Opinion The food court rules
Its hard convincing tech workers to eat their greens.
Karan Kamal,23,an employee at a tech-consulting firm,eats out often. Make that very often. He eats daily at the office cafeteria and when he finds that fare uninteresting,hits the nearest restaurant. He often misses dinner at home because he works late.
Then there are team outings,client lunches and dinners and partying with different sets of friends from work,from college,childhood buddies and so on. His mother,a doctor,sees enough 20-somethings from his industry with high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Techies eat the best or richest of foods,work 13-14 hours a day and barely exercise. It is a cause for concern, says Kamal,who says his mothers words are a wake-up call for him. He has started jogging every morning.
By the law of unintended consequences,the expanding bottom lines of outsourcing companies are having an impact on the waistlines of their workers. In Bangalore and elsewhere,employees fed on a generous diet of cafeteria meals and food court fare,could send India into a massive healthcare crisis.
In outsourcing companies particularly,where long hours of being tethered to the desk and the stress of gruelling global work cycles are already wreaking havoc on employee health,the diet factor is coming into increasing play.
Prominent Bangalore-based outsourcing companies such as Wipro and Infosys and multinationals such as Accenture and IBM are favoured blue-chip employers because of several factors,not least because of the wide assortment of subsidised food and drink they offer employees.
In their vast campus food courts which get proud mention when new inductees are led on their maiden campus tour are pizzerias,24×7 cafes,south Indian fast food joints,parantha places,chaat corners and dessert counters. All this is aside from companies,large and small,offering sponsored meals to their workers.
It is not quantity alone that is worrying,it is the quality. In software companies carbohydrate- and fat-laden menus,typically there is inadequate room for protein and vegetables,says Sheela Krishnaswamy,a nutrition and well-ness consultant whose ChiHealth provides diet consulting for IT companies.
At company-sponsored meal counters,it is common to sight employees piling their plates with rice or roti and lots of gravy and barely any vegetables. Even when companies offer healthy options such as in salad counters,there are few takers amongst young employees who prefer to gorge on doughy pizzas and greasy paranthas. It is difficult to single out companies alone for the blame. But the end result is that thousands of young techies are looking unhealthy and feeling lethargic.
Weight-management issues are common,the increased girth an indicator of diabetes,cardio-vascular and other lifestyle diseases. Gastro-intestinal issues such as hyperacidity and constipation are widespread among employees who imbibe caffeine 24×7. Companies need drastic and urgent diet intervention in their cafeterias.
The first blunder many of them make,with few exceptions,is to contract out office meals and snacks to third-party caterers. The vendors are usually nothing more than trained cooks who have limited knowledge of diet or nutrition. They work to a budget. They use inexpensive ingredients for instance,trans fat-laden oils in their cooking.
One leading Bangalore-based IT company decided to experiment with a parallel healthy menu. The caterer was trained to provide plain white or brown rice instead of fat-loaded biryani or south Indian tamarind rice. He served only phulkas and no parathas. A variety of salad and two types of vegetables and dals were on offer. The meal consisted of curd and buttermilk. At the end of the buffet table,dessert was always a fruit.
In the beginning,the healthy menu counters averaged 300 takers from among thousands of employees. As weeks passed,the numbers dipped to and steadied at 150 employees. Though healthier options are on offer at some lunch tables,employees sniff at them as so boring,says Archana Bisht,a director at 1to1help.net,a Bangalore-based company that offers employee assistance programmes at companies.
Krishnaswamy,the nutrition expert,says the diet problem is compounded by the tastes of the industrys young demographic,who go berserk when they have money in their pockets and dazzling food options in front of them… they cannot stop overindulging. Also,she says,many of them live on their own or with friends and find cooking bothersome.
While she encounters many workers who are overweight and sluggish,Bisht sees consciousness slowly creep in about weight and waist management. For their part,companies have started bringing in dieticians to oversee the low-cal food counters.
But nearly every healthcare expert on the scene feels that only radical nutrition changes could make things better. And as long as free coffee,subsidised lunches and an array of desserts is within easy reach of employees,any change could be a long time in coming.
saritha.rai@expressindia.com
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