Nobody wants to be the food police at his or her organization. But with employee obesity rates — an related chronic health problems — soaring, more and more employers are taking matters into their own hands.

The tricky part is finding a way to get results without making employees think Big Brother is watching. Here’s how two firms pulled it off without alienating employees.

Healthy options free or low cost

A California company started a healthy dining room for employees and tied it to its wellness program. How it worked:

• The company put a salad bar in the break room at lunchtime (charging folks $1.50 apiece to offset their own costs)
• The firm offered a free fruit snack in the morning and a veggie snack in the afternoon as an alternative to the vending machine, and
• It asked volunteers (60 signed up) to have their cholesterol, glucose and triglyceride checked at the start of the program and six months later.

Result: The campaign worked. Across the board, employees’ test results were noticeably better after six months. Just as importantly, the volunteers self-reported having more energy on the job.

A more down-home variation

If your firm can’t afford to start a similar healthy-eating program, here’s a nearly free alternative that worked for another employer. This organization invited local farmers to come set up produce stands outside the company’s building.

The only cost: a few permits from the local municipality.

Employees ate it up - literally. The key: location, location, location.

People passed the stands every day. No one could resist fresh peaches or apples in the spring and summer.

Higher cost for doing nothing

A recent study found a vicious cycle caused by employees’ bad eating habits.

Poor nutrition leads to lack of energy, lower productivity and finally, poor health. Final price tag to the U.S. employers who stand pat: $99 billion a year.