How can more nutritious food make us happier?

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    Woman happy healthy snacking

     

    You can't buy happiness, but you can eat a little bit of it. Employees who eat nutritious food at work and enjoy nutritious snacks are more productive and energetic — in short, happier. But what's the connection between workplace happiness and nutritious food at work?

    Happy hormones

    Let's start at the beginning. Our brains are constantly communicating with all our cells through neurotransmitters. Every time we eat something, these neurotransmitters create a lovely, blissful feeling in our brains. When we eat fast sugars and carbs, we get that blissful feeling briefly, but it fades away quickly, making way for a dip and sometimes even a low mood. 

    When we instead eat wholesome, nutritious food with useful nutrients that leave us feeling satisfied, it triggers that blissful feeling for a longer time.

    That's why it's important to choose the right nutrients that stimulate the production of these neurotransmitters, or happy hormones, for a longer period. Some good examples are chickpeas, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, bananas and also wholegrain rice.

    It's not just our brains that play a big role in the link between nutritious food and (workplace) happiness. Our gut flora is undeniably important too. A happy gut means a happier you, so what we put in our mouths each day largely determines how happy and well we feel.

    In our podcast with Rudy Proesmans we already discussed the effect of fast sugars, the importance of a healthier gut flora and the impact on our health in detail.

    What can you do as an employer to boost workplace happiness?

    Workplace happiness is closely linked to workplace health. That's why it's important to create a positive upward spiral by focusing on workplace happiness, nutritious snacks and lunches, regular movement and stress management.

    Employers therefore have a golden opportunity to help their employees reach optimal workplace happiness and give their vitality a serious boost.

    If the only snacks on offer at work are fatty, carb-heavy ones full of refined sugars, you'll find unhappy, irritable, burnt-out and tired employees who struggle to concentrate.

    But when employees are encouraged and given the chance to make mindful, nutritious choices, workplace happiness is guaranteed to rise, resulting in higher productivity and less sick leave.


    4 tips to encourage employees to choose nutritious food

    1. Make nutritious food and nutritious snacks easily available at work
    Go beyond simply putting out a fruit bowl — give the vending machine a proper makeover and stock it with more nutritious snacks. At JustBite, you can choose from various snack boxes so that healthier snacking becomes as easy as a walk in the park.

    Take a closer look at the lunch options too, and where possible, update the company canteen's menu or team up with local suppliers offering more nutritious lunch choices instead of yet another unhealthy sandwich.

    2. Make nutritious eating and snacking easy
    Create a pleasant space where employees can enjoy nutritious food and take a mindful, relaxed lunch or break. People are social creatures, and eating is a social activity. When employees eat together, they tend to eat more slowly, more mindfully and more nutritiously, feel satisfied sooner, and genuinely connect with one another. A mindful lunch break like this also helps them switch off from work for a bit, and walking to the lunch room already gets them moving a little.

    Setting up this space doesn't have to take a big bite out of your budget — small changes often go a long way. Involve your employees in the setup, so they feel they're taking their own wellbeing into their hands.

      

    A nutritious snack box at work

     

    3. Build awareness
    Employees often eat less nutritiously out of habit, or simply because they don't know what's better for them and what isn't. Help your team move towards better choices in a positive way. You can't force employees to pick more nutritious options, but you can nudge them in the right direction with brochures, posters, workshops... JustBite helps boost this awareness with useful brochures, info sheets, Lunch & Learn workshops... so that eating well can become second nature.


    4. Create a sense of togetherness
    Ask your colleagues to share their favourite nutritious recipes and put together a company cookbook with the best-loved dishes. Organise a team-building activity where everyone cooks something wholesome together. Put nutritious cookbooks in the lunch room so employees can experiment together and swap ideas. This way, nutritious eating becomes a fun group activity, and colleagues can motivate each other along the way.

     

    Nutritious food can therefore play a hugely important role in employees' long-term happiness at work. By investing in awareness around healthier snacking and making nutritious food available to employees, you as an employer give your team the chance to become and stay healthier, happier, more productive people. And happy employees make for happy employers.

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