
The High Cost of Free Office Snacks - timr
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/the-high-cost-of-free-office-snacks/
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droithomme
"As mayor of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg has prioritized health
initiatives, working to enact policies that reduce the size of soft drinks and
require restaurants to limit trans fats and post calorie counts."

And that was a bad thing. It is not the role of government to dictate such
things to the people. It disturbs me that articles are still written in which
such premises are presented as settled fact rather than rightly ridiculed as
components of a path towards fascism.

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GuiA
The sad facts are, that the average health of US citizens is getting worse and
worse every year, and the main ones affected are those who have no say in it
whatsoever: children.

Ideally, the role of a government is to protect its people. The US Government
also regulates a number of substances (LSD, etc.)- do you think that's also a
bad thing?

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jlarocco
I do think it's a bad thing. The purpose of the government isn't to protect
people from themselves, it's to protect people from other people.

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rdl
The problem is healthy stuff tends to not be shelf-stable or inexpensive or
individually-wrapped, so it's more of a hassle to share.

I think free beverages (water, hot water, coffee) are a basic requirement for
an office. For snacks, you could go Google and provide something managed and
stocked, or just give people refrigerator/freezer/pantry space for their own,
or whatever. A nudge toward healthy might be worthwhile.

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elliott99
Why is the most preeminent newspaper in the world still calling saturated fat
"bad." It's almost trite at this point to explain that there are no studies to
support this.

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pbreit
Is that true?

[http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/10/exposed-
th...](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/10/exposed-the-reason-
saturated-fats-are-so-damaging-to-health/247027/)

~~~
JohnsonB
"No studies" at all might be a stretch, but all of the studies averaged
together certainly do not support the "saturated fat is unhealthy" hypothesis.

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MartinCron
Relevant anecdote: I once left a terrible job soon after realizing that the
only thing that I derived any joy from was eating way too many peanut M&Ms
every single day.

When depressed people self-medicate with food, bad things happen.

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Xcelerate
I don't know. I like the taste of junk food. A little bit of moderation plus a
little bit of exercise makes these things a fine office treat. Everyone is a
responsible adult; let each make their own decision on what to eat.

(Adding healthy stuff is fine too, but that doesn't mean you need to take away
the unhealthy.)

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SatvikBeri
The problem is that willpower is a finite resource[1]. If you have to make a
mental effort to avoid the M&Ms every time you pass the kitchen, that
diminishes your productivity for the rest of the day.

[1]:
[http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/msh/pdfs/MSHagg...](http://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/msh/pdfs/MSHagger_Ego_Depletion.pdf)

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mjn
This is a pet peeve of mine with free office snacks, yes. They turn the
easiest path into one that's less healthy than I would normally choose,
because the less-healthy alternative is free and someone else shops for it, so
I can find myself, out of convenience, eating truly junky stuff that I would
never buy myself. An unwanted "perk", which just makes my life more difficult!

There does seem to be a trend towards providing some healthier options at
least. Sparkling water instead of just soft drinks, perhaps some fruit. I
usually bring my own stuff anyway, but it's easier if the default options are
reasonable. I once DIY'd that by running a little office snack coop full of
stuff I preferred (people put money in a jar, and I brought stuff in), but not
all workplaces would be happy with someone doing that, and it's hard to
compete with free.

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chris_wot
Yogurt is full of sugar.

~~~
pretoriusB
No, commercial sweetened yogurt products are. Which seems to most 99% of
yogurts sold in most supermarkets in the US.

Those have little to do with plain yogurt, as it comes out from the
traditional process and as we know it in Europe.

Plain yogurt has very little sugar and only naturally occurring at that:

<http://www.fageusa.com/products/fage-total-0-percent/>

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Evgeny
I absolutely can not believe that natural yogurt may somehow have 0 calories
from fat. Fat occurs naturally in milk, from which this yogurt was made.
Therefore, if this yogurt has 0 fat, it has been removed by an industrial
process. I wouldn't eat that.

The greek yogurt in my fridge has about 10% fat (7% saturated), and 6%
carbohydrate (4.9% sugars). That sound close enough to natural proportions for
me to believe it was not heavily processed.

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anigbrowl
Making yogurt involves adding a culture to milk. The culture eats the fat and
turns it into protein. Natural yogurt has little to no fat.

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zacharypinter
I'm a big fan of sparkling water (talking rain, perrier, etc). Glad to see
it's a trend that's picking up in a lot of office refrigerators.

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jeffbarr
Same here, but beware of possible damage to your teeth. My dentist saw some
pervasive problems in my mouth and asked me if I consumed a lot of mineral
water (I do).

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dalke
"Mineral water" means many things. Do you use it as a synonym for carbonated
water? CO2+H20 forms carbonic acid, so carbonated water has a dilute acid in
it.

Otherwise, I don't see how mineral water could affect your teeth. Was it
especially hard water, or with high concentration of other chemicals?

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rizzom5000
I really don't get it.

The snacks are there if you want them. Nobody is forcing you to partake. If
you run 5 miles every morning, a 160 cal. bag of chips isn't 'bad' for you. If
you are a full-blown couch potato who avoids any type of physical exertion
like the plague, then yes, by all means, skip the bag of chips.

It's just so simple. So simple ...

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dietrichepp
Basic psychology. It's easier to avoid eating candy if you don't have a desk
that's literally fifteen feet from an open jar that nobody is watching.

If it were that simple, we would all be much healthier than we are.

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rizzom5000
I think that basic psychology has something to say about willpower as well.

I'll gamble that it's easier for someone to avoid eating candy than for a
nicotine addict to avoid a cigarette that's 15 ft. away or an alcoholic to
avoid a drink while in a bar -- yet people successfully quit nicotine and
alcohol all the time, and without shutting themselves in a room for life.

Those may be poor comparisons, but I know enough about psychology to know that
people who want to change, do it on their own; jar of candy 15 ft. away be
damned.

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notdrunkatall
As someone who smoked for 14 years, quit, and now has no problem being around
smokers, I concur.

People simply lack willpower and discipline.

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Gatsky
Good for you, but if we adopted this as an overriding principle in public
health policy, then lots of people would just keep smoking.

I would also add that education and socioeconomic status are clearly related
to adverse health behaviours - are you saying that poor people who don't
finish high school smoke more because they lack willpower and discipline?

Simplicity is a wonderful thing...

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fourstar
Everything in moderation including moderation.

