Healthy eating to promote well-being at work
Virginie Auffret, dietitian and Director of Development at Impulsions Nutrition, answers our questions about the benefits of healthy eating for performance and well-being at work.
A healthy and balanced diet promotes a healthy work environment. Conversely, poor nutrition can have a negative impact on productivity and state of mind.
What is the link between healthy eating and well-being at work?
Hippocrates said that your diet should be your medicine! What we eat inevitably has an impact on our bodies. Our diet is our daily fuel, which means we need to eat enough in terms of both quantity and quality! It is important to distinguish between empty calories and calories that nourish the body and mind!
When we think about our diet, we realize that the energy we consume can nourish our muscles and brain, but it also helps to renew our cells, which are attacked daily by factors such as stress, pollution, and our lifestyles (sedentary habits, smoking, etc.).
If you are undernourished or have an unbalanced diet, you limit this cellular recovery and prevent your muscles, brain, and organs from functioning properly. You therefore disrupt all the body's renewal cycles, which will affect your hormones and moods and potentially put you in a state of stress.
Are there foods that help combat stress or boost energy?
From a micronutrient perspective, we tend to favor foods rich in magnesium, which have powerful relaxing properties. This means foods such as nuts, chocolate, fruits, and vegetables, for example. While these foods certainly have beneficial effects, they alone cannot de-stress or boost your energy if you are not also providing your body with all the nutrients it needs! Nourishing the body means providing a variety of nutrients (proteins, fats, sugars, vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants) and a variety of colors and flavors on your plate to keep eating enjoyable. Eating should remain a pleasure and not become a headache.
It is important to note that there is no such thing as a "miracle" food, that there is a great deal of synergy within a food and between foods, and that we cannot reduce a food's benefits to a single nutrient it contains.
And the challenge today is to return to a less processed, more raw, natural diet. Purchases should focus more on simple foods that are as unprocessed as possible, limiting ultra-processed products to occasional use. But today, the opposite is true. So there is still work to be done on everyday consumption!
How can we promote healthy eating at work?
Before banning anything, it is essential to inform consumers and turn them into active participants. Group workshops (limited to 10 people to encourage discussion) enable participants to discover what nutrition means today, learn more about food, and consume it consciously to nourish their bodies and minds without feeling guilty! Nothing is forbidden; it's all about frequency, quantity, and food combinations! What matters is having a daily foundation that is adapted to your lifestyle (work, family, activities, etc.), and then excesses will be better tolerated!
I regularly work with companies to show employees, in a friendly setting, that nutrition is a game with tests and that you just need to break out of your routine! Some companies even offer cooking workshops (in person or via video) to give ideas for balanced and varied meals.
There are still too many misconceptions in our society, and my role is to provide everyday dietary guidelines for nourishing the body and mind wisely!
