Wellbeing Breakfast – Wellbeing Starts in the Kitchen

On March 12, the second edition of “Breakfast in Welfare” took place. The main theme of the event was conscious nutrition and its impact on private and professional life. During the discussion, experts discussed issues such as the importance of the individual eating style of employees for the employer, the choice of food to maintain good health and work efficiency, and ways to promote appropriate eating habits in the team.

• A healthy employee diet is a long-term benefit for the company — employees are less likely to get sick, are more motivated and engaged at work.
• Healthy eating should be one of the foundations of organizational culture, alongside elements such as physical activity and stress management.
• Healthy eating habits are an investment in the future of the company — the process of implementing them should be gradual.
• Leaders and management should play a key role in promoting healthy eating habits in order to effectively instill this culture throughout the organization.

Expert Debate on Conscious Nutrition

The second edition of “Breakfast in well-being” entitled “Well-being from the kitchen” was dedicated to healthy eating due to the numerous challenges associated with this issue:

• Improper diet is one of the five main risk factors for premature death and chronic diseases (WHO, 2024).
• About 60% of Poles struggle with overweight or obesity (NFZ, 2024).
• About 3 million Poles suffer from diabetes, and 5 million have the so-called prediabetic state (Polskie Towarzystwo Diabetológica, 2024).

Meanwhile, a healthy diet has many benefits. Suffice it to mention that employees who use it are up to 25% more efficient than those who eat unhealthy (HBR, 2024). Due to the substantive approach to issues related to nutrition, we invited recognized experts to participate in the “Breakfast in Welfare”. The format of the meeting was non-binding, and the guests — present both stationary and online — took part in the discussion, which was supervised by the presenter Jarosław Kuźniar.

The discussion panel was attended by:

• Alice Baska — doctor, certified specialist in lifestyle medicine, Organizational Director of the Polish Society of Lifestyle Medicine,
• Małgorzata Gałązka-Sobotka, PhD — Director of the Institute of Management in Health Protection at Lazarski University,
• Daria Gradziuk — psychologist and psychonutritionist, Wellbee expert,
• Damian Parol, PhD — nutritionist and psycho-nutritionist,
• Marta Pawlowska — expert in health promotion and disease prevention, president of the Bureau of the Stop Obesity Partnership,
• Andrzej Silczuk, PhD — Physician, Psychiatrist, Chief Medical Officer Wellbee,
• Piotr Szostak — Managing Director of Strategy and Product Development at Benefit Systems.

We broadcast the live coverage of the event on the YouTube channel. Thanks to this, the audience watching the event online also had the opportunity to ask questions. Experts in the course of the discussion exchanged experiences and ideas for implementation in the organization.

The 7 most important takeaways from the discussion:

1. Healthy nutrition is one of the key factors influencing well-being in personal and professional life, as well as in the broader social and business perspective.

2. At the company level, the right diet is a guarantee of better work of the whole team — it prevents diseases preventively, prolongs healthy life and reduces the number of absences.

3. There is no single optimal “longevity diet” — however, you can choose individual products from diets considered to be the healthiest (e.g. Mediterranean diet) and combine them with healthy products available on the local market.

4. The key components of the diet for brain health are: omega-3 acids, B vitamins, vitamin D, selenium, fish, fruits, whole grains, legume seeds, nuts, water, green tea and coffee (3-5 cups of both drinks per day).

5. In the company, it is worth acting systemically — implementing a psycho-dietary strategy that will allow changing eating habits, both at the level of the employee and the organization.

6. Creating an environment conducive to healthy eating in the workplace and ensuring education in this regard will benefit the whole company.

7. A healthy diet supports physical activity and interpersonal relationships — not only in private life, but also in professional life.

Can we separate mental health from nutrition?

This question was answered by Dr. Damian Parol. He stressed that we absolutely should not separate mental health from metabolic health. At the moment, we have a lot of evidence that indicates that both of these areas are closely related. The brain consists of fats, which is why an adequate supply of omega-3 fatty acids is of great importance for its health. The nutritionist noted that B vitamins, vitamin D and selenium are also important for brain health.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk also addressed this issue, mentioning that the first analyses concerning the relationships between our brain and what we eat date back to the time of Hippocrates. As he pointed out, the current state of our mental health also affects the composition of our diet in a given period.

Changing Habits Begins with Awareness

Daria Gradziuk stated that there is no change without consciousness. So the whole process of change should start with becoming aware of what we want to change, and then it's important to personalize the goal and plan of action. In practice, this means that for a change to be permanent, it must be a change adapted to the specific person, including their resources, such as time, organization, financial, physical, health, mental and current lifestyle. In such a situation, we increase the chance that the change will be permanent and the process itself as “painful” as possible.

