The Office Workers Guide to Nutritional Health and Wellbeing

People, who don’t work in offices, often have no idea of the kind of stress we are under. They think all we do is sit around all day on our butts staring at a computer screen. We know better, and we also know of some of the other special health risks we are under, don’t we?
Let’s take that air con system. 8 hours a day in re-circulated air has been known to cause a lot of health conditions. All those free radicals entering your body day in and day out begin to cause oxidative stress. Free radicals ‘steal’ electrons from other molecules to make up for the one they are missing. Those molecules then need to find another electron to make up for the one they are missing, and before long there they all are running around trying to find their missing parts. What that means for the body is aging, and deterioration in health.

Free radicals are everywhere. Some of them are in our own metabolism, but most come from outside pollutants. Just getting in to the office exposes us to pollutants in the air, before we even hit the supposedly ‘purified’ air conditioned environment.

Sitting around for long periods at a time also puts strain on various parts of the body. If you’re working environment is not well designed and ergonomic you run the risk of developing conditions like RSI and misalignment of the spine. Then of course there is eyestrain. Office workers suffer more headaches and migraines than any other group due to eyestrain. Your first solution to these problems should always be to insist on safe working conditions. Taking regular breaks and eating well all help to minimize these risks too.

The afternoon slump: How many of us race into the office first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee in hand? Re-vitalised we set to work, grab another quick coffee at break, have a quick lunch (was it healthy?) and race on to meet that deadline. Come 3 or 4 in the afternoon our bodies say – Enough! What do we do? Grab another quick coffee, or if we a more sensible an apple or health bar and carry on.

After a while all this stress and those darned free radicals build up and catch up with us. We have no energy left for ‘fun’, and we start to feel old. Odd aches and pains set in, we don’t sleep well and all that is left is work.

Antioxidants are the answer, and many of us are well aware of that, but we forget those 5-9 servings a day, or just don’t have time. Antioxidants stop that oxidization cycle by giving the free radicals back the electron they are missing. If you want to stop rusting away inside and start feeling better, you need antioxidants, and lots of them.

There is no better known superfood for providing those antioxidants than the acai berry. It has a huge ORAC rating and is packed full of nutritional goodness. It is important though how the acai is processed, as it is a delicate berry and can lose much of its antioxidant power at any stage of processing. MonaVie uses freeze dried acai to lock in the goodness, and flash pasteurization of the final blend ensures that those antioxidants are not lost.
MonaVie has a belief in the balance,variety, moderation approach to good health. As office workers we owe it to ourselves to take care of our emotional and nutritional health. MonaVie offers a way to do that, without interrupting a busy lifestyle. Two small servings a day is all it takes to supply your body with not just nine but 13 servings of a variety of fruits. You might not need that extra cup of coffee after all.