At Oxfordshire Sport, our motto is that a healthy outside starts from the inside. And when it comes to being healthy on the inside, food is one of the major determinants of how well we achieve this goal – our mental wellbeing is another. 

We are always trying to remake and reeducate ourselves on the field of nutrition, as highly interesting research and knowledge is always propping up from every part of the world. Many of our articles are actually based on what we learn from our more than 125 member organizations, and that we find to be true from our own formal education. 

The source of our information

One of our members, Tannlege Prestegaard & Ådalen in the town of Sarpsborg in Norway, sent us an especially interesting entry through our contact form (where we always encourage people to send us research, resources, and advice). It was about a very important part of many people’s diets: fruit.

The dental clinic’s CEO, Harald Prestegaard, is a specialist of endodontics (therein root canal treatment), and a member of the European Society of Endodontology. In an email he sent us, he wrote that “there is a really interesting finding I need to share with you. Did you actually know that fruit can be harmful to our teeth?” 

“Practically washes away the enamel”

We were quite taken aback by this. Naturally, we know that certain fruits like oranges contain acids, but we weren’t aware that they were as harmful as this Harald claimed. “The acid in orange juice is so strong that the enamel on our teeth is practically washed away. What happens when we drink it, is that the enamel becomes softer for up to an hour after you’ve been drinking fluids with a high level of fluid. This leads to a higher chance of teeth damage. In other words, fruit juice might be good for our body, but it sure ain’t for our teeth!” 

Her problems went away instantly

Harald also shared the experience one of his clients had after he told her to drink less fruit juice: “Når jeg var på besøk hos min venninne i Sarpsborg for et par uker siden (jeg er opprinnelig fra Oslo), så våknet jeg plutselig en morgen med voldsomme smerter i en tann. Jeg trodde nesten jeg skulle svime av, og google hastig etter akutt tannlege i Sarpsborg. Etter litt rask vurdering av klinikkene jeg så, så valgte jeg å dra til Harald sin. ‘Bare få meg dit!’ sa jeg til venninnen. 

Heldigvis fikk jeg umiddelbart bedøvelse, så smertene avtok. Det viste seg at jeg hadde et solid hull i tanna, hvor nerven var helt blottet. Etter behandlingen spurte Harald meg noen spørsmål om spise- og drikkevanene mine. Når han fant ut at jeg drakk mye fruktjuice, så rådet han meg sterkt fra det. Jeg hadde alltid lurt på hvorfor tennene mine føltes så myke og skjøre når jeg drakk det. Nå, bare to uker senere, har jeg ikke kjent noe av den samme følelsen, og tennene mine virker sterke og friske.”

In short, the client had suffered from teeth problems for a long time, before Harald told her to drink less fruit juice. This might sound too simplistic, but after she stopped drinking it, her teeth seem stronger and healthier than ever before.

With the onset of the pandemic, home office became the new way of work. At first, many were excited at the prospect of working from home – at long last you could nestle on this comfy sofa of yours or even wrap yourself in the sheets in your bed – and work from your dream workstation at home. However, soon enough workers started to struggle with their bodies when working remotely. And guess what? The home office is to blame. Why?

Remote work has a trifecta of factors such as prolonged sitting and the subsequent reduced physical activity, and increased screen time, that altogether lead to what’s known as “work-from-home bod”. What does this exactly entail? Bloodshot eyes due to long hours of staring at the screen, pale skin due to lack of time outside, and as a consequence – low levels of vitamin D, obesity from reduced physical activity, and poor posture.

Although working in the office does have a sitting problem, people are still more likely to move around than if they were working from home. Working in the office means that employees have ample opportunities to get up from their seat and move around to socialise with their colleagues, have a coffee break, water the plants, collect printouts and so on. These opportunities have been practically erased once we switched to working from home. 

Prolonged sitting itself can lead to multiple health complications such as poor posture (scoliosis, anyone?), tech neck (strained muscles in the neck, back and shoulders from leaning forward to look at the screen, that can cause migraines), stiff and weak muscles, poor heart health, and increased risks of diabetes, as well as constipation. 

At the same time, strain your eyes at the computer for too long and you could get headaches and insomnia. The latter issue occurs as a result of excessive blue light that devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computer screens emanate. Chronic overexposure to blue light disrupts your natural circadian cycle (that regulates your natural wake and sleeping times), leading to problems with sleep. Given that due to the pandemic, most of us do all our activities on screens – from Zoom meetings to Netflix hang out parties – it is no surprise that workers report poor sleep as one of the major disadvantages of working from home. 

As such complaints keep piling up, companies should work to ensure that they provide the right conditions for their employees when the latter work from home. For now, it is up to employees themselves to organise their work stations at home to minimise the risks of musculoskeletal injuries and reduce other body problems associated with remote work. You can vastly improve your physical wellbeing when working from home by setting up your workstation in an ergonomic way – for instance, the screen should be positioned in such a way so that its top is on the same level as your eyes. You should also not hesitate to visit a professional to help you out with for example back or neck issues. For instance, there have never been so many people who go to Fysioterapi i Stavanger in Norway than now. Most likely because of the home office trend. Lastly be sure to take microbreaks every 10 minutes and do some stretches to release any muscle tension.