“Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” – Enki
Healthy eating plays an important role in our everyday life. World Health Organisation underlined that a healthy diet helps protect the body from various chronic non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Besides, what we eat shapes our daily concentration and productivity.
Ron Friedman, an award-winning psychologist and founder of ignite80, found that what you eat affects your productivity and overall well-being. Food is fuel. Yet, choosing the wrong diet or consuming ready-to-eat meals such as pasta, bread, or cereal during the day will not retain longer in our body, leading to a burst of energy followed by a slump. Our diet has a direct impact on our cognitive performance, added Friedman, which is why a poor decision at lunch can derail our entire afternoon – or worse our entire workday.
See also: Unique Perks a Company Can Offer to Boost Productivity
Moreover, according to Medical News Today, focusing on employee well-being through healthy eating leads to many positive outcomes for both companies and employees in terms of creativity, productivity, less sick days, increased morale, and engagement in the workplace. Hence, there is no reason for employers to not provide healthy lunch diet during the day – or at least spread the awareness among the employees.
So, to help you initiate the act of healthy eating, here are the five best diet based on the U.S. News and world rankings.
Mediterranean diet is an easy-to-follow diet program. The food pyramid emphasises eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oil, and flavorful herbs and spices. Fish and seafood are consumed for at least a couple of times. Meanwhile, poultry, eggs, cheese, and yoghurt are consumed in moderation. And only eat sweets and red meat for special occasions.
DASH diet stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension. It is a balanced diet and can be followed long term. The examples of the DASH diet include: add one vegetable or fruit serving to every meal, introduce two or more meat-free meals each week, use herbs and spices to make food tastier without salt, have a snack of almonds or pecans instead of a bag of chips, and more.
Flexitarian is derived from two words, flexible and vegetarian. In other words, it could be a tough diet for you who are meat lovers. Becoming a flexitarian is about adding five food groups to your diet. The foods include the new meat (non-meat proteins like beans, peas, or eggs), fruits and veggies, whole grains, dairy, as well as sugar and spice.
The MIND diet is a combination of two proven diets, DASH and Mediterranean. This diet is the best way to lower the risk of mental decline, according to research. The rule is, you should eat at least three servings of whole grains, salad, and another vegetable every day. It can be companies with a glass of wine. Then, on most days, you snack on nuts, and every other day you should eat half a cup of beans. At least twice a week you have poultry and a half-cup of a barrier. In dining, you can eat fish at least weekly.
Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet is aimed to cut cholesterol as part of heart-healthy eating. Thus, it will need plenty of veggies, fruits, bread, cereals, pasta, and lean meats. To follow the diet, encourage employees to keep meat consumption to a minimum – no more than 5 ounces a day and stick to skinless chicken or turkey and fish. Eat two or three servings a day of low-fat or non-fat dairy. Load up on fruits and vegetables. Eat 11 servings a day of bread, cereal, rice, pasta, or other grains.
“If health is the essence of your brand, it all starts with taking the health of your workforce very seriously.” – Marnix Eikenboom, managing director of Danone
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