Much to gain from healthy food options

Encouraging staff to adopt healthier eating habits can offer businesses a return on investment and there are plenty of ways to do it.

Heart Foundation health advocate Yvonne Skellern spoke at Toi Te Ora yesterday, helping businesses in the Work Well programme learn more about the role of diet in creating a healthy, productive workforce. "We need to eat well to be well."

The changes required to have a significant effect on the health of employees need not be large, Skellern said. A simple change from "dark blue" to low-fat, "green" milk could cut up to 2kg of fat from staff diets in a year.

She pointed to research in schools showing the effect of poor diet on concentration and behaviour of children, saying the same was true in the workplace.

Looking at the food supplied at meetings, morning teas and in the staff cafeteria was a good place to start, but Skellern said it was not about being the food police, more about providing healthy options and encouraging healthy eating habits. Getting staff from all levels involved was important and competitions could help get people behind healthy eating initiatives.

"Some people can be pretty competitive and competitions seem to get people excited about these things," she said.

Skellern recommended developing a nutrition policy to help drive company decisions.

Work Well health improvement adviser Angela Pootjes said businesses would see a significant financial return on their investment in promoting healthy eating among employees.

"As well as reducing sick days, you will also improve productivity by reducing the number of people who are there in body but not in their minds. Many workplace accidents occur because people are not fully concentrating - especially in factories or where people are working with heavy machinery," she said.

Businesses registering an interest in Work Well could do an online assessment of the financial benefits for them and Pootjes said the results were often surprising.

It was also important to look at diet in the wider context of health and well-being, which was the focus of the Work Well programme, and help was out there for people keen to implement healthier workplace policies and practices.

More information on workplace well-being and the Work Well programme can be found at www.workwell.health.nz

10 ways to help your staff develop healthier eating habits

Provide healthy options such as fruit and sandwiches.

Encourage staff to get regular health checks.

Provide clean facilities where staff can make and enjoy proper meals.

Put healthy food information and recipes in the staffroom.

Speak to your staff to find out where there are problems.

Invite experts into the workplace to educate and motivate.

Run competitions - vegetable growing, weight loss etc.

Encourage people to bring in excess seasonal fruit and vegetables from their gardens.

Provide lower-fat "light blue" or "green" milk.

Install a water cooler.