3AW: Creating healthier food options for employees
Bupa accredited practising dietitian Rosalyn D'Angelo spoke to Tom Elliott from 3AW about providing healthier food options for employees through healthier vending machines.
Tom spoke about how many companies have realised their employees aren't as healthy as they should be. He noted many are just sitting at their desks munching on Mars bars, muffins, muesli slices, and other sugary and energy drinks.
Rosalyn spoke about how Bupa has conducted research with its own employees and found while 25% reported a healthy diet, 86% said they wanted to be healthier.
Through this research, 2-3 years ago, Rosalyn said, Bupa started slowly transitioning their office vending machines to include low-sugar and low-salt snacks, such as air popped popcorn and low sugar drinks.
Tom asked if this is a way of removing temptations for people, with Rosalyn explaining it's exactly what they're doing. However, Rosalyn says it is about shaping an environment with healthier options being available to employees.
Healthier vending machines include food and drink labelled with green, amber and red dots. The traffic light system identifies foods nutritious value of food by the colours. Eg. Green= healthiest option Amber= moderate rating Red= least healthy.
Rosalyn also touched on the FoodSwitch app which was developed by Bupa and The George Institute to help Australians make healthier food choices when grocery shopping.
Scanning the barcode of a packaged food gives you easy-to-understand nutritional information with either traffic-light style or Health Star Rating (HSR) labels so you can see at a glance how healthy the food item is.
Listen to the full interview below.
