Keep cake away from office, suggests food watchdog head
 

If you work in an office, you know the drill. It's someone's birthday and the unwritten rules mean they or a generous boss supplies cake (or cakes) for all.

But is it time to kick the cupcakes, to get the gateaux away? A food regulator says workers should not bring in sweet treats - to avoid tempting colleagues.

Food Standards Agency chairwoman Prof Susan Jebb compared being around cake in the office to passive smoking.

She said: "If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes."

Interviewed by the Times newspaper, she says that workers should stop testing the willpower of colleagues.

But speaking to the BBC, GP Dr Helen Wall said people had to take responsibility for their own health.

The family doctor who practises in Bolton said: "If someone's got a cake next to you, you don't have to eat it, do you."

Prof Jebb, also a professor of diet and population at the University of Oxford, was speaking in a personal capacity when she argued eating cake is a choice but colleagues can help each other by providing "a supportive environment".

She said: "We all like to think we're rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time, and we undervalue the impact of the environment.

"If nobody brought cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day. But because people do bring cakes in, I eat them. Now, OK, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.

"With smoking, after a very long time we have got to a place where we understand that individuals have to make some effort but that we can make their efforts more successful by having a supportive environment.

"But we still don't feel like that about food."

In many workplaces cake, biscuits and and sweets - brought by colleagues returning from holiday or to celebrate last days and birthdays - can start a scramble as hungry and sweet-toothed colleagues try to get their hands on the treats.

It is a rare workplace that breaks the tradition and supplies a fruit platter. And who wants to be known as the one staff members who brings in healthy nuts rather than chocolates as they regale colleagues about their weekend in Switzerland?

GP Dr Wall said it was fine to have some pleasures in the workplace.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, she said: "It does feel like we're trying to control everything. At the end of the day you've got to have a little bit of willpower, haven't you...

"If somebody's smoking next to you, you can't help but inhale that.

"If someone's got a cake next to you, you don't have to eat it, do you?"

As to the government's official position, the prime minister's official spokesman said Rishi Sunak believes "personal choice should be baked into our approach".

He added: "We want to encourage healthy lifestyles and are taking action to tackle obesity, which has cost the NHS £6 billion annually.

"However, the way to deal with this issue is not to stop people from occasionally bringing in treats for their co-workers."

Mr Sunak's spokesman added that the prime minister was "very partial to a piece of cake" and most enjoys carrot and red velvet cake.

According to the NHS website, a majority of adults in England are overweight. Regularly consuming foods and drinks high in sugar increases your risk of obesity and tooth decay.

The FSA is responsible for food safety and food hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Prof Jebb who is on the Times Health Commission, a year-long inquiry by the paper into the future of health and social care in the UK, expressed frustration at ministers' decision to delay the introduction of a TV watershed for junk food advertising.

The Department of Health said the plans would be deferred for a year while officials assessed the impact on household finances as families struggle with the increasing cost of living.

Prof Jebb also said it was not enough to rely on "extraordinary efforts" of willpower to avoid overeating in a society plying people with food.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64315384

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we used to have donuts on a friday, and it was the best day of the week :smug:

FAO fatty SB.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, she said: "It does feel like we're trying to control everything. At the end of the day you've got to have a little bit of willpower, haven't you...

"If somebody's smoking next to you, you can't help but inhale that.

"If someone's got a cake next to you, you don't have to eat it, do you?"


Sums it up for me

Some people argue they have very little will power themselves.... especially on Jeremy Vine this morning. Most of them were saying they'd give in to temptation ,when it's laid in front of them.

But I wouldn't agree with completely banning it , you can't stop people bringing in cakes or buns into a office :shrug: . A treat is a treat . Smokers smoke outside anyway?....so that argument isn't really valid, unless you're at a bustop or something inhaling it .

We do "long walks in nature" and "yoga with mindfulness" in my office Parmy. I bloody wish someone would bring in a pack of donuts. But they'd probably be vegan or something if they did :bawling:.

I mean we are talking about grown ups here, this is almost the equivalent of everyone winning a race in school, I get that some people have issues with food and I do get that there is an obesity/type 2 diabetes crises but preventing people from bringing cakes into the office is a bit extreme

If someone's fat, they already lack self control, so cakes being in the office isn't going to make much difference.

well there going to get even fatter if free cake is on offer.

TBH people are addicted to food. being cake into the office and having it on the desk next to someone desk for 8 hours is a struggle for a lot of fatties.
Would it be acceptable to put a bag of coke in front of a junkie for 8 hours?

Mmm, not really fussed about cake. I never eat it, unless someone brings it work.

Yes, funnily enough most people do have a physical dependency on sustenance.

It's not acceptable to put class-A drugs anywhere :nono:

Anything to keep dehumanising people. Don't bring cakes into the office, how dare people have a couple mins of happiness whilst wading their way through the mundane, painfully boring hell at times that is the office.

ITN
has cupboard full of cakes

Shown on Ch5HD AM Live

Spose it's better than the entire bookies emptying for a quick piss round the back.

The shallowness of some professionals is staggering. People don't have weight problems because someone took a bit of cake into work. People have weight problems for a whole raft of reasons yet it's always boiled down to temptation and lack of willpower. I believe that emotional eating is a big problem... no one ever mentions that but instead compound the myth that people who are overweight are always greedy and lazy. Doughnuts in the office is the main reason for going in, for God's sake...

Right. All you have to do is not do it, which is less energy than doing.

Some people are overweight for metabolic reasons (which are often genetic) or as a side-effect to some medications. It’s not always about food.

Then it won't make a great deal of difference if they est cake :hehe:

Maybe not but it’s so wrong to say that someone inherently lacks self-control for having a more-than-average bit of weight on them. That’s true sometimes but someone with severe type-two diabetes and something that requires them to take olanzapine (to list just one example out of hundreds, if not thousands) might struggle to keep themselves on the better side of 13/14 stone and that’s nothing to do with willpower. Someone with depression who overeats isn’t just a lazy sos who lacks willpower. I don’t know how people can even say that.

Metabolism & genetics CAN play a part,but we all know this is about people not having self control around sugary foods :shrug: .

Like I said banning cakes & sweets in a work environment....is going a bit far .

The cake-thing per-se might be about people lacking self-control around sugary foods/snacks but people like Oliver seem to think that anyone who’s overweight is that way simply because of that. That’s where the problem is on this thread. It’s so much more complicated than that.

I would say more people who are obese & overweight is because they have a bad diet & don't do enough exercise ,it's a fact whether you like it or not .

But some people are overweight due to other health issues, yes this is also true .....but if you're someone with a genetic metabolism problem,then you would need to watch your weight more so I would think .

i think people are looking at it way to deeply :laugh:

The health watch dog doesn't like cakes and recommends that people don't eat them in the office. It's no more complicated than that

I mean, that per-se is the crux of the article and I agree that it’s OTT. Vanilla cupcakes are welcome in the office on a Friday no matter what they say. That much we can probably all agree on.