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Junk
Food At Work: How Innocent it Seems and Yet, How Bad It
Is
There is a
threat to our good health and weight maintenance lurking
in offices everywhere. Many of my patients often recount
how coworkers keep candies, cookies, chocolate and other
goodies piled on the corner of their desk. As people
walk by, especially after lunch, they take a few candies
out of the bowl. Walking by an hour later, they take a
few more. This can be repeated several times in a day.
The people who display this junk food seem to fall into
two categories: obese or obsessively thin. Either they
are providing it because they want you to join them in
the ranks of the overweight or they take some perverse
pleasure in fattening you up instead of themselves.
My patients are
upset by the unhealthy snack food that are proffered by
their office mates or by the company they work for. The
constant stream of donuts, cinnamon rolls, licorice
twists and chocolate kisses overpower. It is difficult
to resist their good intentions. It becomes a siren
song, calling out to people: come to me, come to me.
I have heard
this story so often, that I believe these snacks pose a
threat to the health and well being of people working in
offices. I believe it should be outlawed in the same way
smoking in the office was outlawed. A few years ago you
would have thought that a ridiculous idea. Now the
notion that someone would smoke in an office seems like
a joke. This threat to health is somewhat similar.
Within the next few years the idea that great gobs of
candy were left sitting out all day to be eaten by
fellow workers will seem absurd. The negative effects of
junk food on peoples' work performance are well
documented. The sugar highs and lows it induces sap
peoples' energy and adds to error rate. The negative
effect on the immune system increases time lost from
work. Elevated weight has a negative effect on
cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The negative self
talk that is induced makes everyone grouchy and
antagonistic.
One client
recently told me that her company had heard the
complaints of the staff and gotten rid of all the junk
food in the lunchroom and on peoples' desks. Instead
they purchased blenders and protein powder and fresh
fruit and juice and rice cakes and pretzels and more
wholesome snacks. People cheered the changes and
appreciated the fact that the company cared enough about
them to want them to be healthy and be nourished at
work, not jacked up on sugar.
Workers of
Seattle unite. You can fight against junk food at work.
Ask for healthy snacks. Ask your coworkers to ban their
trash food and not push it on you. Strike a blow for
good nutrition and better office karma. You have nothing
to lose but your gut. You have your health to gain. |
