Feed The Mind

Mar 16, 2012

Hold the cakes and disconnect the coke machine. Replace the meeting biscuits with fruit, nuts and smoothies. What we eat has a big impact on our performance at work – from mental clarity, to energy, stamina and productivity, food governs how well our bodies and brains function. Food makes our mood.

 

Yet food at work is too often seen as an afterthought by employers and is a missed opportunity to increase productivity and morale. Staff restaurants, if they exist, often offer unhealthy selections while vending machines are stocked with sugary and fatty snacks. Employers’ workplace programmes focus on wellness – getting people fitter ­– and how healthy employers take less time off work. But ensuring your employees are eating the right foods is about increasing presenteeism—  employees being fully engaged and mentally focused on the task in hand.

 

And there is plenty of research to back this up. According to a vielife study of 15,000 people in the UK and US, employees with poor nutritional balance reported 21 per cent more sick-related absence and 11 per cent lower productivity than healthier colleagues. Meanwhile another vielife research project showed that the most healthy quartile of the workforce is seven hours more productive a week than the least healthy quartile.

 

Another study, this time by the International Labour Office, revealed that poor diet on the job is costing countries around the world up to 20 per cent in lost productivity, either due to malnutrition or excess weight. Food at Work: Workplace solutions for malnutrition, obesity and chronic diseases says better nutrition in the workplace can raise national productivity rates, while workplace meal programmes can prevent micronutrient deficiencies and chronic diseases such as obesity with modest investments that can be repaid in reduction of sick days and accidents.

 

A better diet also improves your mental health. A four-year study of 10,000 people by scientists from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Clinic of the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain revealed that people who eat a diet rich in the classic ingredients consumed in Mediterranean countries – vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and fish – are less likely to develop depression.

 

The message is clear. A mind made sluggish by a high-carb lunch washed down with sugary drinks will make more mistakes, have lower output and less innovation. Facilities managers and those that supply them are in an unique position to make a positive contribution to a company’s fitness to compete.

 

The Mood Food Forum on 22 March is there to explore this question: examining the science of nutrition and productivity, of food and behaviour.

Speakers include:

  • Jessica Colling, Product Director, vielife
  • Matt Dawson MBE – Sportsman, Writer & Broadcaster, courtesy of Sodexo
  • Dr Sue Gatenby – Nutrition Director Europe Pepsico International
  • Richard Neal – Director, Lancing Press
  • Professor John Stein -Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
  • Amanda Ursell – Nutritionist, Times Journalist and regular contributor to the BBC  courtesy of CH&Co.
  • Felicity Yardy – The Juice Master Blender Innocent

 

Sign up at http://www.foodservicefootprint.com/event/footprint-forum-sustainability-and-health-and-wellness

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