Workplace Eating Adds Empty Calories |
Posted: June 14, 2018 |
Using data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Acquisition and Purchasing Survey, the study found the foods people obtained from work mostly contained « high amounts of sodium and refined grains, with little whole grains and fruit. » The food was high in « empty » calories, which contain little to no nutrients and are often composed of solid fats and added sugars.To get more health care news, you can visit shine news official website. « This is the first study to use a nationally representative dataset of U.S. households, » lead researcher Stephen Onufrak says. « We limited the study to adult-aged participants, 18 and over, who are currently working. » In the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of 5,222 employees, it was found one-quarter of those employees, most of whom were college graduates, women and non-Hispanic whites, bought food and beverages at work from vending machines or cafeterias, or got them for free in common areas, meetings and social events. Among those who ate at work, the average additional caloric consumption per week was 1,277 calories. The study found more than 70 percent of those « empty » calories were coming from free food. Keri Gans, a registered dietitian nutritionist who did not take part in the study, says it is not surprising people enjoy these perks, and companies should use that as leverage to get employees eating healthier. « If it’s free, people want it, » Gans says. « But you don’t have to have a cake for everyone’s birthday, you can cut back on it. If you have fruit in that break room instead, people are going to grab it. » Free food was the most common source of what people ate at work, at 17 percent, compared with purchased food, at 8 percent. The study does not tie eating at work to an expanded waistline, but Onufrak says that is an important consideration. « Without knowing how this food fits into people’s diets, it’s hard to draw conclusions, » Onufrak says. A lot of the foods employees ate at work were « calorically dense and didn’t conform with dietary guidelines, » Onufrak says. Those foods included but were not limited to pizza, potato chips and cookies. « In light of this information, I’d recommend offering healthy alternatives to employees and removing unhealthy options, » Gans says. « If an employee has to choose between healthy and unhealthy foods, they’d go for the unhealthy. » « Employers should implement food service guidelines for food in vending machines and cafeterias, » Onufrak says. « They should also enforce healthy eating guidelines for meetings and conferences to create a culture of health at work. » To narrow the lens further, researchers will conduct a similar study using another dataset to examine foods specifically purchased from vending machines and cafeterias in the workplace. Onufrak will present these findings at the American Society for Nutrition annual meeting, Nutrition 2018, held in Boston from June 9 through June 12.
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