Stephen Onufrak, the lead author, said obesity is a problem and he thinks the approach to prevention should be comprehensive. The workplace, he said, is a place to start.
"With the current obesity epidemic, I think we really need to address the problem through multiple approaches," Onufrak, an epidemiologist in the CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, told The Washington Post in a phone interview Tuesday. "I don't think there's any specific solution; I think improving the foods that people get from a variety of different settings is important."
Onufrak presented the research earlier this week at the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting in Boston. It has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The researchers examined data from the US Department of Agriculture's Food Acquisition and Purchasing Survey and found that among 5222 working adults surveyed in the United States, 22 per cent of them obtained food and beverages from work at least once during a seven-day period. The researchers then studied the concessions - some of which were purchased from workplace cafeterias or vending machines, others which were obtained from common areas.
That translated into an average 1277 additional calories, according to the study.
The CDC researchers also found that it was more common for people to get the food for free than to buy it.
(A fun fact: This reporter was drinking her second cup of free coffee while writing this story - then one of her editors offered her a chocolate doughnut with sprinkles.)
The researchers compared foods and beverages obtained in the workplace to the USDA's Healthy Eating Index, which measures diet quality, and found that "work foods are high in empty calories, sodium, and refined grains and low in whole grains and fruit." That would be sodas, brownies and cookies, cakes and pies, and pizza - the leading source of calories among work foods, Onufrak, the study's lead author, said.
Rachel Lustgarten, a registered dietitian with Weill Cornell Medicine, said with people spending more and more time at work, they tend to reach for the foods that are the most accessible to them. But, in general, the snacks stocked in communal refrigerators, pantries or vending machines have little nutritional value. In fact, Lustgarten said, they are highly processed foods that are high in fat, sugar and sodium.
Though these foods and drinks may seem to be a quick fix for a 3pm slump, Lustgarten said the less-than-healthy options mixed with sedentary desk jobs can lead to adverse health conditions, such as unwanted weight gain.
"Offices in general have an opportunity to influence health," Lustgarten said. She added that employers who offer snacks can make simple substitutions - fresh fruits, nuts and whole grain crackers, and access to a water fountain that provides both hot and cold H20.
The study's authors said that employers could also use work-site wellness programmes to encourage employees to eat healthier, especially at work.
"Since we found that a lot of the foods obtained by employees were free, employers may also want to consider healthy meeting policies to encourage healthy food options at meetings and social events," Onufrak said in a news release. He added that such wellness programmes "have the potential to reach millions of working Americans and have been shown to be effective at changing health behaviours among employees, reducing employee absenteeism and reducing health care costs."
Yes, certainly, give us healthier options - just don't do away with our freebies.
