Healthy Eating
Eating and drinking the right things is important for energy, maintaining a healthy weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and preventing Type 2 diabetes. We need regular well-balanced meals, and enough water, otherwise we suffer headaches, become lethargic, and struggle to concentrate. Sometimes even the most well-intentioned and resourced employees can struggle to manage this at work.
Why is it so hard to change our eating and drinking habits?
Changing any behaviour is tricky, especially when food is a life essential and a complex social habit: from the comfort of routine to the buzz of celebration. We might feel that tobacco or alcohol is essential but we know they’re not! The same is not true for food and drink. But just like tobacco and alcohol, they’ve moved beyond family and culture to the biggest corporate giants on the planet: too much salt and sugar and energy-dense foods saturated in the wrong kind of fat.
57.4% of Suffolk adults do manage their Five a Day. But 24.4% of over-16s are obese.
Employers have an important part to play, whether they provide catering or share messages about the impact of healthy eating. Even if you don’t work shifts or have to provide your own food, it is still easy to miss meals or eat irregularly, consume something inadequate or unsuitable, and have a bad follow-on effect on your sleep, exercise, work or home life.
Healthy eating can take us back to Five Ways to Wellbeing. We connect with colleagues during meal breaks, we can incorporate and allow for exercise, visit a new place or learn a new recipe (or superfood), and give time and skills and resources to others.
National resources for individuals
Better for Health
The Eatwell Guide
Government recommendations on eating healthily and achieving a balanced diet.
NHS Choices
Tips and facts about eating a healthy diet and weight management