We all learned in school that food gives us energy, and when we fill our stomachs, we have enough energy to work. Therefore, more food equals more energy, leading to less stress and better work performance.
But this theory is only sometimes true.
For example, do you know that you can eat three times daily and still feel fatigued, stressed, and worn out?
This article explores how your nutrition helps combat work-related stress and prevent burnout. We also recommend some changes to your diet that can help you improve your productivity at the office.
Brace yourself! Some things you think you "know" about food may be disproved, and you may find out that your favorite food isn’t very beneficial to your body. However, we urge you to keep an open mind, as the things you learn in this article may help eliminate work-related stress (or at least help you to deal with it better!).
Work-related Stress, Burnout, and How to Know If You’re Suffering from Either
People often mistake working well under pressure for dealing with chronic work-related stress. Some psychologists believe that a little bit of stress is good for you as long as you have enough time to recover and you’re not constantly overwhelmed by it.
Work-related stress may have some advantages. But when it happens all the time, and it takes such a toll on you that you can no longer function the way you want, or you no longer feel like yourself, then you are experiencing burnout. Burnout is caused by prolonged workplace stress leaving the worker physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted and drastically reducing job performance.
Burnout has become a global phenomenon affecting organizations worldwide. During the summer of 2022, Microsoft surveyed over 20,000 people in 11 countries, showing that about fifty percent of workers and fifty-three percent of managers were burned out from work.
Burnout is not restricted to a particular gender, group, or continent. A study by McKinsey Health Institute found that thirty-three percent of employees in Asia are experiencing burnout symptoms, with even higher levels among female and frontline workers in the region. Another report by Capital One Insights Center showed that forty-eight percent of American small business owners said they experienced burnout during the month before the survey.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), you’re suffering from burnout when you notice three things.
- You're exhausted or feel your energy level has been depleted.
- You are mentally distant from your job or feel cynical or negative about it.
- Your professional performance is drastically reduced.
Read our extensive guide to learn more about burnout syndrome and its consequences. Please take our assessment if you think you are suffering from burnout — before your symptoms become severe.
How Your Diet Can Help Combat Stress and Burnout
With your knowledge of work-related stress and burnout, you’re probably wondering if a few tweaks to your diet can affect combating them. It may surprise you to know just how powerful your diet can be and how a few changes can bring about positive physical and mental transformation.
Eating healthy is necessary for everyone, but it is even more critical for those suffering from stress or burnout. Here are a few suggestions on how your diet can help combat stress and burnout.
Choose Complex Carbohydrates Over Refined Carbohydrates
Do you know that your favorite carbohydrates might do you more harm than good? How is that possible? The body derives its fuel from the glucose found in carbohydrates, but not all carbs are created equal.
Refined carbohydrates, like white bread, white rice, and white pasta, are fast-acting energy sources. Once you take them, your energy levels rise immediately. Unfortunately, this fix doesn’t last, and the energy source disappears as quickly as it came, causing your body to crash. This sudden rise and fall in energy levels is terrible for your mood and only worsens the case for someone experiencing stress or burnout.
Complex carbohydrates like brown rice, oats, whole wheat bread, pasta, etc., take longer to digest and sustain you throughout the period you need to work. These foods contain fiber which slows down the rate glucose is released into the body, thereby preventing sudden rise and crash in blood sugar levels.
Complex carbohydrates contain serotonin, a chemical in the brain that calms the body and improves a person's ability to deal with stress and avoid depression. Since complex carbohydrates take longer to digest, there is a continuous flow of serotonin in the body for longer periods.
Eat Three Times Daily and Maybe Some More
People dealing with stress or burnout are often so overwhelmed with work that they skip meals because they can't spare the time to have a proper meal. Going too long without food decreases your blood sugar and causes your mood and energy level to drop.
Regular meals and healthy snacks help provide the body with sustained energy. It stabilizes blood sugar to improve mood and reduce stress. Expert psychologists recommend regularly eating when dealing with work-related stress or burnout, including having healthy snacks between meals to keep up your energy levels.
