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Friday, March 21, 2008
Jacksonville Business Journal - by Dolly Penland Correspondent
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The current economic environment is causing a lot of stress for many people.
Unfortunately, they sometimes end up dealing with that stress in unhealthy ways such as overeating.
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This is a big problem because obesity, which is linked to coronary heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, is certainly one of the nation's most pressing health problems. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for
Health Statistics reports 65 percent of adults 20 to 74 years old are overweight and 31 percent are obese. About 300,000 adults die each year due to obesity-related diseases resulting from unhealthy dietary habits, physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyles.
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"Stress in the workplace has been significant these last several years," said Ann Sabbag, president of Health Designs Inc.
, which provides health and wellness services to companies. "More employers are stressed about their health care costs. We're doing more programs and services for employers because of those rising health care costs."
There are things employers can do to encourage healthy lifestyles among their employees.
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"Look at their corporate culture as a whole," Sabbag said. "Get feedback from employees about ways to reduce stress in the workplace. Look at how they promote [the use of] vacation time, sick leave, family leave. Do they offer and then support programs like stress management?"
Physical activity is an excellent way to reduce stress, lose weight and combat obesity.
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.
's Jacksonville brewery recognized years ago the need to have healthy, fit employees and established an on-site fitness center in the mid-1990s
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"The company wanted to get the employees involved in being fit and healthy and that was one of the requests that came from the employees," said Ken Wilkey, resident

environmental health safety and security manager at the brewery. " 'If you want to help us, then an on-site fitness center would be great.' "
The gym, which employees use at no charge, is filled with weight machines and other equipment. A professional trainer also comes in once a quarter to tailor workouts to individual employees' needs.
"One of our corporate goals was to increase fitness center usage," said Kimberly Stockdale, environmental health safety and security manager. "From 2006 to 2007, we had a 47 percent increase in participation."
Other things companies can do to encourage physical activity include putting in paths around buildings so the employees can "walk it off," or simply encouraging 15-minute breaks to move and stretch.
"Employees will [exercise more] when an employer will participate by helping pay or cover some of the cost of a fitness center membership," said Danny Murphy, co-owner of Traq
3D. To prevent the membership from going unused, it's a good idea to have employees document their visits.
At Traq 3D, fitness center users move their entire bodies while playing video games that are projected on giant screens. "Some are well-known, like Pong and Tetris, and others are virtual sport games that we have created," Murphy said. "You run, you jump, you squat, you move around. We're training the entire body all at once for strength and endurance.
We have people who come in on their lunch break. They're in and out of here in 30 minutes."
While exercise is crucial, so is changing eating habits. "If they have food service at their business, they can help by providing healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, salad bars, things that give employees a choice in terms of what they eat during meal breaks and snacks," said Dr. Catherine Christie, nutrition program director at the University of North
Florida. "They can provide nutrition information [on-site]. Encourage people to look up the calories and what they're getting in some of the foods they eat."
One good Web site to investigate is the American Dietetic Association , www.eatright.org
.
"Have a dietitian come in and do a lunch-and-learn on stress and stress eating," said
Christie, who recommends finding a dietitian via the Jacksonville Dietetic
Association , www.eatrightjax.org
. "They can also do a class on healthy weight loss to keep it off."
Anheuser-Busch offers different health fairs for its employees throughout the year, but the most popular is the Stress Relief fair held each December. The 550 employees with company health insurance and their spouses and dependents are invited.
"This year, we had a yoga instructor, counseling for depression and depression screening
[as well as] different massage therapists," Stockdale said. "It is usually one of the more popular events, mainly because of the massage therapists. The yoga was popular as well." jacksonville@bizjournals.com | 396-3502
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