We spend as much time at work as we do at home. In fact, if you stop to think about it for a minute, most of our waking hours are spent at work. Needless to say, how you feel at work will make a huge difference in how you feel overall. This article isn’t about happiness at work though, it’s about how food at work affects happiness and productivity.
In my work, I get to ask a lot of people what they eat on a daily basis. Adding up the several thousand times I’ve asked that question, it has often come up that food at work is a HUGE obstacle to eating well and staying healthy, and by food at work, I mean ‘treats’ in the staff room - donuts, cakes, cookies, candy, etc.
It’s great to know that someone wants other employees to have some treats and feel good, but the outcome of eating these sugary food is actually the opposite - decreased happiness and decreased productivity.
The high sugar treats are hard to resist, especially if you’re walking by them and see other people eating them every day. Once you have one, it’s hard to stop. Even if it’s just one per day, it’s still too much, and here’s why.
When you have a donut, a muffin, or anything high in sugar, it will cause your blood sugar to sky rocket. You will feel good, you will be producing feel-good endorphins and serotonin, and your motivation and energy will temporarily increase. However, after about an hour, your blood sugar will begin to go down quickly. After about an hour and a half, it will crash and your body will sound off an alarm, resulting in the release of adrenaline. This will leave you feeling either anxious or lethargic, not able to focus and needing another pick me up, so the cycle continues, leading to lack of motivation, decreased happiness and decreased productivity.
This blood sugar roller coaster is a trigger for anxiety, depression, lethargy, brain fog, fatigue, and will aggravate any hormone imbalance and already existing fatigue, not to mention that it increases risk for cardiovascular disease, Alzheimers and dementia, diabetes, etc. And this doesn’t even include weight and metabolism. So, these treats bring temporary happiness, but the actual result is actually quite devastating.
So, can we please take sugar out of offices, and schools too while we’re at i? The impact is the same on kids. Can you be the person who brings the healthy snacks to work, or mention this information to the person who brings the snacks? Maybe some veggies with hummus or crackers with guacamole, some nuts and fruit… these could be good alternatives! Make sure there’s some protein in there! And water, always have water available, preferably not bottled water to avoid the excessive use of plastic.
In my mind, this would be a game changer.