HealthBeat: Occupational Health & Wellness News from MWorks & MFit

Wellness News

Do You Have a Toxic Food Environment at Work?

Holly Scherer, R.D., MFit Health Promotion Division

Many employees spend over half of their waking hours at work and are highly influenced by the food choices available there. Is your food environment helping or hurting the health of your employees? You may have a toxic food environment if:

There is a birthday or holiday celebration every week.
Donuts and cookies attend every meeting.
Fundraising foods raise weight as well as money.
Lunch means picking a restaurant.
Every desk has an out-box for candy.

The good news is there are many things you can do to improve your work food environment. Try some of the following steps:

Serve fresh fruit or veggie trays at meetings.
Celebrate birthdays and holidays once per quarter.
Start a weekly healthy lunch club.
Place fresh fruit bowls in view.
Include some healthier options in the vending machines such as baked chips, high fiber granola bars, nuts, trail mix, animal crackers, whole grain crackers, and 100 calorie packs.
If you have a cafeteria, offer healthier options such as veggie burgers, a salad bar with plenty of vegetable choices and low fat dressings, grilled chicken breast, lean deli meats with whole grain breads, fresh fruit, veggies and low fat dressing dip and lower sodium/lower fat soups.

For more information about creating a healthy work environment as part of an ongoing wellness program, contact MFit Corporate Wellness at 734-975-3049 or visit www.med.umich.edu/mfit/corporate.

Being Grateful is Good for Your Health and Your Relationships

Donna Dotson, Employee Assistance Counselor, UMHS

“Gratitude is not only one of the greatest virtues, but the parent of all others.” Cicero

According to University of California psychology professor Robert Emmons, the great religions and philosophies of the world have long embraced gratitude as an indispensable embodiment of virtue, and an integral component of health, wholeness and well-being. Emmons’ research findings indicate that cultivating gratitude has many rewards:

Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality and lower levels of depression and stress.
People with a strong inclination toward gratitude have the capacity to be more empathic and to take in the perspectives of others. They are rated as more helpful by people in their social networks.
Among people with a neuromuscular disease, Emmons found that a “21 day gratitude intervention” produced more high energy moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and quality, compared to a control group.”

If you would like to enhance your gratitude expression consider using the tips listed below:

Keep a gratitude journal that lists everything you are grateful for.
Write a thank you note to a parent, a teacher, a mentor or anyone else in your life that deserves a pat on the back from you.
Begin and end each day by thinking of five things you are grateful for.
Tell your significant other and friends how much you appreciate them on a regular basis.
When things go your way, pause, smile, savor and be thankful for them.