DAILY INTAKE
Healthy from the Start Resources for Shiftworkers
Having a well-balanced diet is important for meeting your nutrient requirements. To achieve this, your diet should include a mixture of vegetables, fruits, grains, lean meats and poultry, and dairy products or their alternatives. Avoid eating a lot of foods that contain high levels of saturated fats, added salt, and sugar.
To ensure you can feel and operate your best as a shiftworker, you should eat nutritious foods that meet your nutrient requirements (1).
To make sure you have enough energy for your shift, and you’re meeting your nutrient requirements, you can follow the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
To meet your nutrient requirements, aim to eat from the five food groups each day: vegetables, fruits, grains, lean proteins, and dairy or dairy alternatives (7).
It’s also important to drink plenty of water (read more about hydration here), and limit foods and drinks that are high in saturated fats, added salt, added sugar, and alcohol.
Where appropriate, foods with high saturated fats should be substituted with foods that mostly contain polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats such as oils, spreads, nut butters, and avocado (1).
Knowing what to eat is one thing, but knowing how much to eat is another. A guide to how many serves of each food group you should aim to consume each day is provided below.
Shiftwork can disrupt the hormones that tell you when you’re hungry and when you’re full. For this reason, it’s good to have a few different metrics to measure whether you’re eating the right amount of food each day. Some good indicators are (7):
• Body Mass Index (BMI) – this is a measure of body size based on your height and weight. This number may be a helpful initial indicator of whether your weight is sitting in a healthy range, but it doesn’t take into account fat distribution (which is a more reliable measure of health). You can calculate your BMI here, but speaking to your GP about more accurate measures of your weight in relation to health is a good idea.
• Waist circumference – risk of certain diseases is increased with higher waist circumferences, particularly if your waist circumference is over 88cm for females, or over 102cm for males. Learn how to measure your waist circumference here.
• Energy levels – your body size is usually linked to how much food you consume, but what you consume can have a big impact on your energy levels. Eating a nutritious diet most of the time will help you to maintain consistent energy levels and feel your best.
You can also use online calculators to understand how many calories you should be consuming each day.
It’s important to consider that nutrition impacts a number of body systems, and the size of your body isn’t the only indication of how well you’re looking after your nutrition. It is possible to be a ‘healthy’ weight and not meeting your nutrient requirements. Focus on a high-quality, nutritious diet first and foremost, and the health and wellbeing benefits will be seen over time. To read more about the impacts of poor nutrition, including overweight and obesity, click here.