Time to Ditch Soft Drinks in the Workplace?

Plenty of managers (you included?) are starting to pay more heed to workplace wellness, given its impact on employee happiness and productivity. (I wrote about improving employee fitness through workplace changes just last week.)

But what if you're actually shooting yourself in the foot by offering your employees easy access to Sprite, Coke, or root beer?

That's the concern voiced by Tanya Barham, writing about work wellness on the Benefits Buzz blog. Barham cites a recent study, conducted by researchers from the University of California, Davis, which found that people who downed fructose-sweetened drinks showed an increase in a type of fat that embeds itself in the tissue between organs.

This isn't completely unexpected news, of course; a couple of years ago, researchers discovered that fructose can lead to more body fat than sugar.

But it's not good news. That "belly fat" around organs, also known as visceral fat or intra-abdominal fat, can increase the risks of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. Which is definitely at odds with your goal of keeping your workforce healthy and productive.

So you might want to reconsider that employee perk of providing free or discounted sodas, or even convenient vending machines down the hall. Better options would be bottled water, tea, or even a bowl of fruit.

What do you think?

(image by sankarshan via Flickr, CC 2.0)