Balancing snacks and overeating

The holiday season is upon us!

For many, food is directly linked to the holidays between late November and early January. Starting with treats throughout Halloween, going into the feasting of Thanksgiving, into the winter holidays of any denomination – food and eating plenty is part of people’s culture.

The overabundance of food makes us want to look at how snacks and munchies are handled in offices (and at home during Working From Home Times).

In general, snacks do have a place in our daily lives. A piece of fruit or a small handful of nuts can bridge the time between main meals and help level out the feeling of hunger. However, habitual snacking can become a problem, especially when offices make snacks very readily available and offer high caloric foods as an option. Further, everyday snack foods are designed to be highly palatable by tweaking the mouthfeel, salt, and sugar content, or additives that drive up the desirability of a food item artificially, making us eat more. Even eating a fruit yogurt is likely to have additives to enhance the fruit flavor, often to the point that eating real fruit topped with natural yogurt can feel bland.

Snacks, food, and drink are essential office staples for most modern companies. Bringing in doughnuts, having bulk candy at hand, making sure the soda fridge is stocked – all of these elements are in place to help employees feel comfortable. Sometimes too comfortable.

In the mid-2010s, Google employees struggled with the fact that since starting at the tech giant, their waistlines had increased. New employees were even warned by veterans that there’s so much good food around. Gaining ten pounds or more was common for most.

In 2016, the Google Food Team and the Yale Center for Customer Insights started to look at why this weight gain happened so consistently.

Summarized: No matter how much a company may educate on healthy options when it comes to food and snacking, if it is readily available, people will grab it. If the intention is just to grab a coffee, but there’s a tasty treat right at hand next to the machine, then chances are much higher the snack is picked up as well. Human nature will overwrite what we have learned about healthy foods. If it is easier to reach into a fridge for a sugary soft drink, the water fountain might not see much use.

As such, offices should encourage offices to offer more than just information about healthy habits – we should support team members with suitable offerings in the right places.

When working at home, the first step is similar to the action taken in the office: Don’t shop for too many junky options! If you know yourself to be a snacker, check which choices you put in your shopping cart. This does not mean you have to change your entire lifestyle, either. An excellent first step is to switch out a few items: A bag of baby carrots or bulk toasted almonds for the giant bag of chips. If it has to be chips, try picking up individual variety bags that offer smaller serving sizes pre-packaged. Check if you have a lot of sugary fruit juices or soda. Try to swap some out for a lower-calorie option.

At work, these choices are just as important. Central in the Hardsuit Labs’ refreshment area is a kitchen island that holds snacks and shared foods. It’s where team members drop off shareables like the odd doughnut box or teas, but also where we keep our fruit basket, bags of nuts, jerky sticks, and similar.

Most of our drinks consist of flavored sparkling water, with full-sugar sodas being heavily outnumbered by lower-calorie options. We have coffee, hot chocolate mixes, and a large assortment of teas – of leaf and herbal variants – to offer up a selection for those who enjoy a hot drink. And even the syrups that our team members can add to hot beverages have low-calorie options to help the team make healthier choices.

But we’re not anti-sugar! Sometimes the brain simply wants some quick energy, and we’re ready for it. The candy we do offer is in fun-size portions and not in bulk-bag free serve. This helps limit sugar consumption to the intended pick-me-up over a hefty 8oz coffee-cup-filled candy splurge.

We’re trying to make sure our team can make healthy choices easier. If your office offers snacks that are easy to overeat on, maybe give some suggestions on fixing some of the snacking options! Ask for smaller containers to self-serve from bulk bags. Suggest swapping out drinks for diet versions or different beverages. Suggest replacements or options added that help keep the caloric balance throughout the day.

If your office has made changes that helped you stay balanced, we’d also love to hear them!