Eating and stress at work: The need for public health promotion intervention and an opportunity for food product development?

Given the large proportion of time spent at work, it is surprising that relatively little research has been devoted to understanding food selection in the workplace. A growing literature suggests that stress, particularly occupation?related stress, negatively impacts upon food choice and may contribute to population ill health. The consensus is that work stress induces consumption of foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt, which are likely to contribute to overweight and have long?term detriment to health. The interaction between stress and eating appears to vary by sex and type of work undertaken. This paper argues an imperative for further longitudinal and intervention research to understand interactions between food choice and stress in the work context with a view to the design of dietary health promotion and the development of nourishing food products targeted at those experiencing stress and which could be made accessible in the workplace.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10454/6722

Version

Accepted manuscript

Citation

Stewart-Knox B (2014) Eating and stress at work: The need for public health promotion intervention and an opportunity for food product development? Trends in Food Science and Technology. 35(1): 52-60.

Link to Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2013.10.010

Type

Article