FATIGUE & NUTRITION
FIGHTING FATIGUE WITH FOOD
Nutrition plays an important part in preventing fatigue, especially for shift workers. An expert from the Ministry of Defence Police talks to POLICE
Part of our Target Fatigue initiative focuses on the importance of nutrition, hydration and the right eating habits to maintain a balanced and healthy diet that can see you through long, physically demanding shifts. This is especially important for police officers. Rotating shift patterns alternating between early starts and night shifts can exacerbate the disruption of the internal body clock and can lead to sleeping difficulties. It makes it harder to lead a healthier lifestyle, and symptoms of fatigue can increase.
There is much competing advice online
about how to manage diets and maintain a healthy approach to food and physical behaviour. Navigating this to know what’s
56 | POLICE | JUNE 2023
right for you is not as easy as it should be. For National Healthy Eating week, which runs from 12-17 June, we want to ensure that you have access to the appropriate information. This is why we spoke with Alison Booker, Dietitian and
She covered three main areas of concern: hydration, shift work, and diet. In her introduction, Ali explains how the links between diet and health, especially for shift workers, is complex and should be understood properly.
“Improving your diet quality is important for operational effectiveness, as well as physical and mental wellbeing”
Health and Wellbeing advisor to the Ministry of Defence Police. Ali, as she likes to be called, came down
to Fed House to film short educational videos on the importance of diet and healthy eating when combatting fatigue.
These complex links involve the relationship between light exposure, sleep, circadian rhythms, and genetics. Key to managing these relationships and maintaining our health
is diet and the quality of the food we all consume. Ali notes: “Along with other areas of health, improving your diet quality is important, not just for operational effectiveness, but for the physical and
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