It had been awhile since I worked in an office until I started my internship this summer. As a grad student, you spend your days in a variety of places: the classroom, the library, the lab, out in the field collecting data, and, let's be honest, at the bar (we work hard!). But rarely in an office. So my return to office life this summer, after a year of graduate nutrition courses, gave me a bit of a new perspective on one very important piece of office life: the office candy bowl.
My desk is situated so that my back is to the “water cooler” area which is home to (appropriately) the water cooler, a table where coworkers often gather for coffee talk in the morning, and... drum roll... the candy bowl.
I should preface this diatribe with the fact that one of my assignments this summer is to lead an internal healthy living challenge that asks staff members to ‘practice what they preach’ and commit to logging at least thirty minutes of physical activity each day on the President’s Challenge site. I loved this idea and jumped at the opportunity. I mean, if we can’t exercise for thirty minutes a day, why in the world are we asking other people to?
So you can imagine my surprise when I saw the office manager pouring bags of chocolate candy into a communal bowl for office staff on my first day of work. Practice what we preach, eh? I’m fairly sure that we’re not preaching handfuls of tootsie rolls and peanut butter cups as a best practice for healthy living. An occasionally treat, fine. But from my prime location, I am able to hear hands crinkling candy wrappers as staff members sneak seconds and third helpings of candy during the early afternoon hours when blood sugar levels plummet. On several other occasions, staff also brought in additional treats such as home-made mini cheesecakes (which sat unrefrigerated for the entire 8 hour day- yikes!).
The Intervention
After a few weeks on the job (while writing copy for an online resource about improving the quality of food options in parks), I felt brave enough to question this practice. One afternoon as the office manager was adding an extra large bag of Lay’s Potato Chips to the candy assortment, I mustered up my courage and said, “Sooooo what’s with all the candy?” She looked surprised that an intern was questioning what was obviously a well-established practice. After considering for a moment, she told me that candy was comforting and sometimes during a hard day, you just need some comfort. I agreed. I love comfort. I used to keep a pair of slippers under my desk at my previous office for that reason. (Note: Slippers- not Snickers.)
I mustered up my courage once again and said, “Well what about something like strawberries? They’re in season right now- are they comforting?” She shrugged and said if I wanted to add strawberries to the snack options, I was free to do so but for her money, she was sticking to candy. Fair enough. I love democracy.
On my lunch break, I ventured out to the mini market around the corner. No strawberries to be found (shocker). But I spotted a few healthy alternatives for afternoon snacks. I grabbed a bag of dried fruit (banana chips, coconut shavings, raisins, pineapple and papaya) and a can of lightly salted mixed nuts (no unsalted available at Bob’s Mini Market- for shame, Bob). When I got back to the office, I added a bowl of home-made trail mix to the table (total cost $4.81 with a $1 contribution from another intern who supported my snacking intervention).
I went back to work, keeping an ear out for crinkling candy wrappers. Sure enough, by about 4pm the entire bowl of trailmix was gone- and the candy bowl had barely been touched. And I bet no one even realized that they probably also met their daily requirement for Selenium by grabbing a few handfuls of trailmix instead of tootsie rolls! Instead of spiking blood sugar levels, nuts provide healthy fats, protein, fiber and ample amounts of micronutrients to keep energy levels steady until dinner. Dried fruit, while higher in sugar than unprocessed fruit because it’s more concentrated, still provides important nutrients like Vitamin C and Potassium.An easy way to improve your diet is just to think of everything you put in your body as fuel. (Yes, I know I’ve used this imagery before but it’s just so good!) Before you reach for a snack, ask yourself what is this going to do for my body? For my energy? For my teeth? Snacking is part of a healthy diet, no doubt, but it’s important to make your snacks count. Try to balance your snacks the same way you balance your meals- with healthy carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Examples include: apples with peanut butter, cut veggies and hummus, or a home-made smoothie with yogurt and fresh fruit.
Science Corner
The office candy bowl is not a great idea for another reason. Having a candy bowl (or a cookie jar) in a central location where it is easily visible and accessible can greatly increase consumption. Brian Wansick, a researcher at Cornell University, has done some really interesting research about consumption habits in relation to proximity, attractiveness, and availability of certain foods. (He came to speak at Tufts this year and a new professional crush was born.)
In his research, he actually found that he could increase healthy meal consumption in elementary school students just by making some simple changes to the way the food options were presented- move the salad bar to center of the cafeteria, put the low fat milk on the top row of the milk cooler, offer fruits in a well-lit area near the end of the check-out line in the cafeteria, etc. (Check out his re-designed lunchroom that ran in the NYTimes.) These no-cost changes can have significant impact on what kids decide to eat for lunch. So much of the choices we make have to do with availability and perceived attractiveness of our options.Case in point: I ate more tootsie rolls in the past three weeks than I have in the past three years. I do not crave tootsie rolls nor would I ever spend my hard-earned unpaid intern money on them. However, when I walk past a bowl of them seven times per day on the way to and from the bathroom (damn you small bladder!), I cave eventually.
So what can you do? If your office or workplace has some unhealthy habits, ask around and try to find out where these came from. If no one objects, start the ball rolling and change the availability of the snacks your office offers. A friend of mine shared that her office uses surveymonkey (a free online survey tool) to gague what snacks are most popular (thanks Big Sue!). I thought about suggesting this at my workplace, however, another friend informed me that federal appropriations do not allow for “snacks” to be purchased with federal money (good thing! I would hate to think your tax dollars are funding my co-workers’ sugar habit) so I may have to find another route. (Clearly this has been eating away at me as I've consulted multiple friends on how to address this issue. I need a hobby.)
And if nothing else, you can serve as an example. When your officemate pulls out the potato chips around 3pm, you can make a point to share why your Greek yogurt and fresh blueberries really keep you satisfied until dinner (hint: protein!). Remember, it’s often little changes that can make a big difference in your health.
