from cash register data; food consumption reports from surveys; and cardio-metabolic test results, diagnoses, and medication information for individual study participants and found that those with the lowest ‘healthy purchase scores’ (HPS) had the least healthy medical profiles, the highest risk of cardiovascular disease and the highest incidence of overweight or obesity. By comparison, those with the highest HPSs were the healthiest.
The takeaway
“Workplace wellness programs have the potential to promote lifestyle changes among large populations of employees, yet to date there have been challenges to developing effective programs. We hope our findings will help to inform the development of accessible, scalable, and affordable interventions,” noted study spokesperson Dr. Jessica L. McCurley.
“Simplified labeling strategies provide an opportunity to educate employees without restricting their freedom of choice. In the future, using purchase data to provide personalized nutritional feedback via email or text messaging is another option to explore to encourage healthy eating,” added Dr. Anne Thorndike, Lead Investigator on the study.
My take
As with so many experimental findings coming out these days, the results of this survey sound like good old common sense. I agree wholeheartedly that workplace wellness programs have significant potential for inducing employees to improve their eating habits and, thereby, their overall health. One hopes the cost of implementing such programs doesn’t deter employers from trying them.
~ Maggie J.