A nutritional therapist and wellbeing specialist is urging all UK police forces to create nutrition champions to warn colleagues of the negative impact an unhealthy diet has on shift workers.
People don’t link health symptoms to diet – the penny doesn’t drop. Having energy drinks and chocolates readily available to keep people going is part of the culture.”
Anna Earl, Nutritional Therapist
Anna Earl, a nutrition consultant working with the police wellbeing agency Oscar Kilo, said there appears to be a wide divergence of support from wellbeing leads in forces, with some hosting impressive days and weeks of action while others admit they have no specific budget to tackle nutrition issues or promote any proactive initiatives.
She believes chief officers should be encouraged to invest specifically in healthy eating initiatives and provision for their officers and staff, given the harm that can be caused to shift workers’ bodies eating the wrong kind of foods, particularly overnight.
Ms Earl is also calling for the benefits of healthy eating and positive nutrition to be included in probationer training so that officers are aware of the dangers at the outset of their careers, when they could face years of regular night shifts ahead of them.
With the latest National Police Wellbeing Survey showing an increase in officer fatigue and decrease in emotional energy, Ms Earl admitted: “People don’t link health symptoms to diet – the penny doesn’t drop. It’s part of the culture having energy drinks and chocolates readily available to keep people going. However, small changes like promoting healthier alternatives or providing nutritious snacks, such as Father’s Day cookie delivery, can contribute to improving officer well-being in the long run.
“I’m trying to bring the message to teams and individuals that this is what’s driving your fatigue. In turn, people don’t feel like exercising – which in itself can be a stress reliever – so there is a knock-on effect on overall health.
“The ideal would be to be able to train nutrition champions, people who understand about shift work and the action required.”
Personal experience
While Ms Earl has a series of webinars and tips on the Oscar Kilo website, she also approaches individual forces to promote access to those resources, and offers to host lunchtime talks to officers outlining the dangers of an unhealthy diet and the additional risk posed to shift workers’ lifestyles.
I believe we can address a whole range of health issues amongst shift workers by providing this key information to increase understanding, and supporting them in the workplace with better food options.”
Anna Earl, Nutritional Therapist
“There’s such poor provision of nutritional food on late nights,” she told Policing Insight. “Basically, if you’re eating simple carbs when it’s dark, your body doesn’t know how to digest it because most of the digestive system has gone to sleep.
“You feel sluggish and food stores as fat and causes pressure on the heart and the risk of diabetes goes up. It would be great to have this information included in probationer training so it’s out there at the start of an officer’s career.
“Shift workers are at greater risk of Type 2 Diabetes than non-shift workers due to the topsy-turvy wake/sleep cycle and particularly their food choices and timings during irregular hours.”
A former Essex officer herself, Ms Earl is motivated to spread the benefits of chrono-nutrition (links between food choices and timing with health) due to personal experience “and witnessing the diminishing health of colleagues approaching retirement who are on a cocktail of prescription medication”.
Her studies of the Circadian Rhythm and the impact of food on health showed shift workers are at greater risk of developing chronic conditions.
She offers advice on food preparation, batch cooking and healthier options, and highlights the importance of peer support and encouragement to make better food choices.
“I believe we can address a whole range of health issues amongst shift workers by providing this key information to increase understanding, and supporting them in the workplace with better food options,” she added.
Practical resources
Revealing the responses she has had from individual force wellbeing leads, Ms Earl told Policing Insight: “There seems to be a real discrepancy in wellbeing budgets. It’s quite anecdotal, but some say they’d look to book me for a day or for a talk and others say ‘we would love you to come but we have no budget’.
We need chief officers to understand why it’s important to invest in healthy eating initiatives and provisions. It’s a huge cultural issue, but people can’t put all the blame all at the organisation’s door – there has to be some personal responsibility too.”
Anna Earl, Nutritional Therapist
“It’s difficult because it’s public spending and they’re already being provided with nutritional resources by Oscar Kilo, but I’m trying to take the message to teams to make a difference and signpost them to the Oscar Kilo tips.
“If you’re a shift worker, you should be aware of food choices. I show them practical resources to have a real impact and bring the message to individual officers.
“Devon and Cornwall had WellFest with a lot of resources, but others says there’s nothing specific and they have to take from the occupational health budget and can’t do anything proactive.”
Rather than providing a tuck shop, there are other options for officers and staff in the control room who can’t go out and have to take what they need with them for their shift, such as convenience snacks or something they can put in the microwave, said Ms Earl.
“We need chief officers to understand why it’s important to invest in healthy eating initiatives and provisions. It’s a huge cultural issue, but people can’t put all the blame all at the organisation’s door – there has to be some personal responsibility too.
“My aim is to provide more than a ‘healthy eating’ tickbox exercise, but rather to share how the modifiable factors, such as diet and lifestyle, can be preventative measures to grow a well workforce.”
Rest and digest mode
As well as the inherent risk of shift work and poor diet, Ms Earl also revealed police work in general can have a negative impact on digestion.
And she offered a tip to officers relating to their eating habits at work: “It’s difficult to digest food when you’re stressed – the cortisol going round your body switches off the digestive system,” she said.
“If you’ve been to a stressful incident and are then sent for a break, you’ve still got your heart pumping. Just pause for a minute and switch into rest and digest mode – take deep breaths and consciously calm down.
“Just switch your nervous system out of fight and flight mode into rest and digest. Have that awareness before you start grazing.”
The Oscar Kilo site has recordings of webinars hosted by Ms Earl, such as feed your body clock, food for energy, food for mood, food for shift workers and mindful eating. She also offers advice on healthy swaps that can be made, and appropriate snacks for officers, particularly those working nights.
Other topics she covers on the site include healthy eating on a budget, a series of easy-to-follow recipes, templates for healthy eating, and top tips for shift workers.
A great idea! Absent in the same way officers are not informed about preparing for shifts, importantly the night shift. Also information around building personal resilience. Health and nutrition is added to the list of important welfare concerns which hitherto are often missing from Human Resources and Organisational Development, or wellbeing budgets. Champions are a great idea, and so are good leaders, the reality and application of such interventions would need to be monitored to test impact and efficacy.