Are you able to make time to eat at all during working hours? If yes, what food do you eat during office hours? Is it just some pastries and soft drinks? Mind you, it is not too safe to just settle for fruit juice or soft drinks and pastries as lunch. Is it some roasted plantain and roasted groundnuts? Too much of the roasted groundnut most days of the week can also be bad. Is it the food provided for you in the office? Or better still, is it food that you prepared at home and carry along to the office?
Most people eat at work or during office hours. This is so because most of the day is spent at work. It is naturally common for most people to take a break for lunch. There are a good number of people who are allowed sometime either early or late afternoon to eat. There are also those who just cannot take time off their busy schedule of work and eat in the afternoon.
Making time for lunch between the hours of 12.00 mid-day and 1.00pm is the best for health and well being. The food you choose between these golden hours should however be healthy enough. Some organizations help employees by providing them with lunch. The kind of food given to these employees however leaves much to be desired. It is just not the best, in the end, people who depend on those foods end up developing some metabolic disorders after some years. The stews are made beautiful, acceptable and appealing with loads of oil. Meat soups are made with very fatty meat. There is so much frying as well. This makes these foods highly energy dense. The unsuspecting consumer eats and goes back to sit behind his desk, in a very sedentary occupation. This way you eat only to keep the food and not to use it.
It is not just enough to provide meals for your employees during office hours. Employers must begin to take the further step to ensure that people working for them are given foods that support good health and well being. It is a good idea to offer the caterers some training on healthy food preparations. Some control measures need to be put in place as well to ensure that they bring the right kind of food to the office. The consumers of these foods also have to choose right for health. There are some people who just love bad food. After some years they either have blood sugar levels going up or blood cholesterol levels going up. Their weight also goes up. Those who choose right are often free from these problems.
If you feed your employees well on healthy foods at lunch, you will surely save money in the medium term. These employees may not develop chronic non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood cholesterol, hypertension, stroke, among others. You will agree with me that you are currently paying huge medical bills as an employer for your employees who are suffering from these diseases. Why not invest a little in preventing them from developing these diseases in the first place?
It is even better nowadays to prepare and carry your own food along to the office. Lunch boxes are not only meant for preschoolers or children. Adults can also carry theirs along to the workplace.
Of course, whatever food you prepare for the office should be very healthy: a healthy meal is one made with very little oil, very little sugar, very little salt, devoid of frying, contains good amounts of vegetables for fibre, is one that is very balanced. You can ask your dietician for more information on how to make healthy meals.
Hope you will take good care of yourself even if your employers do not show interest in your health. It is time to act; dare to be different; carry your own food to the office. Enjoy your home-made lunch.
By Wise Chukwudi Letsa
The issue with carrying lunch to work is having to deal with it getting cold. One will just result to using the microwave which is presumed to be quite dangerous to the our health
Mild heating with microwave is safe any day
Thank you.
Welcome