Is Your Caffeine Intake Leaving You Malnourished?

Do you rely on caffeine to get you through your shift … whether that’s in the form of a coffee, soda or energy drink? 

Perhaps you rely on two, three, or maybe even more for an energy hit to keep you going?

Whilst I’m partial to a 1/2 strength latte or mocha myself, did you know that habitual caffeine intake can contribute to malnutrition? 

It does so by depleting key vitamins and minerals such as:

  • Iron – a single cup of coffee can reduce iron absorption from a meal by as much as 75%!
  • Calcium and Magnesium – half a cup of caffeine (50mg) depletes the body of calcium and magnesium. Larger doses deplete even more.
  • Potassium – 300mg of caffeine increases potassium loss by one third.
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Does Your Job Involve Sitting Inside All Day?

Does your job involve sitting inside all day (and maybe night?) Have you spent years on a weight gain-weight-loss-weight-gain roller coaster?

Could lack of sunlight be a contributing factor? My simple answer to that is “yes, most definitely”.

Without sufficient vitamin D, AKA vitamin “daylight”, your body thinks you are hibernating.

It thinks winter is coming.

So what does it instinctively do as a response?

It slows down the metabolism, encouraging you to eat more, and store lots of fat to help you to “see through the winter”.

Even when it’s not winter!

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Do You Eat Every 2-3 Hours?

To answer ‘yes’ to this question is certainly not unusual given we’ve been led to believe that we must eat regularly to keep up our metabolism.

But is this even true? According to Dr Jason Fung, author of ‘The Obesity Code’, it’s not.

It’s a diet fallacy.

A diet dogma that, for years, has never sat well with me either. It just never felt right. Never made sense.

Truth always makes sense, whereas fallacies don’t.

Historically, we would never have eaten this way. As hunter and gatherers, we would never have had unlimited access to food in the way that we do today.

Even if we go back just 50-years, very few people were overweight, and obesity was pretty much non-existent.

Back then the Keto diet didn’t exist, nor the Paleo and if you mentioned the words “clean eating or FODMAP” I’m sure people would have looked at you as though you had two heads!

So why was this? Why were few people overweight decades ago?

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Better Sleep – The Missing Link To Sustainable Weight Loss:

Your Best New Year's Resolution For 2019!


As we close the door on yet another year, I have to ask – “is one of your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight?”

As a shift worker immersed in a sleep disrupted lifestyle, I’d say the chances of you replying to that question with a “yes”, is pretty high.

Why?  Well generally speaking, the less we sleep, the more we’re going to weigh.

I know what you’re thinking – “that sucks!”

I agree.  It does.  But the thing is, when we’re sleep deprived, there are 3 distinct things or biochemical changes which occur within our body, that if we ignore, can fast track us down the express lane to weight gain before we’ve even had a chance to see it coming!

  1. When we haven’t had enough sleep, our body instinctively seeks out energy that it didn’t get during a restorative night’s rest.What does that mean?  Well the quickest and easiest source of energy that our body can use is, you guessed it – sugar!  Or more scientifically, glucose, which means if you don’t get sufficient sleep, you’re going to have some serious carbohydrate cravings.
  2. When we haven’t had enough sleep, it dysregulates our appetite-regulating hormones ‘ghrelin’ and ‘leptin’.  Ghrelin is a hormone that gets released to increase our appetite, whereas leptin is a hormone that lets you know when you’re feeling full.  The problem when we’re sleep deprived, is ghrelin becomes elevated making us feel hungrier than normal, whilst at the same time, leptin becomes suppressed meaning you’re not going to receive that “I’m feeling full” signal which can lead to overeating and subsequent weight gain.So yes, you do have a valid, scientific explanation (or shall we say ‘justification’) as to why you polished off 1/2 packet of Tim Tams in your meal break!
  3. When we haven’t had enough sleep, it increases a stress hormone in our body called cortisol. While it’s a great hormone to have around when you need to slam on your breaks in traffic, its not good to have high amounts of it floating around on a consistent basis.  This is because cortisol raises our blood sugar, which in turn, raises our insulin levels.  Like with anything in excess, too much insulin can lead in the development of a condition called insulin resistance, which reduces our body’s ability to burn fat often leading in the development of weight gain around the abdomen or belly region.

So whilst what we eat is important when it comes to sustainable weight loss – it’s certainly by no means, the be all and end all.

Instead of following the crowd and focussing all of your attention on a restrictive, unsustainable diet for your New Year’s Resolution (which let’s face it, most have usually given up by the 2nd week of January anyway!), my recommendation for you, is to take on a completely different approach.

That being focussing on improving both the quality and quantity of your sleep, because this is going to help your body to experience less sugar cravings and hormonal dysregulation, which will inadvertently help you to lose weight anyway!

And let’s face it, who doesn’t want better sleep – especially when working 24/7!

Audra x

 

References:

Greer, S, Goldstein, A & Walker, M 2013, ‘The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain’, Nature Communications, vol. 4, no. 2259.

Hirotsu, C, Tufik, S & Anderson, M 2015, ‘Interactions between sleep, stress, and metabolism:  From physiological to pathological conditions’, Sleep Science, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 143-142.

Taheri, S, Lin, L, Austin, D, Young, T & Mignot, E 2004, ‘Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index’, PLoS Medicine, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 210-217.

HSW 65 – Healthy Shift Worker Wellness Events with Candice Bauer

As someone who works irregular hours, have you ever had any “healthy shift worker training” throughout your shift working career?  Quite simply, has anyone ever entered your workplace (that actually worked shift work themselves and knows exactly what you’re going through) and provided you with some practical strategies to help you to manage your health whilst working 24/7?

I’m going to assume your answer is a “no”, which is why you’re definitely going to want to listen to this episode!

Having spent close to two decades working shift work myself, and not once receiving any help or support on how to stay healthy whilst working 24/7, I’m now taking my healthy-shift-worker message around Australia, in the form of Healthy Shift Worker Wellness Events.

In today’s episode, we’re talking with Emergency Care Nurse Candice Bauer, who is also the founder of BareByBauer, an Australian based body and skin care company.  Candice is so passionate about her health and that of others, that she’s invited me up to her hometown of Bundaberg to talk all things to do with health and wellness.

The good news is that not only is this wellness event going to be a wealth of information for those working shift work, but it’s also designed to be an invaluable resource for anyone struggling with their health – whether that’s in the form of poor sleep, stress, weight fluctuations and much, much more!

So if you live in Bundaberg, then I look forward to seeing you there on Friday, the 28th of September 2018 :-).

Links mentioned on the podcast:

To purchase your tickets or to learn more about the Healthy “Shift” Worker event which is being held at the Bundaberg School of Arts Building, visit Eventbrite or the BareByBauer Facebook Page

To learn more about the BareByBauer range of products including the Saving Grace Repair Balm and Green Gypsy Facial Mask that Candice mentioned – visit https://www.barebybauer.com.au/

If you’re wanting me to come into your workplace (or visit your place of residence) and deliver Healthy Shift Worker Wellness Events too, then get in touch with me at audra@healthyshiftworker.com