We've visited a lot of startups, heard a lot of business plans, met a lot of CEO's, and seen a lot of junk food. Seems like no dotcom is complete without a kitchen full of sugary delicacies for the hard-working web folk. But not everyone thinks Twizzlers are the key to productivity.

When you're working in the dotcom world one thing's for sure, you learn to live on junk food, and the cheaper, the better.

"So basically, I got 2 weeks worth of Top Ramen down here," says one dotcom employee. "I got two loaves of bread, here's the jelly to go with the peanut butter and we keep it cold so you got the contrast. That whole thing can feed you for 2 weeks and it only costs $5!"

Dotcom junk food origins can be traced back to early-stage startup money-saving techniques. Now, it's right there with long hours and colorful toys. But not everybody sees donuts as the path to profitability.

David Dewald works at video game developer Electronic Arts in Redwood City, but he doesn't sit around much. Dewald runs the company's 25,000 square foot fitness center where employees can exercise any way they like on their lunch hour.

Now with all these options, you'd think EA employees would have the best health in the Silicon Valley, but you would be wrong. With the industry's younger workforce, Dewald says it's hard to change the snacking habits of junk food junkies who still have their health.

"They're not looking ahead to the future," says Dewald. "It's really important to be paying attention to the changes in your body so you gotta slack off on the candy bars. If you put a Clif bar with a piece of fruit, either some grapes or bananas, you'd have a third of the fiber you need in a day that helps you feel full."

Gigi Acker is the founder of Nutrition Insights, a nutrition communications company in Los Altos. She works at EA every Wednesday confidentially counseling junk-food dependent employees toward better health habits.

"Food is pleasure," says Acker. "People are working long days and looking to give themselves pleasure. Snacking is no longer an option but a necessity in these long workdays. And yet people don't plan that they're gonna be hungry at 3-4pm. The typical lunch lasts about 3 hours, so at 3-4 the most convenient thing they can do is go grab candy from the candy jar, or go to the vending machine."

Acker says finding healthy snacks is easy, the hard part is saying 'no' to the less healthy snacks stocked in so many dotcom kitchens.

"I think companies could look a little closer at what they're offering to their employees," says Acker. "Offer some comfort foods, and also offer foods that are gonna sustain energy for employees."

With facilities that beat most commercial gyms, EA is way ahead of the game. But even the smallest start-ups might be wise to forgo the red vines. After all, if you can chill out your employees' blood sugar levels, you can concentrate more on your swinging stock price. (top of page)

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