Ishi Khosla - Eating at Work: Make Food Work for You!

Eating at Work by Ishi Khosla is an important, timely book that gives excellent advice and suggestions on following the right diet for everyone, especially professionals, who often find it difficult to inculcate healthy eating habits at the workplace because of stress, irregular timings and other work related problems.

Food is an essential part of health and well-being and eating safe and nutritious food is an enabler for a happier, healthier life. Ishi Khosla, a clinical nutritionist, understands this better than most people. The book effectively addresses this need, provides detailed information and guidelines on how to manage ones weight and diet, not through quick starvation diets that dont provide any long term benefits, but through easy, lifestyle changes that will help you eat right.

I recommend this book for every professional including those struggling with weight and health problems simply to improve ones lifestyle and habits in a manner that adds value to your life.

FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India) has recently launched an Eat Right movement and we are delighted that Ishi Khosla has written a book that perfectly fits our thoughts and ideas on safe and nutritious eating at the workplace.

Please do read this book and support the Eat Right movement to promote and enable a healthier, happier future for the citizens of our nation.

Pawan Agarwal, IAS

Secretary (GoI) and Chief Executive Officer (FSSAI)

Poor diet is responsible for more deaths globally than tobacco, high blood pressure, or any other health risk, according to a new scientific study; yet we don't pay attention to what we eat, when we eat and how we eat.

- Dr Ashkan Afshin, Head of Global Burden of Disease Project

Keeping in mind the fact that most of the busy professionals are devoting more than half of their waking hours to work be it office, outside or even at home, expecting them to be mindful of what they eat is a tall order. Not only are they multi-tasking but are perpetually stressed and fueled by an adrenaline rush. And in such a state nothing is more comforting than food. Emotional eating is often the result of this kind of work pressure. No matter how much information one has, it takes a lot for any busy person to manage their food. Either they forget to eat or binge or they constantly crave sugary high carbohydrate and high fat foods. More often these are foods which have addictive properties, containing caffeine, sugar and wheat. Most processed foods are designed chemically to make them addictive. The caffeine high and sugar rush are so familiar. The obvious consequences range from weight gain, belly fat, to digestive disorders and skin issues like acne, hair fall and dandruff. Eventually these disorders take the shape of diseases like thyroid disorders, diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pains and deficiency disorders including anemia and osteoporosis, to name a few. These I see every day in my clinic.

There is no point in simply saying NO. We cannot give people only information about foods or ask them to be mindful when the environment is not controlled. Healthy eating at work has to be a holistic approach else we add another burden on already stressed minds. Non-compliance to dietary wisdom will make them feel like failures and ridden with guilt. So we need to have a workplace which provides or serves healthier alternatives salads, fruits (Refer to Read more, ), vegetables, nuts, seeds, soups, etc. We need to restrict serving deep fried snacks like samosas and trans-fat laden biscuits in meetings and instead serve nuts, seeds and roasted snacks. In lieu of premix beverages, workplaces must serve infusion teas and options of unsweetened teas / coffees. Employers need to take responsibility to make the workplace safer and healthier. Food safety is closely related to peoples lives, health, economic development and social harmony.

Simply put, we need to sensitize our workplace. The Chinese government in fact took it upon itself, more than a decade ago, to provide healthy food options in all government institutions. FSSAI in India has launched the first of its kind healthy workplace initiative The "Eat right movement" across the country. It is a nation-wide campaign to help people eat safe, eat healthy and eat right at their work place. Several multinational offices also have responded to the growing burden in obesity and diseases by offering healthier food options. Combine this with simple understanding of foods and some simple rules to follow, one can help the busiest professionals navigate different, often challenging, situations.

Diet rules should be such that they become your life partners quite literally travel with you, party with you and celebrate with you. Dont we all know that there is no love more sincere than the love of food. So embrace healthy eating and love your food.

This book aims to help by being a quick, easy-to-read guide. It offers actionable strategies and practical tips to professionals under different working conditions. It will not take away the pleasure of eating, in fact it teaches you simple ways of eating your favourite foods. Having said that it is difficult to oversimplify food choices which are steeped in cultural diversity and unique health and taste preferences. While you arm yourselves with the knowledge that is provided here, never let go off your best tools common sense, instinct and logic. This book comes as a unique manual and its relevance for our workforce can hardly be overemphasized.

A healthy nation is indeed a wealthy nation.

As Mahatma Gandhi said 'It is health which is real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver.'

Eating at work is a book, written to bring over 25 years of clinical practice and research out of my office and into everyones workplace and everyday lives. As a practicing integrative nutritionist, I have presented the science and art of eating in diverse work situations keeping simple food facts and principles in mind.

The five Ps devised in this book, together with a few tips, make a complete tool bag to keep our body and mind powerful today, tomorrow, and over a lifetime.

Sveta is feeling on top of the world. Her first week at the telecom MNC has been a success, as has been her move to the millennium city, Gurugram. Now she wants to figure out how to lose a few kilos, deal with polycystic ovaries and acne, and she will be a happy 24-year old.