Nutrition for wellbeing programme launched

Hello, my name is Anna Earl and I’m a former police officer. I now run a nutritional therapy business, Nutrivival, specialising in nutrition to support shift workers.
Over the next few months, I’m going to be inviting you to join me on a Nutrition for Wellbeing programme, which will be launched and accessible on your National Police Wellbeing Service website, www.OscarKilo.org.uk. But what’s the benefit to you spending your valuable time learning about nutrition and how is it relevant to your work in the police service?

Well, I want to convince you that it is so relevant, not only to your performance at work, but to your long-term health, to ageing well. That might seem a long way off for some of you, but it creeps up!

I chose this area to specialise because of my personal experiences as a police officer, regarding diet and health, both my own and that of my colleagues. Rotating earlies, lates and nights, eating on the go whilst flying from job to job, and feeling forced to make poor food choices with frequent reliance on ultra-processed and takeaway food due to the lack of both time and healthy options available during the night.

And even on those times when you had taken something into work, perhaps you find yourself spending your shift away from your regular station, you’re doing scene preservation or in custody for hours on end, and so the vending machine with its fizzy drinks, chocolate and endless rounds of coffee has to suffice. You’re lovingly prepared vegetable chilli left sitting in the fridge.

As I studied nutrition science, I learnt that not only what you eat but when you eat has a very different impact on your body and on your health. We’ll be going into a little more depth with this throughout this programme, but in a nutshell, our digestive function slows right down during the night, so eating foods that are harder to digest whilst on a night shift can account for some uncomfortable gut symptoms that are common with shift workers. Certain foods can trigger blood sugar spikes but then dives, causing a rollercoaster ride of energy peaks and troughs. These foods can also contribute to weight issues, as the energy your body makes from food eaten during the night is more likely to be stored as fat. Your metabolism works very differently late into the evening and night, to when you eat during the day, when your digestive hormones and juices that break down food are fully operational.

And years of eating against the rhythm of your natural body clock takes its toll. If you are new to shift work, you may not be aware of that.

Statistics from health studies show that as a shift worker you are at greater risk of chronic health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

But, armed with some understanding of what different foods do once inside your body, a toolkit with resources to support you, and some practical tips on how to make healthy changes, this programme aims to help you reduce that risk.
Those chronic health conditions are absolutely not a given. You can do so much to help yourself if you invest in good food choices.

Consider it this way, you wouldn’t put a low-grade product that vaguely resembles petrol into your car and expect it to give you top performance.

The same is true of us.

What we put into our bodies has a direct impact on how we think and feel.

(Quote from Patrick Holford, Nutrition Expert & Author)

I am here to help promote your long-term health through food. The Nutrition for Wellbeing programme focuses on two of the key results from the 2022 National Police Wellbeing Survey that you fed back, and that is; helping you combat fatigue and boosting your emotional energy. We’ll do that by suggesting nutritious foods that support energy balance, helping you get off that rollercoaster of energy peaks and slumps, instead looking at foods that provide a more gradual release of energy, keep you fuller for longer, and help reduce the desire to snack and graze on less healthy choices. And we aim to boost your emotional energy with food for mood. This is an area called Nutritional Psychiatry and it can be hugely beneficial.

Provide optimum grade fuel for your body, combine this with other positive lifestyle practices, such as sleep, exercise, stress management and emotional wellbeing and observe the benefit on your health. Invest in your self-care.

So, my next engagement with you will be the first session of Nutrivival’s programme Feed Your Body Clock. This is a series of 4 live webinars that will take place approximately monthly, and in between those will be some bitesize videos with some practical healthy eating suggestions. Each of the webinars will be advertised on the ‘Events and training’ section of the Oscar Kilo website, where you will find full details be able to register.

Finally, is your force already doing some great healthy eating initiative, that is having a positive impact on officers and staff? Please contact me so that we share what’s working more widely to benefit your colleagues across the policing family. Contact details are shown at the end of this video.

I really hope you will engage with this programme, talk about it with your colleagues, and my biggest hope is that it helps you make some sustainable changes to promote your long-term wellbeing.

So, the takeaway message from today is, that what we put into our bodies has a direct impact on how we think and feel.

Thank you. I’ll see you again soon.