These days a huge majority of jobs take place in front of a computer screen, as everyone from marketers to web designers spend hours glued to their keyboards and monitors as they go about shaping online marketplaces.
While there is increasing awareness of the importance of nutrition and good diet practices, being stationary in an office for large periods of time can be conducive to members of staff regressing into bad habits.
Here we take a look at the food types and diet varieties that forward-thinking companies should be promoting to their employees, or even treating them to a few times per week so that healthy eating becomes a natural part of overall business performance management.
Businesses already take great care to ensure that employee workstations are set up as ergonomically as possible, but should they be doing the same with food and drink?
Concentration and Memory Boosters
For many people food is a means to an end, filling the gaping hole in their stomach that makes itself known around midday.
However, food can be so much more than that, giving workers the sort of pick-me-up they need to not only complete a full day of work but to thrive from one hour to the next. Indeed, there are many studies that now show eating the right foods can even boost concentration and memory.
Some of the magic dishes that can achieve this are things like green leafy vegetables and fresh fish, both of which rarely make appearances in the lunch boxes and takeaways on display in offices up and down the land.
Vegetables are important because they are packed with vitamins E and K, both of which have been proven to improve neurological performance so that those synapses continue to spark right through the afternoon.
Likewise, fish is jammed with omega-3 fatty acids, which are also vital when it comes to keeping a brain sharp and focused on the tasks at hand.
Eating healthy foods can be a key component to ensuring a workforce does not suffer from post-lunch lag and lethargy
Snacks Need Not Be a Bad Thing
There is a common misconception in workplaces and in society, in general, surrounding the concept of snacking, with a lot of people thinking that any sort of snack between mealtimes is a bad thing.
This could not be further from the truth, as long as the snacks being feasted on are healthy.
Rather than gorging on high-fat snacks like chocolate bars and packets of crisps, workers should instead be encouraged to pick at fruit, nuts, or even a few squares of dark chocolate.
Berries are also good to pick at throughout the day, as their antioxidants flush toxins from the brain and improve memory.
Some studies have suggested that dark chocolate acts in the same way as berries as it is laced with its own set of antioxidants, some of which can improve things like brain processing speed. If only computers were capable of eating chocolate!
How Offices Can Promote Healthy Diets
Now that the benefits of a healthy diet are clear for all to see, we thought we would put together some tips for those businesses that want to leap straight into having more productive and switched-on employees.
Before starting with food, perhaps the most important thing to ensure employees have close to hand is water, because remaining hydrated in the workplace is one sure-fire way to keep alert.
Putting water coolers in places that encourage social interaction and good rehydration habits will instantly boost moral in any office space. They are also good for the environment, with their giant water tanks being easy to refill.
Snack stations are another initiative that companies can introduce, allowing employees free access to things like bowls of nuts, berries, and even the odd bit of dark chocolate, all of which will be raided in the morning and have workers buzzing till home time.
Last but not least, why not treat your workforce to a healthy meal once or twice a week? There are many companies that now specialise in delivering nothing but vitamin-rich meals to offices, which will always put a management team or boss in their staff’s good books.