The expert pointed out the crucial nature of psychodietary strategies, which, appropriately tailored to a particular person, can be very helpful in taking care of well-being. Thanks to them, it will be possible to change eating habits, but also mental health, since these two areas of our lives cannot be treated separately. Therefore, the support of the employee in taking care of well-being, both in terms of nutrition and mental health, is crucial in an effective and sustainable process of change, which translates, for example, into efficiency at work. It is worth monitoring the whole process by specialists such as nutritionists, psychonutritionists or psychotherapists.

Diet optimal for health

Referring to examples of specific diets, Alicja Baska pointed out that there is no one optimal “longevity diet”. However, there are certain points of contact between the most popular diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, and related diets, which means that its benefits can be enjoyed not only in Greece, but also, for example, in Poland.

The expert also noted that the average Pole consumes nearly 50 kg of red meat per year, but only 3 kg of legume seeds, although they are a good source of vegetable protein. She also pointed to the importance of fluids in the diet — not only for water, but also for green tea and coffee. According to research, 3-5 cups of both drinks a day can positively affect life expectancy.

Benefits of a healthy eating style

Alicja Baska added that according to a meta-analysis published in the journal “PLOS Medicine”, changing eating habits can increase life expectancy by up to 13 years, and the sooner we implement the changes, the better.

At the same time, she stressed that it is not only what we eat that matters, but also with whom. Eating with the closest people, which becomes a joint celebration, has a positive effect on health and significantly increases the chances of adhering to the principles of healthy eating. And such a lifestyle is associated, for example, with the aforementioned Mediterranean diet.

Change is a challenge

Speaking about the challenges, Daria Gradziuk stressed that we must learn to distinguish between emotional and physiological hunger. The first appears regardless of the state of satiety, while the second arises from the actual needs of the body. This means building awareness about the process of eating and thinking about what function food actually performs for us at a given moment — whether we eat because we are really hungry or if we want to improve our mood.

The need to change eating habits concerns, for example, the consumption of sweets. It is not necessary to exclude them from the diet, but to learn to eat them in a conscious way. And although these types of changes represent a great psychological and physical effort, it is worth taking it in view of the health benefits.

Marta Pawłowska, for her part, noted that the word “diet” is associated with restrictions, although it should be associated with freedom. Thanks to this, the diet would be seen not as a renunciation, but as the basis of a healthy lifestyle. And this is important, because nutrition is not only an individual matter.

What can the employer do?

Marta Pawłowska cited OECD data, which shows that by 2050, only because of obesity, the life of Poles will be shortened by as much as 4 years! Obesity is not only a health problem, but also a social and economic one. For 40 years, we have been “working” civilisationally on an obesogenic environment, that is, conducive to obesity. As a consequence, we are increasingly overfed in quantity and undernourished qualitatively, in addition to this we are less active in everyday life. For example, in the 60s of the XX century, 70% of professions were associated with average physical activity, and today it is already only 20%! The expert also added that 1 euro spent on obesity prevention saves 6 euros on the treatment of obesity and the more than 200 complications that it leads to.

Daria Gradziuk stressed that in the public debate it is necessary to talk more about a holistic health culture and implement concrete solutions for it. This means, among other things, that decision makers in companies must be aware that nutrition is a very important aspect of life, which translates into quality of work, as well as relationships in the whole team.

Meaning of “health capital”

During the discussion, Dr. Małgorzata Gałązka-Sobotka stressed the importance of “health capital”. As she noted, it translates directly into finances — at the personal level and at the state level. As she recalled, in the event of L4 dismissal, the employee will receive only 80% of his rate. And if he worked despite illness, then his productivity would be much lower - and such presenteeism means tangible losses for the company. In turn, the state budget bears costs in the form of expenditure on medical care, benefits under the Social Insurance Institution, including pensions and the costs of loss of productivity of sick people.

Dr. Gałazka-Sobotka stated that it is better to invest in preventive measures, especially since Poland is a country increasingly affected by the demographic crisis, as well as the epidemiological crisis. According to the expert, in this situation, it is necessary to make a “reset” of the current health policy and allocate much more resources to educate the public, including employers, in the field of disease prevention and its effectiveness.

In the final part of the discussion, the experts agreed on the direction of the most important activities at the company level — the consistent formation of an organizational culture that supports the healthy nutrition of employees, and thus the personal well-being and well-being of the organization.

Multi.Life will help you with the change!

Piotr Szostak, Managing Director for Strategy and Product Development at Benefit Systems, spoke before the panel of experts, presenting the new installment Multi.Life. The implemented novelties include, but are not limited to:

• Psychodietary support — more than 300 Wellbee psychotherapists.
• Welfare Assistant — AI support (estimating the caloric value of a meal based on a photo).
• Coming soon — food diary — the function of monitoring consumed meals and any ingredients.

What is the idea?

• Full support for lifestyle transformation — qualified experts + artificial intelligence.
• Building Habits beneficial to health and well-being.
• Achievement of goals related to the improvement of mental health, nutrition, as well as personal and professional development.

We sincerely thank you for your participation in the event and remind you that the recording of the broadcast is available on the Multi.Life channel on the YouTube platform:

Breakfast in well-being — watch the video of the event