Are Your Co-Workers Ruining Your Health?

You spend up to 10 hours a day with your colleagues, so it makes sense that their influence might extend beyond work.

Now a new survey published in the Wall Street Journal has revealed 29% of workers believed their healthy eating regime was regularly sabotaged by colleagues tempting them to eat high calorie office snacks.

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“Social contacts can be extremely powerful,” says Tricia Leahey, the study’s lead author. “While peers’ encouragement helps, dieting failures or negative attitudes among colleagues can discourage people from sticking to their own healthy eating plans.”

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The study also added that a colleague can be as influential as a friend when it comes to peer pressure, saying they “tempt healthy eaters to eat more, make fun of their diets or order them restaurant food they know isn’t on their diets.”

On the flip side, another study published by the journal Obesity revealed that colleagues can also positively influence eating plans, revealing that those who were most likely to stick to a healthy diet were encouraged by their co-workers.

Do you think your co-workers affect your health negatively or positively?

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