How to make your lunch break not harmful to your health?

Eating out is bad for us. The research have shown that food delivered outside the house accommodates more calories and more fat, especially saturated fat. The problem is that a lot of us eat this food every single day without realizing what’s in it.

In recent years, much effort has been made to help us understand the composition of packaged foods. The clear signage allergens, ingredient lists and “traffic light” indicators on the front of packaging show retail customers how much fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt it accommodates. However, there may be a crucial gap on this admirable trend.

For those of us who eat lunch within the workplace cafeteria, it’s rather more difficult to access information that leads to informed decisions. Canteens can play a key role in healthy eating. These are closed facilities, sometimes subsidized, often used to provide the principal meal of the day. As a result, a lot of us eat out five times every week without really realizing it.

Good to know

How a lot of us use these canteens? Well, three quarters of UK employees stay at work over lunch, from 31% food in the corporate canteen. That’s over 7 million of us. Although dietary and allergen labeling is now widespread in our supermarkets, workplace cafeterias rarely provide such information in an easily accessible format. Influencing eating behavior here can play a key role in reducing the chance of employees developing chronic diet-related diseases, resembling: type 2 diabetes or obesity. It should provide firms and organizations with healthier, happier and more productive employees.

The personal and economic advantages are obvious. Health, simply put, can contribute to value of the organization. And we’re already used to it: consumer interest in details about food eaten away from house is growing. This includes the dietary value of the food, the origin of the ingredients and the presence of possible allergens. One could easily argue that knowing what we eat is a fundamental right.

New EU regulation requires clear labeling of the presence of 14 allergens in packaged and served food. The US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 goes further by requiring dietary information on restaurants and huge fast food chains. Similar requirements apply in Ireland. However, more will be done in company canteens to ensure guests can make informed decisions. Where food information is obtainable, it is usually not presented in a consumer-friendly way. Perhaps in consequence of, amongst other things, studies found that the increased presence of knowledge does not at all times have a big impact on consumer decisions.

In menu

So how can we modify this? Currently, most details about meals offered at work is printed on a menu card or information board. If you have ever eaten in a cafeteria, you realize how cursory the busy staff’s glances at these sources. And for those who take the time to glance through, the knowledge is normally limited to food descriptions with little dietary or other enhanced information available.

This implies that every visitor has to work hard to find the knowledge that’s relevant to him. After all, the perfect intake of a blue-collar employee might be very different than that of staff who make a living simply pushing pens or hammering on keyboards. What is healthy for one guest may not be ideal for the following. The need for a personalised approach to communicating information is apparent, and the answer could also be in our pockets.

Technology, especially applications on our mobile phones, was shown have great potential to provide detailed but clear, personalized information. People might be completely satisfied to interact with well-designed software where they will not search for a printed menu.

Therefore, the project was developed as a part of a pan-European partnership between industry and academia FoodSMART project. This project is developing a smartphone app that uses detailed dish data sent by the caterer to provide personalized information. You can tailor the knowledge to your specific dietary requirements and preferences, which should allow your lunchtime audience to accurately and effectively assess their food intake. It can even make personalized recommendations to help guests improve their health and well-being. All you would like to do is scan file A QR code using your phone to access the menu and all improved dish information.

Any initiative that encourages us to eat more “mindfully” will help reduce our caloric intake. With higher information, individuals with food intolerances and special dietary needs can easily eat out. Millions of us who eat within the workplace cafeteria have been left at the hours of darkness while other initiatives help shape our lifestyle decisions. Whether you are downloading an app, on the lookout for menus, or questioning cafeteria employees, it’s probably time we did something a couple of five-day-a-week eating habit that could be harming our health.