Plan Your Meals
The best time to plan your lunch at work is early morning before leaving home. Packing your lunch is a lost art that should be revived. The longer you wait to decide what to eat during lunch, the more likely you will have an unhealthy meal. When you can't choose what or where to have lunch, the unhealthy sodas and snacks in the vending machine start looking irresistible.
Hydrate Your Way to Better Health
Nutritionists advise people to drink water to stay hydrated. But did you know that hydration has natural calming properties on the body? In addition, staying hydrated helps to calm your nerves, alleviate your stress, and lower your anxiety levels.
Research conducted by the University of Cincinnati showed that your hydration level determines how well you respond to stress. Whether you're suffering from burnout or not, drink several cups of water daily to relax better.
Eat High-Fiber Fruits and Vegetables
Experts encourage people to add vegetables and fruits to their daily meals because they contain many beneficial nutrients and can help combat the effects of stress and burnout.
A 2018 study carried out among students showed that eating fruits and vegetables caused them to have happier thoughts, feel calmer, and become more energetic while carrying out their duties. Dark leafy vegetables like spinach help the body produce a high amount of serotonin, the "happy chemical" that regulates mood, sleep, and memory.
We recommend taking avocado, seaweed, spinach, pears, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, carrots, oranges, cashew, etc. They’ve all been found to have a positive effect on combating stress, burnout, and mood disorders.
Eat Foods that Contain Adaptogens
Adaptogens help your body adapt to your changing physical and emotional surroundings. They aim to help your body achieve balance in any environment by managing physical and mental stressors.
When stressed and your cortisol levels are elevated, adaptogens help lower them. Similarly, adaptogens increase cortisol levels to achieve balance when your cortisol levels are low due to extreme fatigue. Adaptogens are found in plants and herbs like turmeric, ashwagandha, goji berry, and ginseng, to name a few.
Eat Foods that Contain Healthy Fats and Omega-3s
Eating foods that contain healthy fats, especially Omega-3, can do wonders for your mood. Foods like sardines, salmon, and mackerel, have a lot of Omega-3s, which help tackle mood disorders, anxiety, and depression. Omega-3s interact with the brain chemicals and trigger the hormones that can positively affect your mood.
Eat Dark Chocolate
You may think chocolate is just junk food, but research has proved that it is an essential soldier in the fight against stress and mood disorders. Quality dark chocolate containing a high percentage of cocoa is rich in antioxidants. It lowers the stress hormones in the body.
An emotional impact comes from savoring a piece of chocolate when stressed. While emotional eating for extended periods is not good, indulging from time to time for stress relief is okay! Ensure that your chocolate doesn't contain too much sugar, and don't overdo it!
Have Soup and Warm Drinks
Apart from the nutritional benefits of soup, it helps you relax and comforts you, which is essential when dealing with emotional stress. Drinking hot soup relaxes your body and mind and alleviates your anxiety.
The same is true about savoring a cup of hot cocoa or your favorite teas. There is something inherently relaxing about holding that warm cup in your hands!
Caffeine: Yay or Nay?
The United States Food and Drug Administration has cited 400 milligrams of caffeine per day as the limit for adults. Coffee is the most common beverage in the workplace as it helps workers stay alert, avoid afternoon drowsiness, and even stay up for late-night meetings. When coffee is taken regularly, however, the worker might become addicted to caffeine, and this can cause anxiety levels to rise. Taking coffee may also cause you to lose sleep.
So, coffee and caffeinated beverages are acceptable as long as you watch how much you drink, especially if it's affecting your bedtime. Quality sleep is essential during times of stress.
Drowning Your Worries in Alcohol
Workers are sometimes tempted to take a break from work and consume alcohol to help them relax and overcome stress. When this becomes a regular habit, it's a bad idea. For someone suffering from burnout, taking alcoholic beverages can exacerbate their condition.
Instead of calming your nerves and reducing stress, alcohol causes dehydration, messes with your insulin and blood sugar levels, and negatively affects your immune system. Although alcohol may drown your sorrows initially, the after-effects can be devastating.
