It’s a colleague’s birthday, it’s the end of a hard week or just a miracle that everyone made it to Wednesday: time for office cake.
Office cake is becoming so prevalent that some experts are warning that it is affecting worker’s health.
In an article on BBC.com Prof Nigel Hunt, from the Faculty of Dental Surgery, at the Royal College of Surgeons in England, states: “…for many people the workplace is now the primary site of their sugar intake and is contributing to the current obesity epidemic and poor oral health.”
While many people likely also consumer their sugar out of office hours, Hunt could be on to something. Providing cakes for employees to consume at work is widespread. Sites such as theofficecake.com based in Miami, cakes2u.com working out of Sydney, and dessertlady.ca in Toronto abound, offering everything from birthday cakes to desserts displaying employee branding, delivered right to the office door.
The result? According to Hunt, approximately 65,000 adults need hospital treatment for tooth decay each year in the UK, a number which could possibly be reduced through less treats on the job.
Consuming starchy foods between meals gives bacteria that exact fuel needed to decay your teeth.
According to livescience.com, it isn’t sugar that causes our teeth to rot, but the bacteria in our mouths that love to consumer carbs. When they do so, they produce acid that works away to cause cavities and worse, and everything from cake, to candy, to bread can be a culprit.
So, what do the experts recommend? Aside from depriving yourself of all delights, Hunt suggests treating fellow workers to a fancy cheese tray, some nuts or a platter full of fruit to celebrate, and limiting that massive cake to a few times per year.
Like when your group wins the lottery, or gets that big Christmas bonus: high time for It’s So Chocolate.
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