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Eating Right at your Workplace

Eating Right at your Workplace

The Covid era is starting to fade away which means offices, schools are reopening. People have started going back to their normal routines, which means going to offices again. But, it also means leaving the comfort of our homes. Eating right at your workplace is going to be a challenge after long Work from home.

For a lot of people, work can be stressful and mentally tiring-with unpredictable schedules and workloads. Juggling between busy schedules, eating right becomes the last priority.

So, we either starve during work hours or eat whatever is available-which is unhealthy food. And by the end of the day, we feel so hungry that we hog on to anything available.

Combining sedentary jobs with no time for exercise, we start gaining weight over time. Eventually, it can lead to other diet and lifestyle-related chronic diseases like obesity or diabetes.

Benefits of proper nutrition at the workplace

At least 40 hours per week is spent at our place of work. So, in order to maintain our health, we need to eat well there. Not only has an individual as an employee benefit from it but the employers as well. For eg.,

  • Good nutrition reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes in the individual
  • It improves focus towards the work
  • Improves employee productivity
  • Lower absentee rate and increased work attendance
  • Lower healthcare costs to the company

While we can take care of our nutrition at home, it becomes difficult to manage our eating habits at work. The most common challenges that working people tell us are:

‘The food items that are easily available are not healthy, what do I do?’ or ‘ I don’t have time during work to choose healthily’ or ‘the people around me don’t eat healthy food’

And no matter how much we try to take or eat food from home, there are times when we cannot.

So, what can be done? Let’s have a look-

Firstly, for eating right at your workplace, on an individual level:

  • We must try to bring homemade lunches and mid-meal snacks like fruits or roasted chana
  • Not skipping our lunch or just throwing food inside in 2 minutes.
  • Taking out at least 15 minutes to eat our meal. No work is as important as our health
  • Choosing healthier options even if we have to eat from outside sometimes
  • Stay hydrated

However, it is the responsibility of the organization as well to take care of the nutrition and health of their employees. So what can organizations such as corporate companies or schools do?

Create awareness by corporate wellness programs:

  1. Conduct full health check-ups with discounts for employees
  2. Arrange an on-site seminar with a qualified dietitian to educate the employees about nutrition or supportive group discussions, especially on days like World Obesity Day or Diabetes Day, etc
  3. Provide discounts on nutritionist consultations.
  4. Conduct on-site cooking sessions or provide healthy lunchbox recipes.
  5. Set healthy food menus for office canteens

Make office meetings or special occasions a healthy event:

Usually, the food that is brought at such events is unhealthy or packaged food. We can exchange them with healthier options such as fruits, fresh healthy finger foods, etc.

Create various group activities and challenges:

The organization can arrange for wellness challenges or competitions like healthy recipe making, etc. Especially in schools, students can take part in such things with exciting prizes to win.

Replace vending machines:

Most offices/hospitals/etc. these days have vending machines which contain packaged foods like biscuits, chips, juices, etc. And due to ease of availability, employees usually eat them. These machines can be replaced with healthier snacks kept in canteens.

Provide healthy food:

  • Tie-ups with tiffin services offering homemade lunches for employees.
  • Subsidizing the rates for buying meals
  • Preparing healthier alternatives in office/school canteens itself: Most canteens prepare fried fatty foods as snacks which can be easily replaced.

Healthier food options for Eating right at your workplace

Breakfast options:

  • Stuffed Rotis
  • Vegetable poha
  • Stuffed cheela
  • Idli/ Dosa/ Uttapam with sambhar
  • Egg omelette with veggies

Lunch options:

  • Veg/ Non-veg Thalis (Roti/rice + dal/non veg + curd + sabzi)
  • Idli/ Dosa/ Uttapam with sambhar
  • Dal-rice with curd
  • Veg/ chicken pulao with raita
  • Paneer/Chicken kathi rolls (with wheat chapatis)

Snack options:

  • Fruit platters
  • Salads with paneer/chicken
  • Dhokla / Khandvi
  • Sprouts/chana chaat
  • Sookhi Bhel/ makhana/ roasted chidwa

Beverage options:

  • Chhaas/ Lassi
  • Fresh lime water/ Shikanji
  • Fresh Coconut water
  • Milkshakes
  • Aampaana
  • Jaljeera

Final Word about Eating Right at Your Workplace

Majority of the food choices i.e, breakfast, lunch, snacks are made during work hours. Therefore, it is important to have healthier food options in schools and offices. By encouraging employees to make healthy food choices and ensuring their better health, both the individual and the company succeed in the long run.

After all, what is the point of making money if we are not healthy enough to take care of our family and enjoy life?

For more information on our Corporate Wellness Programs:

Visit http://thebasicmeals.com/

Email us @

thebasicmeals@gmail.com

Or call @ +919872995207/+918447131858

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