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Comment by w1ntermute | Hacker News Reader

Is anybody else bothered by selection of products listed in the blog post (I didn't check the full list since I'm on my phone)? How about some fruits? You can eat healthy and support the local community at the same time. And Red Bull, even though it's sugar free, isn't something I'd drink on a regular basis. Tea is a nice alternative.

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I dunno. I would categorize myself a health nut (powerlifting, leangains etc) but I do think that junk foods (cookies, icecream and redbull) should not be banned from a tech office kitchen. I may not partake of them but some people do prefer them and the idea should be to cater to as many preferences as possible within reason. I find it odd that some people have this fixation that their personal attitudes towards eating healthy should be enforced for every one in the office. I appreciate their efforts to be healthy but if someone wants their sugar fix and get back to work without being distracted, they should be free to do so.

Speaking of leangains, doesn't that system offer the option of not eating at all at work? Though to be honest, not eating can be hard if you're under stress.

That is basically what I do. I drink a protein shake around 2 PM. Ideally, this is all I eat till I go home and then pack on a big dinner. Having said that, practically there are times when you eat out (Team lunches, parties at work etc). It takes some getting used to and I was always the kind who used to skip breakfast so it works well for me.

I completely agree with the not eating under stress being hard part. It is doubly annoying when someone else's perspective on "Healthy food" is forced upon you at these times.

We pick up fresh fruit from the market at Pier 1 or get a farmer's box delivered, I should add them

Updated post (for those who won't read it here): Important Note: We also order in fresh food from restaurants with GrubHub.com or Postmates, and pick up fresh fruit and vegetables as needed from the local farmer's market (for us at Pier 1). You can also arrange to have farm fresh baskets delivered locally, or from TheFruitCompany.com to anywhere in the U.S. (disclosure by lovely brother-in-law is their CFO).

I clicked through to the Startup Office Snacks link (http://refer.ly/startup_office_snacks/c/984171a826c511e2a4ec...) and immediately felt myself getting fat.

Not to mention the first thing on the list is popcorn. Not sure how everyone else feels, but nothing distracts me more at work than that smell.

I think that's what happens when you make a food shopping list entirely out of items that can be purchased online.

At a previous startup in Los Angeles, I had one of the co-founders order a bi-weekly office dropoff of organic fruit. It was hassle free and automatic. It wasn't always the fruit they would have picked up in the store (e.g. 2 large cantaloupes) but it did provide a great, healthy alternative to snack foods.

The one we used (which I will recommend) was Farm Fresh To You http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/ with a small ($25) fruit box delivered. I'm sure in any large city, there is a similar service.

Yeah, the Red Bull immediately suggested 'we want to help you crunch' in my mind.

We have a Keurig coffee machine along with a lot of different types of coffee. I don't see energy drinks being any worse than coffee. At a small office, the selection of products shouldn't imply what kind of behavior the company expects of employees. It's just a group of people trying to work together, which includes buying whatever food or drinks are desired and reasonable.

I realize that it'd be nice to encourage healthier habits, but since it's not anybody's real job to stock the kitchen, it's been path of least resistance. Personally I hate caffeine, but it's not the worst thing.

In my experience, people drink coffee daily in order to function normally vs being sleepy. OTOH, they go for Red Bull and other energy drinks exceptionally, if/when they need an extra push.

If a large enough group of people regularly desire such drinks at work, it might just be an statistically odd group, but by default I conclude that they often need that extra boost. In my mind it suggests frequent crunch. Whether it's imposed by the company, the context, or the people - I'm not judging, especially not a startup.

YMMV, I'm certainly biased since a) I only drink water and milk, and b) I have personally seen even worse than energy drinks being offered to help people work longer and harder.

I wonder when the first adderall, ritalin, or desoxyn will get stocked in a company kitchen.

When they no longer require prescriptions to obtain and use legally.

To offer a counter perspective: I hate the taste of coffee but it is all I drank back when I was in grad school for my caffeine fix (because I was poor and red bull was $$). Once I got to work, I wanted to quit coffee but wanted to still get caffeine, the easiest way of doing that was through sugar free red bull. This was completely uncorrelated with whether I was on crunch time or not. I rarely if ever do that now that I am over my caffeine addiction but I get why it is stocked.

http://www.sugarstacks.com/img/redbull.jpg

It's not just the caffeine, it's also the sugar in those energy drinks. How many people add that much sugar to a single cup of coffee?

From the article:

If you decide to make a purchase through one of my links I may receive a commission from Amazon.

There's a clear purpose of the OP, and suggesting healthy snacks isn't it.

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