Hold the cakes and disconnect the fizzy drinks machine. Replace the meeting biscuits with fruit, nuts and smoothies. What we eat has a big impact on our performance at work – from mental clarity, to energy, stamina and productivity, food governs how well our bodies and brains function.
Sportsman and broadcaster Matt Dawson, best known for his role in the winning England 2003 rugby squad, argued that a 2% reduction in hydration reduces concentration levels by between 10–25%.
“That’s why so many sports matches are lost in the last few minutes – and why we won the 2003 Rugby World Cup in the closing moments – because we were the fittest and most hydrated team.
“A lot of people forget how vital hydration is. If you put yourself in a high-performance environment, whether it be a sports field or a boardroom, if you’re not hydrated, you’re going to lose the ability to make those key decisions under pressure,” added Dawson, who is an ambassador for Sodexo and was the winner of Celebrity Masterchef 2006.
While water keeps concentration high, a diet high in fish (and Omega 3) is crucial to the brain’s initial development. That is the view of Professor John Stein, emeritus professor of neuroscience and fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, who explained the link between Omega 3, and other vitamins and minerals, and the development of the social brain, which can respond to social cues such as tone of voice, speech sounds and fleeting facial expressions.
“Impaired development of the brain’s magnocellular cells, which Omega 3 supports, can cause dyslexia, Asperger’s syndrome and antisocial behaviours.”
He made a direct link between the amount of fish people eat and their IQ, motor and social skills and ability to counteract depression. A diet rich in Omega 3 had been proved to reduce violence in young offenders, he said.
Stein, who is the older brother of TV chef and fish fanatic Rick Stein, argued that today’s diet was “appalling”, with too much saturated fat and sugar which encourages obesity and heart disease. He called on the foodservice industry and facilities managers to provide more fish in the workplace or to encourage the taking of Omega 3 supplements to make up for the fish that we don’t eat.
Amanda Ursell, a nutritionist, Times journalist and regular contributor to the BBC, then took the debate directly into the workplace arguing that “just as Napoleon believed an army marches on its stomach, the performance of a workforce depends on what they put into theirs”.
Pre-empting the research from Vielife, she argued that a good diet reduces absenteeism; ensures that people are not only in the office but engaged with what they’re doing thereby increasing productivity; improves morale, motivation and company loyalty; and decreases company health insurance costs.
More organisations were taking the issue seriously, she said, often when the chief executive personally saw the benefits of a good diet and exercise to his performance and ability to handle stress, and wanted his staff to recognise the benefits, too.
But she argued that, too often, nutrition programmes were a turn-off.
“It shouldn’t be about wholemeal carrots, stone-ground eggs and free-range bread. You don’t have to go overboard with nutrition, naughty is OK sometimes. Used judiciously, caffeine can be good and help us to concentrate, for example.”
This was a topic echoed later in the panel debate by Dr Sue Gatenby, nutrition director Europe at PepsiCo International, which produces Walkers crisps and Pepsi.
“There’s nothing wrong with a fizzy drink or a savoury snack – they are part of a healthy balanced diet,” she said.
The company has invested heavily in making products such as Walkers healthier by reducing saturated fat content by 80% through using different oil.
Reporting on the results of some extensive Vielife research, Jessica Colling, product director at the firm, said that employees with poor nutritional balance reported 21% more sickness-related absence and 11% lower productivity than healthier colleagues.
People with good nutrition reported a 15% higher mood score, 6% higher job satisfaction and 28% better stress management score.
Meanwhile, another Vielife research project showed that the most healthy quartile of the workforce is seven hours more productive a week than the least healthy quartile.