Corporate Wellness = Employee Wellness
2018
What does nutrition have to do with the workplace? Plenty. The fact is that people who don't feel very well because they are overweight, have diabetes, have heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, degenerative joint disease, etc....well, these people are not very happy and productive. Their quality of life is much poorer than healthy people. From a business perspective, workers with chronic diseases resulting from poor nutrition, miss more work, have more on-the-job health issues, and cost the company lots of money including higher insurance premiums. Oftentimes, health insurance companies reduce the premiums if the workers receive some wellness education. It is estimated, for example, that overweight and obese people in the United States cost our healthcare system more than 300 billion dollars, annually. More importantly, doesn't everyone want to wake up every morning feeling healthy? I do.
What should a nutrition wellness program contain? First of all, it should NOT push a product or service. If your company is sponsoring wellness programs on nutrition and diet and the presentors or companies have a product, book or diet they are pushing, then...beware. They are, most likely, not going to be objective, scientific sources of high-quality evidenced-based information for your employees.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A WORKPLACE WELLNESS PROGRAM:
The learning points for a workplace wellness program on nutrition and diet should include these points:
1) The program should help your employees understand the current dietary and nutritional recommendations from evidenced-based organizations like the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, The American Heart Association, The National Institutes of Health, the USDA Dietary Guidelines, and The Surgeon General, as a few examples.
2) The program should not focus on individual foods, but rather on overall eating patterns and lifestyle behaviors. The program should not demonize certain foods and glorify others...i.e., "superfoods"...
3) The program should help your employees and coworkers learn how to translate dietary and nutrition guidelines into practical information that can be integrated, in a very personal way, into their own lifestyles, their workplace and their families.
4) The program should give your employees and coworkers the tools to distinguish between fad diets/nutrition quackery and evidenced-based nutrition and help your employees self-evaluate if they are actually following current scientific nutrition and diet thinking and understanding.
Today, people receive different, many times, conflicting, nutritional and dietary advice from health professionals, the media, and advertising. All Americans need to receive accurate nutrition and diet advice based on science, not internet rumors or advertisements. A number of significant advances have been made in the understanding of how diet and nutrition relate to both a person’s wellness as well as to chronic diseases, such as dental disease, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and cancer. People are often uninformed about effective diet and nutritional approaches to these diseases.
Warren B. Karp, Ph.D., D.M.D., Professor Emeritus
Interested in bringing wellness information to your business or corporation? Click here...
Public Domain eBook "Nutrition for Smarties" May be freely copied and shared.
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Warren B. Karp, Ph.D., D.M.D. is Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pediatrics, Oral Biology and Oral Diagnosis at Augusta University in Augusta, GA. He has a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry from The Ohio State University and a D.M.D. from Augusta University. He is an elected member of The American Institute of Nutrition, The American Society of Clinical Nutrition, and is Past President of The Georgia Nutrition Council. He has served as the Director of the Nutrition Consult Service at the Dental College of Georgia for over 20 years, appointed to the Governor's Obesity Taskforce, he is an American Heart Association lecturer, and has served as the Vice Chair of the Augusta (Columbia County) Board of Health. He is married to Dr. Nancy Karp, a physical therapist and they have two (grown) children. A more complete biographical sketch can be found at: www.wbkarp.com
Even though Dr. Karp is a Professor Emeritus at Augusta University, his statements, views, and opinions are his and his, alone, and do not reflect the statements, views and opinions of Augusta University. Dr. Karp has no financial or other interests in any food, book, nutrition product or company. His interest is only in providing evidenced-based, scientific nutrition knowledge and education.
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