beautiful woman with healthy food and water
What are the wellness fundamentals in nutrition? Nutrition impacts attention, energy, someone's endurance, how alert they are, how resilient they are to illness and disease. A little flu goes around the office; super healthy people just don't pick them up the same way.
So nutrition impacts these things. But then as an employer we say, “Well what are we meant to do about that? We can't control what people eat?†Is that really true?
What snacks are available in your workplace? If people take a lunch break, how far will they have to go before they can access something that's particularly healthy? Do you have a kitchen that facilitates and allows people to bring healthy food into the workplace? Or do you have training that teaches somebody how to prepare food that is in his or her best interest?
You have to ask yourself, why are all of these cooking shows so popular? People love food and they like to do it in a classy, stylish way. Don't take for granted that everybody knows how to cook and prepare a healthy meal. Most people have got no idea of the difference between calories and nutrition. They don't realise that some food burns in the body like fuel. If you throw petrol on a fire, when it's not lit; then you light it…woosh. It doesn't actually sustain a burn but it has an instant burn. Yet, if you get some little lighter blocks and you light those, then the fire burns for a long duration, it just keeps on going.
Food has an impact on the body in the same way. Many people may know this but a lot of people don't. Even those that do know may not know which foods are which. They don't know how or what to prepare, and to be honest, most don't even consider it for their lunch. Is that because their workplace isn't conducive to staff bringing their own home prepared lunch in?
This is what nutrition in the workplace is. It's not controlling what people eat, it's just making sure that the healthiest options are facilitated and available. Provide your employees with the facts, educating them on what foods will provide sustainable energy and allow them to work better. By helping staff with their nutrition you're also working to achieve the highest chance of attention, endurance, resilience and productivity from your employees.
