Kingsbridge

A survey of office workers' eating habits has revealed a gaping hole in the nation's appetite, leading to almost £17bn in lost productivity, equivalent to nearly 97 million lost working days a year.

Research by BaxterStorey, the UK's leading independent food service provider for business and industry, found that the estimated cost to the nation (England, Scotland and Wales) per ear of skipping breakfast alone is £8.1bn or 46.5m working days, in lost productivity.

When other poor eating habits such as having no breakfast and lunch or having no breakfast and snacks, are included, lost productivity rockets to £16.85bn or almost 97m working days.

Many office workers today decline to take a full lunch hour, often eating and snacking at their desks to keep up to date with their workload. However, this research shows that this is clearly not the most productive way to do things.

There could be a rise in companies adopting a 'breakfast at work' policy, providing employees with a kitchen and basic breakfast ingredients to keep productivity at a maximum.

The first nationwide survey of its type in Great Britain, other findings from the research revealed that:

• More than a third of office workers either never have breakfast or have it just one-three times a week. Half of these never have breakfast in their working day.
• 32% of those who never eat breakfast, never snack.
• Only 63% of workers have breakfast five times a week.
• 372,500 people or 2.5% of workers do not have breakfast and lunch.
• Most employees (92%) have lunch (usually sandwiches - 68%) but don’t drink enough during the day. Fluid intake levels are below what they should be for optimum health and performance (with only 11% having the recommended eight or more drinks during the working day).
• 78% are regular snackers, but more than half of these snack on crisps and biscuits (20% and 27% respectively), "which have extremely limited nutritional value to support productivity," says Matt Barker - an independent performance and nutrition specialist who helped BaxterStorey analyse the survey findings and put a figure on lost productivity.

Many studies have found a relationship between eating breakfast and attention span, learning ability and general well-being, leading many nutrition experts to conclude it is the most important meal of the day - and other experts to believe it impacts significantly on productivity.

Matt Barker comments: "It's clear that too many people are getting much of their energy intake after work, then sleeping on it. This is certainly not efficient for the body or the brain, and is far from ideal for work performance. People who eat breakfast have better concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory and mood."

The article Skipping meals costs almost £17bn in lost productivity originally appeared on 999 Today