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survey of what working adults ate over the course of a week found
that one in four people got food at work one or more times, and that
it was generally high in empty calories, salt, fat and sugar.
These treats included pizza, soft drinks, cookies, brownies, cakes,
pies and candy. They added up, on average, to nearly 1,300 calories
per week, the study authors report in the Journal of the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics.
"The majority of this is not from cafeterias or vending machines but
offered for free at social events and meetings, which surprised us,"
said lead study author Stephen Onufrak, a researcher with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Obesity Prevention and
Control Branch in Atlanta, Georgia.
Onufrak's findings are drawn from a nationally-representative sample
of 5,200 employed adults who took a survey from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture in 2012-2013, which asked what people ate over a
seven-day period.
They found that 23 percent of workers obtained food at work during
the week, including 17 percent who got food for free and 9 percent
who bought food. Among the top contributors to calorie totals in
both cases were soft drinks, sandwiches, tortilla and other types of
chips, donuts and other pastries, burgers, pizza, burritos and
candy.
As measured by a standard known as the 2010 Heathy Eating Index (HEI
2010), the workplace foods got an average score of 48.6, which is
about the average score found in analyses of menu items at fast food
restaurants, the study team notes.
HEI rates food types by how healthy they are, with whole grains,
whole fruits and vegetables and lean protein sources like chicken
and fish scoring high. Foods heavy in unhealthy fats, sodium and
refined carbohydrates score low. A maximally-healthy HEI 2010
dietary score is 100.
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While food obtained at work doesn't represent the largest part of
most people's diets, about 11 percent of workers obtained food at
work three times per week, and five percent of workers did so five
or more times per week. That means millions of employees eat a large
number of calories at work regularly, and it could be a significant
part of their diet, the authors point out.
"Some workers may grab a snack, but others may be relying on work as
a major component of their diet," Onufrak told Reuters Health in a
phone interview.
The researchers are now looking at characteristics of worksite
wellness programs and how they can affect nutrition. For example,
future worksite policies could create a "healthy meeting rule" that
includes healthy options alongside pizza or cake, Onufrak said.
"It would be interesting to know more about the worksite food
environment . . . and if worksites do offer more healthful choices
but most workers are choosing the less healthful foods," said Simone
French, a researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis
who wasn't involved in the study.
"Figuring out how to improve food choices at the worksite involves
understanding the interplay between the foods available in the work
environment and the foods that workers themselves prefer to purchase
or consume," she told Reuters Health by email.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2FP1SsK Journal of the Academy of Nutrition
and Dietetics, online January 22, 2019.
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