Make your workplace a safe-food zone

Your office may be a tobacco-free zone. Is it time to go donut-free, too?

Like North Carolina, many states have passed laws banning smoking in certain public places. It’s the right thing to do.

Not only does tobacco kill, but second-hand smoke harms the health of nonsmokers, too. Similar considerations should be given to food.
Poor diets are linked with obesity as well as higher rates of coronary artery disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and some forms of cancer. Like tobacco, a steady diet of fried chicken, sausage biscuits and french fries is a killer, too.

And a toxic food environment – where junky foods surround us all and healthier alternatives are scarce – contributes to poorer health outcomes for everybody.

To what extent, then, should we try to make workplaces healthier places to be?

Think about coworkers who are trying to lose weight or get a handle on a health problem. Think about your own efforts to eat well.

Sitting in a meeting staring down a box of Krispy Kremes undermines your best efforts to stay well. None of us are immune.

Among the challenges:

* Breakfast busters. Donuts, pastries, big, greasy muffins and white-flour bagels gobbed with cream cheese hurt health because they’re so high in calories, saturated fat or trans fat and provide little of what you need.

* Lunch losers. Here we’re talking about the meat- and cheese-laden pizzas, fast food, barbecue, hamburgers and hotdogs, cakes, and anything covered with cheese, infused with red or processed meats, or made from a box dessert mix.

* Party foods and snacks. Soft drinks, sweet tea, snack chips, meats and cheeses, and desserts can be a setback for you or colleagues who may be trying to control their blood sugar, cholesterol levels, weight or blood pressure.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s not difficult to create an environment where you can enjoy good food that’s good for you, too. Doing that, though, requires careful thought and leadership to set the stage.

One step may be advocating for a set of guidelines – formal or informal – to help create a framework for healthier food where you work. Good places to start:

* Calorie-free drinks. Banish regular soft drinks and sweet tea and instead serve diet drinks, unsweetened tea and water. Serve only a limited number of caloric beverages, such as 100 percent fruit juice in small containers.

* No red meats or processed meats. At the very least, remove these from the menu. Beef, lamb, pork, sausage, bacon and other cured meats have no place in a health-supporting diet.

* Shrink the sweets and salty snacks. Nobody’s saying no birthday cake. Instead, hold them to a minimum and surround them with healthier options such as fruit salad, fresh veggies, and bean dip.

Think advocating for a workplace food policy is a killjoy? From my experience, it can have the opposite effect.

When Chapel Hill’s Mediterranean Deli catered a meal at my home for a school event, the result was a riot of color and flavor: Curried couscous salad, a chopped green salad, grape leaves stuffed with rice, hummus with pita bread, and fruit salad with sliced mango were hits.

One small platter of dessert pastries served with dates and candied almonds were enough to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Start talking at your workplace about making it a dietary safe zone.

Read more:http://onthetable.typepad.com/