A recent study finds that unhealthy eating behaviors at night can make people less helpful and more withdrawn the next day at work.
«For the first time, we have shown that healthy eating immediately affects our workplace behaviors and performance,» says Seonghee «Sophia» Cho, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. «It is relatively well established that other health-related behaviors, such as sleep and exercise, affect our work. But nobody had looked at the short-term effects of unhealthy eating.»
Fundamentally, the researchers had two questions: Does unhealthy eating behavior affect you at work the next day? And, if so, why?
For the study, researchers had 97 full-time employees in the United States answer a series of questions three times a day for 10 consecutive workdays. Before work on each day, study participants answered questions related to their physical and emotional well-being. At the end of each workday, participants answered questions about what they did at work. In the evening, before bed, participants answered questions about their eating and drinking behaviors after work.
In the context of the study, researchers defined «unhealthy eating» as instances when study participants felt they’d eaten too much junk food; when participants felt they’d had too much to eat or drink; or when participants reporting having too many late-night snacks.
The researchers found that, when people engaged in unhealthy eating behaviors, they were more likely to report having physical problems the next morning. Problems included headaches, stomachaches and diarrhea. In addition, when people reported unhealthy eating behaviors, they were also more likely to report emotional strains the next morning — such as feeling guilty or ashamed about their diet choices. Those physical and emotional strains associated with unhealthy eating were, in turn, related to changes in how people behaved at work throughout the day.
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Materials provided by North Carolina State University. Original written by Matt Shipman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.