REUTERS

A story from the Daily Mail - 02-02-2012

DM_N_11_A_02_SNACK.txt

You've had fruit for breakfast and a salad for lunch.

But before you congratulate yourself, perhaps you should add to the tally those three chocolate biscuits and a muffin.

The average female office worker consumes a third of her daily calorie allowance – around 650 calories – on snacks such as chocolate, a survey has revealed.

And this isn't due to hunger, it suggests, but simply down to boredom.

Nine out of ten female office workers - 87 percent - confessed to snacking at their desks and listed the foods they ate during the average day.

The total number of calories consumed was then added up and half of the women - 51 percent - said they ate between 650 and 750 calories a day on just snacks.

This is around a third of the Government's recommendations of 2,000 calories-a-day for women.

A further two percent of the female office workers polled said that they ate snacks throughout the working day adding up to 850 to 950 calories, according to the survey.

However, nine percent were better behaved and said they consumed 150 to 250

The women polled differed on their reasons for snacking, but most - 49 percent - said it was simply down to boredom, while a tenth - 11 percent - said it was to be sociable.

Popular snack foods included chocolate, the top choice of 41 percent of women, followed by fruit, at 36 percent and crisps at 31 percent.

Almost two thirds - 64 percent - of the women who took part in the study said that they snack more while in the office than they do when at home.

The survey, compiled by MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, was based on the opinions of 1,947 women who have a full-time job in an office environment.

Mark Pearson, chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, said: 'In an office environment, it can be very easy give in to snacking on the treats available and resisting them can be very difficult.' - Daily Mail