Another Reason to Invest in Healthy Company Catering: New Study Finds Eating Vegetables Linked to Well-Being & Creativity
Posted by Sara on Wednesday, August 20th, 2014 with Comments Off on Another Reason to Invest in Healthy Company Catering: New Study Finds Eating Vegetables Linked to Well-Being & Creativity Comments
Want to cultivate creativity, a sense of purpose, and meaning in your employees? Then start serving more fruits and vegetables on the company catering table.
Yes, really. Fruits and vegetables. A new study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology found that eating higher amounts of fruits and veggies was associated with higher levels of curiosity, creativity, and eudaemonic well-being (more on what in the world that means in a minute). For thirteen days, over 400 young adults recorded everything they ate in an online food diary, and reported on certain aspects of their state of mind. Overall, participants who ate more fruits and vegetables reported greater feelings of well-being, curiosity, and creativity; and on an individual, day-to-day basis, people felt better on days that ate more fruits and vegetables compared to days when they ate fewer.
Do vegetables contain the secret to a meaningful life?
Image source: Flickr user kyntharyn74
What exactly is eudaemonic well-being?
The new-and-exciting part of this study is that long, psychobabble-sounding phrase that the researchers were trying to measure: eudaemonic well-being. This is how many psychologists refer to the state of not just feeling happy, but experiencing true flourishing as individual: finding meaning and purpose in life, which often manifests in behaviors like creativity and curiosity (which is why they measured those two attributes as well).
And since so much of professional is linked to feeling as though your work is meaningful, this means that people who are experiencing eudaemonic well-being are likely to be much more engaged and productive. So in other words, of course employers should clamor at the idea of helping cultivate an environment of eudaemonic well-being in the workplace!
But which came first – the carrot or the creativity?
Which brings us back to fruits and vegetables. Of course, as with so many studies, there’s a glaring question – what’s the chicken, and what’s the egg, and which came first? Does eating vegetables lead to higher levels of well-being, or people who are finding meaning and purpose in their lives tend to eat healthier food?
This study doesn’t address that question — they’re just looking at links, not cause-and-effect relationships. But, the researchers believe that the micronutrients in many fruits and vegetables (like vitamin C, which promotes the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine) could explain at least part of the equation. Since research is continuing to show that what we eat can have a major effect on how we feel, it seems reasonable to think this hypothesis could be right on.
Despite the uncertainty of whether eating vegetables leads to well-being, or people who are finding well-being in other ways are eating more vegetables, it’s still become clear that eating healthy foods will only help us mentally, as well as physically.
What does healthy company catering mean for your office?
That looks different for every office: it might mean observing Meatless Monday, or adding a salad bar to the company catering routine, or hosting a weekly lunch-and-learn about wellness and nutrition, or even just encouraging employees to look for healthier takeout options on a daily basis.
Whatever healthy eating looks like in your workplace, you have an ally in Waiter.com! With a wide range of menus, it’s easy to build a company catering event around lots of fruits and vegetables, and with our Virtual Cafeteria Service, you can make healthy meals in the office a regular event!
When it comes to feeding employees and coworkers, make your company's food program really count! If your workplace dining plan needs to take it up a notch — or if you don't have one at all — Waiter.com is here to help. From Virtual Cafeteria Service to diverse menus to local takeout & delivery, Waiter.com offers customizable dining solutions for every business and budget. Contact us today to get started!
