Chronic stress created by a person’s job can heighten the risk of obesity, a new study has found.
Conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center, the US research revealed that even eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables did little to alleviate the impact workplace stress had on the likelihood of gaining weight.
Rather, exercise was identified as the best way of both easing stress levels and maintaining a healthy weight, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Diana Fernandez, an epidemiologist at the university’s Department of Community and Preventative Medicine, said corporate policies needed to be improved in order to protect the health of employees.
“In a poor economy, companies should take care of the people who survive [redundancies] and end up staying in stressful jobs,” she added.
Elsewhere, Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise, recently claimed a contented workforce was likely to benefit from increased productivity.
Posted by Colette Paxton