If you choose to drink for relaxation, make sure you do so in moderation. Also, it's significantly better if your "drinking activities" are part of a social activity that brings you joy rather than drinking alone.
Can Nutrition Alone Prevent or Combat Stress and Burnout?
Prevention is better than cure. Nutrition is more effective in preventing burnout than combating it after it has reached its full-blown state. Once you start experiencing symptoms of work-related stress, there are several ways you can tackle it by changing your diet into something healthy. But once it reaches full-scale burnout, it usually takes more than food to return to normal.
Burnout is a very severe condition. While eating healthy is an essential part of the healing process, psychologists also recommend improving your work-life balance. For example, exercise, better sleep, reduced workload, vacations, positive affirmations, meditation, and grounding techniques all help people better cope with stress. Talking to someone close to you or seeking a professional therapist to help you recover is also a good idea.
How Your Nutrition Affects Your Work Performance
When we're busy, we often think of food as something necessary to get out of the way so we can focus on our work. This explains why most people spend little time thinking about the food they eat and how it affects their work performance.
Understandably, workers go for faster options like french fries, soda, coffee, etc., on a busy workday. On the face of it, those options are readily available and should save time. However, those precious few minutes you thought you saved with a quick lunch like this usually leads to reduced work performance.
Think of it this way. You may have saved fifteen minutes by having soda and snacks, but this type of lunch would make you unable to perform optimally for the rest of the day.
Recommended Diet Practices to Improve Work Performance
It goes without saying that eating healthier is better for us. But for many people, completely changing our lifestyles to create better habits can be overwhelming. Instead, here are some simple changes that will stack up and make a difference.
Have a Meal Time Table
Set aside time at the beginning of the week to plan your meal for your work days. You probably think having a meal timetable is lame, but you'll thank us when your work performance improves. While planning your schedule, add fruits and vegetables, and choose complex carbohydrates over refined carbs to provide sustained energy for your work.
Avoid Eating Late at Night
Research shows that eating unhealthy foods late at night affects work productivity negatively the following day. Ensure your evening meal is neither too heavy nor too late.
Fill Vending Machine with Fruits and Healthy Snacks
As an employer, you can replace the unhealthy snacks in the vending machine with fruits and healthy snacks that will increase your employees' energy levels and productivity at work. Employees, make these suggestions to your boss or human resources.
Choose Dining Facilities that Serve Healthy Foods
Many employees eat unhealthy snacks and sodas for lunch because they are readily available. An employer can solve this problem by providing dining facilities that serve healthy meals. If your workplace doesn't offer healthy options, pack a lunch, or go elsewhere.
Stay Hydrated
Drink lots of water daily to aid cognition and mental performance. When you stay hydrated, you can concentrate better at work, and there is less chance of fatigue or tiredness.
Reduce Caffeine Use and Avoid Alcoholic Beverages
Having coffee, energy drinks, or caffeinated sodas at work is common, but we recommend reducing your intake (or at least not depending upon them to get through the day). A healthy diet and adequate sleep will improve your work performance more than coffee. Alcoholic beverages hinder work performance. Avoid overindulging!
Effects of Eating Healthy at Work
As we come to a close, let’s take a moment to summarize some of the ways eating healthier can help increase your work productivity.
Less Fatigue
Drinking lots of water daily while you work reduces the risk of fatigue. You can work longer, think and concentrate better, and increase your productivity without fatigue.
Fewer Sick Days
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, so they say — and for a good reason. Eating healthy is the best way to build up your body's immune system and avoid diseases. When your employees make it their habit to eat healthy meals, there will be fewer recorded sick days. And the more time they spend at work, the more work they get done.
More Energy to Work
Part of eating healthy is choosing the proper meal to give you sustained energy to work. Substituting refined carbs for complex carbs ensures that your body has more power to work for extended periods, increasing job performance.
Reduced Risk of Burnout
As we explained, eating better is a great way to combat stress and prevent burnout, which is no mean feat considering the prevalence of those conditions in organizations around the globe.
A healthy diet won't take away the stress caused by working in a toxic work environment. But it will help you cope better and ensure you have the energy to stay productive!
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