Unhealthy food at work raises the risk of lifestyle diseases

According to a study, if you tend to lower your guard when it comes to unhealthy foods at work, you may be at a higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease than those who eat healthy food.

Employees who purchased the least healthy food in the cafeteria were more likely to have an unhealthy diet outside of work, to be overweight and/or obese, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The findings could help researchers better understand the relationship between eating habits at work and overall diet. Furthermore, they may be able to help shape worksite wellness programmes that improve long-term health outcomes while also lowering costs.

Workplace wellness programmes have the potential to promote lifestyle changes among a large population of employees, but developing effective programmes has been difficult. “We hope that our findings will aid in the development of accessible, scalable, and cost-effective interventions,” said Jessica L McCurley of Harvard University in the United States.

Over 600 employees of a large urban hospital in the United States who used the hospital’s cafeterias on a regular basis participated in the study. The research team created a healthy purchasing score (HPS) based on cafeteria purchasing data to rate the dietary quality of employees’ overall purchases.

The researchers compared the HPS of the participants to the quality of their overall diet as well as measures of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

According to the study, employees with the lowest HPS had the poorest overall dietary quality and the highest risk of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
According to the study, healthier purchases were associated with higher dietary quality and a lower prevalence of obesity, hypertension, and pre-diabetes/diabetes.