Night shift. It’s such an incredibly ruthless shift in more ways
than one as it requires us to be alert and ready to make decisions when all
our body instinctively wants to do is sleep!
Working
night shift also raises our risks of developing certain chronic health
conditions (due to a myriad of reasons) including things like obesity, diabetes
and cardiovascular disease – to name a few.
One of
the key drivers is that our body digests and metabolises foods inefficiently
during the night – even if we’re awake!
In other words, eating food during the night as opposed to during the day, can have a negative impact on the body. In the scientific literature, this is referred to as “chrononutrition” which takes into consideration not only what we’re eating, but also when.
Of course I’m not telling you to not eat during the night, although that does work for some people. It’s more about being selective on the types of food to help minimise blood sugar, digestive and hormonal disruption.
So how can we nourish our bodies in a way that is going to help
maximise our alertness, but without adding to digestive discomfort
which plagues many who work through the night?
(more…)
