We all know about five portions of fruit and veg a day. We are well aware that too much salt and sugar is bad for us and, for most of us, the Body Mass Index is not an alien concept. What we might not know is that all the Government's best-laid plans to cut obesity and encourage healthy eating could be scuppered by the increasingly self-destructive habits of office workers.
The latest evidence for this comes from a recent survey by recruitment firm Pertemps, which found that time taken for lunch has fallen by a quarter in the last five years, and that one in five office workers now take no lunchbreak at all. The annual Eurest Lunchtime report, meanwhile, suggests that the average Briton now takes a lunch "hour" of just 27 minutes. It might sound counter-intuitive, but the less time people spend on their lunch breaks, the more weight they tend to put on.
"The demands of the job are making it more and more tempting to work through lunch, and either grab a quick bite at the desk or simply go without," says Jan Para, a director of Pertemps. "But this can be counterproductive, as not eating properly can leave workers drained and hence not as effective.
"Our research also indicates that some workers are adopting the Homer Simpson work diet, regularly eating sweets, biscuits and doughnuts to get them through the day." And there's the rub. Workers who don't take a decent lunch break, and thus don't eat a decent lunch, are easy prey to the temptations of sweet and fatty snack foods in the afternoon, with their promise of a quick insulin high. According to the same survey, one in 10 people who eat in the afternoon said they were still hungry, while half wanted a "sweet fix" to give them more energy.
Of course, we could snack on carrot and celery sticks, but then we could do all our ironing on Sunday and get reports in before deadline. When office workers snack, cake, doughnuts and chocolate are the vices of choice, with just 7% preferring healthy options like fruit. All this will come as no surprise to anyone who has tried to work to the rhythm of rustling crisp packets in the average British office. Andrew Wilson, an arts promoter from Leeds, is typical. "I think I last had a full lunch hour in about 1997," he says. "I just grab something and eat it at my desk - sandwich in one hand, mouse in the other. By about three, the call of Sainsbury's chocolate counter is almost impossible to resist."
Snacking on sugar-laden sweets is not good for our work - the artificial high is usually followed by an equally severe slump - and it's not good for us either. Some nutritionists believe there has been too much concentration on what we cook and eat at home in relation to levels of fat and obesity, and too little on the office - where most of us spend the majority of our waking hours.
"Whenever people are snacking on sweets and crisps, it will exacerbate blood sugar fluctuations, hormone imbalances, poor oral health and overall fatigue," says nutritional therapist Pat Reeves. "It will also contribute to carrying too much body-fat and, with it, lower self-esteem."
Reeves puts her finger on another of the problems of the snatched lunch break: a calorie-burning walk round the shops or through the park is out of the question. "Under optimal circumstances, a full lunch hour where one can enjoy peace and quiet away from work should be available to all," she says. "This would allow for some energising exercise to happen for about 30 minutes - a brisk walk perhaps - followed by an appropriately balanced meal. Together, this will provide an afternoon of high-energy, focused work. Unfortunately, this is not always the norm."
But the lunch habits of office workers are not the only cause for concern. It can be no coincidence that British employees work the longest hours in Europe, and eat the most ready meals and takeaways.
Stress, meanwhile, can have many workers reaching for a drink, or at least a Dairy Milk. Nutritionists believe that the long-hours culture in British workplaces is one of the main barriers to the take-up of healthy eating habits, but is often conveniently ignored in favour of less controversial solutions. So what can be done? A practical answer, says Pat Reeves, is to plan ahead. Always have healthy options - vegetable crudités, nuts and fresh fruit - available. At least some of the time, you may even eat them.
Where the long hours culture is largely to blame, however, only a change in attitudes will do. According to Cary Cooper, professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School, "It's difficult to be brave in a job-insecure culture. People don't walk out of the office at five, they don't want to say 'I'm off to lunch.' They sneak out to get something and sneak back. People try to show commitment by working through lunch and staying late."
The TUC says that employers have a duty to make sure workers take their full lunch time entitlement. "Employers need to do more to make sure that their staff are not so overburdened that they feel unable to leave the office for more than a few minutes," says general secretary Brendan Barber. The message from the government should be clear, they say. Only when we can take slow lunches again will we avoid the temptations of fast food.
