Healthy Eating At Work

Does the workplace influence how employees eat? You bet! If you’ve ever been too busy to leave your desk for lunch, worked overtime in the evening, or felt stressed by a looming deadline, chances are you’ve reached for a candy bar or a bag of chips to tide you over. You may be surprised to learn that the foods we eat affect us more than we might realize—and have a great impact on overall work performance.

We know that eating right is important for our bodies, but it also has an effect on our minds. According to the Mayo Clinic, healthy eating at work can improve concentration, problem-solving skills, and productivity. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) agrees that making smart food choices can be essential in achieving top performance in the workplace. Why? As it turns out, not all foods are processed the same.

High-carb foods like bread, candy and soda, “release their glucose quickly, leading to a burst of energy followed by a slump,” according to HBR, while meals high in fat “provide more sustained energy, but require our digestive system to work harder, reducing oxygen levels in the brain and making us groggy.” Neither of those situations sounds ideal, so what’s a hungry employee to do?

First and foremost, it’s important to start the day off with the right kind of fuel. That means a healthy breakfast consisting of whole grains, low-fat protein and dairy, and plenty of fruits or vegetables. Inc. Magazine’s “8 Ways to Promote Wellness in the Workplace” suggests offering employees healthy meal and snack options that help fuel their performance while also meeting their nutritional needs. On-site HealthyYOU Vending machines at work provide access to a variety of healthier snacks, drinks, entrées, soups, hot & cold cereals, fruit cups, nutrition bars, and more—making healthy eating at work more achievable goal throughout the day.

Studies indicate that healthy employees are more productive and take less time off for health-related reasons. As the nation’s leading healthy vending company, HealthyYOU Vending has been providing employers with healthy vending machine options since 2007 as part of their Healthy Vending at Work Initiative. There are more than 2,000 healthy vending products available to employers that have a HealthyYOU vending machine at their place of business, including low-calorie, vegan, gluten-free and organic options.

Best of all, there’s no cost to bring a HealthyYOU Vending machine to your location. All HealthyYOU Vending machines are are ADA-compliant, and are equipped with state-of-the-art cashless vending technology such as Google/Mobile Wallet and Apply Pay, making them even more convenient for employees.

For information about how to request a HealthyYOU Vending machine for your company at no cost, go to HealthyVendingAtWork.com.