We spend much of our week, if not our entire week, working and often have to eat many of our meals outside. As the time we spend cooking at home with our chosen ingredients decreases, the importance of nutrition, especially for working people, continues to increase.

While organizations may provide catering services to their employees or individuals may purchase meals from outside, improperly planned meals can lead to many health problems. These meals, with incorrectly calculated calories and nutritional values, can cause obesity, musculoskeletal diseases, sleep disorders, depression, goiter, osteomalacia, abdominal fat accumulation, and hypertension.

Nutrition Planning Should Be Personalized
To prevent these diseases that greatly affect human life in the long term, Genetics Science Expert & Dietitian Dilara Devranoğlu from Infinity Regenerative Clinic's Medical Team shared her views on nutrition in working life: "Considering the energy consumed by working people throughout the day, balanced and healthy nutrition for these individuals is of great importance.

Particularly in office-based workers, due to reduced physical activity, the risk of diseases increases. Prolonged inactivity causes problems like fat accumulation in the body, which negatively affects the person's health and social life.

Therefore, just as we plan our work to ensure everything goes smoothly and prevent problems, we also need to plan our nutrition. Planning people's nutrition requires that it be customized according to age, gender, nutritional needs, eating habits, health status, working hours, and working conditions," she explained.

Pointing out that nutrition planning should only be done by nutrition professionals, Devranoğlu also offered some general recommendations: "Nutrition planning should be personalized, but even with some general suggestions, you can improve your life.

First, you should start by adjusting your daily water intake. The World Health Organization's water consumption recommendation is 30 ml per kilogram per day. You can also calculate your daily water consumption need by multiplying your weight by 0.03. Adequate water consumption also helps your metabolism work faster. You should not consume ready-made foods; make efforts to prepare your meals at home. For breakfast, instead of pastries with high trans-fat content like open pastries or flaky pastries, eat a salad rich in olive oil containing eggs, olives, cucumbers, arugula, parsley, and cheese—this will keep you full for many hours. Especially for snacks, you should avoid packaged foods like cookies, crackers, and chocolate because their sugar content will quickly raise and lower your blood sugar. If you need a snack, you can consume healthy oily seeds like walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds within portion sizes that will give you energy. For lunch, you can prefer home-cooked meals instead of fast food. By adding an olive oil salad or vegetable dish alongside nutrient-rich meat products, you can achieve fullness. Also, by reducing your salt consumption, you can prevent edema," she explained.

Every 50 Minutes, Take a 5-10 Minute Break and Move
Noting that sedentary office workers experience many health problems, Devranoğlu said: "While working, every 50 minutes you can take a 5-10 minute break, relax your muscles by stretching while sitting or walking around the office. Remaining sedentile for long periods can cause many back and neck problems as well as weight gain. Also, you can park your car a little further away when coming to work and walk that distance, or if you use public transportation, get off a few stops before your home and take a walk."