How to make the healthiest choice from a vending machine VIDEO
An interesting new study being published in the journal Population Health Management shows that eating unhealthily is linked with a 66% increased risk of loss of productivity. As a comparison, physical inactivity is linked with a 50% increased risk of low productivity, and smoking is linked with a 28% increased risk of loss of productivity.
Your employees spend most of their waking hours at the workplace. Add in the time that they spend doing extracurricular activities, running errands and spending time with family. That leaves them with very little time to focus on nutrition, let alone plan nutritious lunches or snacks to bring to work. This causes many employees to surrender to the workplace vending machine when hunger hits. Because most vending machines offer primarily unhealthy options to eat, employees everywhere are putting their health at risk overtime. There is one way that employers can help: remove the vending machine!
However, you will want to think of an alternative to the vending machine for when employees become hungry during work hours. When hungry, employees start to lose focus and motivation. Instead of relying on unhealthy vending machine foods, you could designate a group of employees to create a healthy snack area in the break room.
Even with a minimal budget, here’s an example of what a corporate wellness option could look like:
- Fresh fruit such as bananas and apples
- Individual bags of pre-portioned raw nuts, such as almonds or walnuts
- Popcorn
- Individual snack bags of healthy trail mix
- Healthy granola/energy bars
- Fresh veggies and low-fat dip
There are also a host of healthy vending machine companies popping up all over the place - below are a few links to companies I found online.
http://www.healthyvending.com/aboutus/
Sarah Szul|wellness client manager
Kapnick Insurance Group|Strength. Knowledge. Direction.
333 Industrial Dr. | Adrian, MI 49221 |www.kapnick.com
D 517.266.6453 | F 517.263.6658 | P 888.263.4656 x1196
