HEALTH THREATS AT WORK

The plight of the office worker

In comfortable, air-conditioned offices, occupational injuries and illnesses are discussed less often than conference minutes. These days office workers spend more time tapping keyboards than taking care of themselves. From the computers we use to the coffee we drink, it seems that anything can be considered an occupational risk.

According to dietician Somsri Tachavarakul, many office workers nowadays have heavy workloads and pay less attention than ever to their physical and mental well-being.

From her experience working as a nutritionist for over 20 years, Somsri has noticed that there is an increasing number of middle-aged office workers suffering from medical problems related to their diets, especially high blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and obesity.

''A large number of office employees have high blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and are obese, which are all the consequence of bad diet and a lack of exercise. Many concentrate solely on their work and feel they have no time to eat healthily. Some think that just grabbing anything edible is good enough, but they don't realise that what they eat may be slowly killing them,'' Somsri commented.

High blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and obesity, if left unattended, can lead to other life-threatening problems such as heart disease, diabetes or a stroke, the nutritionist noted.

According to the dietician, office workers visiting her with dietary complaints are mostly aged between 35 and 50. As a result of too much work in the office, they end up eating fast food for lunch or frozen food for dinner instead of home-cooked meals.

Junk food has become more popular with consumers _ it is easy to buy and requires little or no preparation. However, fast food normally contains too much saturated fat and salt and, most importantly, has only limited nutritional content. Eating fast food occasionally, Somsri said, does not have any serious effects, but frequent consumption of such food is detrimental to a person's health.

To avoid fast food, some office workers choose to eat in fine restaurants instead, supposing that high-priced food equates to good quality.

''Expensive food does not necessarily mean food with good nutritional value,'' Somsri remarked. ''In most five-star Chinese restaurants, they normally use animal fat to make food taste more delicious, and this is claimed to be unhealthy, due to its association with high cholesterol.''

Apart from fast food chains, in most easy-to-find hot pot-style restaurants, seasoning and dipping sauces make food tasty but they are, according to the dietician, also high in salt.

In addition to problems associated with food, other aspects of a person's diet such as too much coffee can be another big, yet much-neglected health-related issue. During the daytime, many office workers consider cups of cappuccino or shots of espresso as fuel for their body and brain. Coffee, if consumed in appropriate quantities, offers plenty of benefits. The caffeine in coffee is a mild stimulant that affects the central nervous system and the metabolism. It helps keeps drowsy people alert and wards off fatigue. It also contains anti-oxidants that can help prevent fatal diseases including heart disorders and cancer.

Nonetheless, office workers tend to drink coffee in a way that creates a bad impact on their health. Too much sugar, sweetened condensed milk and whipping cream are usually added. These leave the body with high blood sugar and cholesterol levels, which, in the long run, can cause coronary artery disease.

See HEALTH THREATS AT WORK Page O3

Bangkok Post
Sunday February 11, 2007