Help employees improve mental and physical wellbeing, one bite at a time

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that employees today are stressed out. The past few years have been physically and emotionally draining for nearly everyone. But what many business leaders and HR teams often don’t realize is that what and how employees eat plays a significant role in how detrimental that stress is to their wellbeing and work performance. In fact, food habits influence much more than how we manage stress. Food has the ability to power — or hinder — our performance in all aspects of life.

Why should employers and HR teams care about the nutritional habits of employees? For starters, what employees eat directly affects physical and mental health, energy levels, and the ability to handle job pressures, all of which influences work productivity, health care costs, and retention. All told, job stress is estimated to cost American companies more than $300 billion each year in health costs, absenteeism, and poor performance while also contributing to increased turnover.

It’s also clear that employees are thinking about nutrition. For example, #WhatIEatInADay has more than 14 billion videos on TikTok and more than 850,000 posts on Instagram, and while such content can potentially do more harm than good, that popularity clearly indicates an interest in eating better. It’s also clear employees are hungry to eat better according to data from LifeSpeak Inc. In the LifeSpeak Mental Health and Resilience product, three of the top six most popular videos this year have focused on easy ways to improve nutrition, and the most viewed video of 2023 from LifeSpeak Inc.’s Wellbeats Wellness product highlights the connection between mood and food.

The food-brain connection

You may have heard the stomach referred to as a “second brain” in recent years. There is increasing evidence that our gut and how we fuel it affects mental health. One recent study found that the level of certain bacteria in an individual’s microbiome correlated with symptoms of depression, and 95% of serotonin, which helps regulate sleep and appetite, minimize mood swings, and inhibit pain, is produced in the gastrointestinal tract. But the relationship between wellness and nutrition is complex. While there is truth to the idea that you are what you eat, your physiology also plays a role in what you choose to eat. Fortunately, understanding how to personalize food intake to fuel performance can help employees – and your organization – on many levels.

Some of these connections are obvious. For example, its common knowledge that eating a diet high in heavily processed foods will contribute to weight gain and health risks including type 2 diabetes. Less obviously, those processed foods also increase feelings of depression and anxiety and contribute to an increased risk of cognitive decline. Conversely, studies have shown that the risk of depression is 25% to 35% lower in people who follow a Mediterranean diet or a traditional Japanese diet, as compared to a typical Western diet.

With these connections gaining attention in mainstream media and social media, many of your employees may already be informed about the impact of nutrition on mental health. Consider that 74% of people believe the food and beverages they consume have a significant or moderate impact on their overall mental and emotional wellbeing, or that a growing number of people are turning to alternative diets as they try to be more mindful about the connection between their diet and wellbeing. Employers can capitalize on this growing awareness by providing resources that help employees make informed decisions about what they eat, and to influence the food choices they provide in the workplace.

Food as medicine

Food can be more than just a source of nourishment — it can be medicine. In fact, there is abundant evidence that the way we eat can help mitigate symptoms of chronic conditions, balance hormonal changes, manage gut health disorders, and even reduce the risk of dementia. Reducing these health burdens improves overall wellbeing and enhances mental health, which can improve employee satisfaction and productivity. By offering resources that help employees view food as medicine, employers can help improve a number of conditions. To better understand this link, consider the following facts:

• The immune system reacts to an unhealthy diet the same way it reacts to a bacterial infection, so reducing intake of pro-inflammatory foods such as red meat, white bread, and sweetened beverages and increasing intake of whole grains, fish, fruit, green vegetables, and olive oil may reduce inflammation, ease pain, and otherwise reduce discomfort related to chronic conditions.
• Certain nutrition strategies can help women manage the changes that occur naturally during the menopause transition.
• Research has found that a diet high in sugar can impair brain function and contribute to mood disorders including depression.
• A diet that includes fermented foods can strengthen an individual’s microbiome and ease conditions including insomnia, unintentional weight change, headaches, and more for the 70 million Americans who live with a functional gut disorder such as irritable bowel disease.
• Consumption of processed meat has been found to increase the relative risk of all dementias by 44% and Alzheimer’s specifically by 52%.

Promote the connection to better mental health

Employers who want to support mental health can help employees understand the connections between what they eat and how they feel. Use internal communications like newsletters, emails, and office signage to provide resources that highlight the interdependence between food and health, and that help employees establish and maintain healthier eating habits. In addition, you may consider using an educational campaign within your wellbeing initiative to highlight the value of improved nutrition.

Employers can also encourage better nutrition by introducing — or encouraging — mindful eating, which helps employees be more aware of the choices they make about food. Educate employees on the benefits of expressing gratitude during their meals or suggest questions to consider while they eat, such as where their food came from; how it looks, tastes, and smells; and how external cues affect how much they eat. This mindful approach helps reduce emotional and binge eating that can lead to weight gain and can increase the intrinsic desire to make more healthful food choices. Employees who are thoughtful about what they eat are more likely to choose fruit instead of a sweet snack or to take smaller portions of calorie-dense foods. Support these habits with mindfulness exercises that help employees understand why they make the choices they do, and help them avoid using food as a way to deal with emotions like stress or anxiety.

Along the same lines, employers can support better nutrition by encouraging employees to take a real break for lunch. If employees are trying to squeeze bites of food between email replies, they will naturally be less mindful of what they are eating. Employees who eat at their desk are also more likely to overeat, and they miss an opportunity to get up and move around during their workday. Movement is particularly important given the link between long periods of sitting and conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol. Prolonged sitting has also been associated with back and neck pain, anxiety, and depression.

Organizations that have a large in-person workforce can support healthy eating by rethinking workplace snacks and cafeteria options. Many workplace cafeterias also have outdated nutrition guidelines or that can seem punitive or judgmental. Updating those with materials that are more inclusive of a variety of eating styles while still foundationally promoting whole, fresh food can encourage better eating. Similarly, replacing donuts and cookies with fruits and vegetables in staff meetings, while offering more fresh foods at an affordable price in the cafeteria can help employees make wise choices and demonstrate that employee health is a priority.

Read more: The mental health of U.S. employees is on the rise – but will it stay that way?

For hybrid or remote organizations, consider offering healthy recipes and ideas for snacks that promote physical and mental health. It’s also helpful to avoid scheduling back-to-back Zoom meetings, so employees have the opportunity to get up, walk around their homes, rehydrate, and prepare healthy snacks.

Because of the interconnected nature of whole-person wellbeing, making changes can feel complex. Fortunately, improving nutrition and eating habits is one change that can have far-reaching benefits on individual and workplace wellbeing. Employers who successfully help employees navigate those connections can see rewards in the form of a workforce that is healthier, happier, more relaxed, and more productive.

Brenda Navin is the founder and CEO of Launch My Health.