Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Alexandra Murcier (Liberal dietitian-nutritionist)
Medical validation:
December 15, 2022
Telecommuting doesn’t seem to go hand in hand with good nutrition. According to a new study, teleworkers eat less well and faster at home.
We often think that working from home goes hand in hand with a better life balance. And yet: it is not so. A Crédoc study for the Danone Institute reveals that employees eat less well, more quickly and snack more when they are remote than when they work in the office.
Shorter lunch breaks and less varied meals
While since the start of Covid-19 remote work has entered the lives of many French people, a study commissioned by the Danone Institute at Crédoc took a close look at the effects of telework on eating behaviors (survey conducted from March to May 2022 on 621 volunteer Danone employees).
It thus reveals that teleworkers take shorter lunch breaks at home: less than 20 minutes for 38% of employees surveyed. While in the office, only 18% spend less than 20 minutes on it.
Teleworkers also eat more lunch alone (72% of respondents), which is not the case at the office (12%).
“The meal is simplified with, for more than 40% of the employees questioned, a reduction in the components (starter, main course, cheese, dessert) of the meal and in diversity“, notes Françoise Néant, the general delegate of the Danone Institute. “There is also more snacking (+8%), with in particular chocolate which is consumed much more in telework (+22%).”
Note that the employeeson the site“respondents benefit from a collective catering offer at their place of work, even if they can also have lunch outside.
For Marianne Bléhaut, director of the Data and Economy division of CRÉDOC, “One of the main lessons of the study is to demonstrate its impact on the eating behaviors of the employees surveyed, and therefore potentially on their health. Today, it is important to continue efforts to create data to document the phenomenon and its evolution beyond the employees of a particular company, and to equip public health actors such as employers to inspire a field of action favoring the well-being and health of workers.”
“You have to impose schedules and a lunch break”
For her part, Alexandra Murcier, dietician-nutritionist believes that the results of this survey are not surprising. They show an alteration in the ways of eating in telework.
“At home, we often reduce our break – or even don’t take any – and we eat in front of our computer. It is therefore necessary to impose schedules and a lunch break – even if it means blocking it in your agenda – and avoiding the screen, without feeling guilty. As such, it is important to remember that it is good for the brain to stop“, says the expert.
On the meal side, the dietician-nutritionist indicates that it is quite possible to prepare healthy meals quickly.
“For example, by combining raw products in a mixed salad. We can also cook on weekends for the week. Concerning nibbling, it is necessary to identify the sensation at the origin of these urges and to find healthy alternatives: drink tea, nibble on almonds, nuts or fruit, go for a walk…”.