Fueling the frontline: Healthy eating tips for nurses

By Your Health Magazine

When caring for others, you need to care for yourself first.

Are you a nurse struggling to find a balanced diet? Nurse wellness is possible!

Discover how and why you should eat healthy as a nurse, and how better nutrition can help you overcome the challenges of burnout and exhaustion.

Why should nurses eat healthy?

Most nurses have demanding jobs and schedules: twelve-hour shifts, constantly rotating schedules, and caring for a wide variety of people.

Long hours and varying shift schedules can have a negative impact on a nurse’s sleep cycle, stress level, and overall health.

Eating healthy helps nurses to do the following:

Maintain regular energy levels during long shifts.
Reduce stress and exhaustion.
Maintain a healthy weight to avoid the development of chronic diseases.
Increase stamina and endurance to perform demanding nursing tasks, such as moving or lifting patients.
Be a role model for patients, demonstrating that healthy habits are possible.
Decrease inflammation in the body, improving mood, anxiety, and depression.

When you eat healthy, you are better equipped to cope with the stressful factors of being a nurse.

How does stress affect our food choices?

Stress can be good for our bodies, but too much can be harmful. Chronic stress is associated with eating more and preferring high-fat and high-sugar foods. Making poor choices to satisfy these cravings can lead to increased inflammation and obesity.

To combat stress, our bodies need anti-inflammatory factors, such as antioxidants and essential fatty acids, which we can find in foods. For this reason, making good food choices is vital for nurses.

Do burnout and exhaustion affect nutrition?

Yes. Nurse burnout and exhaustion are real challenges that affect food choices and nutrition. Burnout can lead to binge eating, emotional eating, and an increase in fast food or ultra-processed snacks.

Often, nurses don’t get enough sleep, especially when on back-to-back shifts. When sleep deprived, people tend to crave higher-calorie and higher-sugar foods. Sleep deprivation also reduces cognitive function.

Burnout and exhaustion make it imperative that nurses focus on practical and sustainable options to improve their diet.

Common barriers to healthy eating for nurses

As if burnout and exhaustion weren’t enough, a nurse’s work life creates some very real barriers to healthy eating. Some of the most common ones are:

Time crunch: Nurses often report skipping meals when on shift.
No options: The snack options in vending machines and the corner shop are rarely healthy.
Fatigue: At the end of a shift, who has the energy to go home and cook up something from scratch?

What is the key to a better diet?

The first step is to care about what you eat.

While there is no “cure-all” for improving your diet, there are several different tactics you can try.

Practical tips for eating healthier as a nurse

Here are some practical nutrition tips for nurses that address common barriers to healthier eating:

Plan ahead for your grocery shopping and prepare your meals ahead of time. Look for nutrient-dense and whole food options, use simple recipes, and even cook in batches. This way, you’ll have access to good food even when you’re short on time and avoid the quick fix of hitting the drive-thru at a nearby fast food stop.
Stay hydrated to avoid fatigue. Carry a bottle of water with you, and avoid sugary drinks like sodas and energy drinks.
Eat often but little, even during your shifts. Keep smart snacks on hand, such as nuts, cereal bars, yogurt, fresh fruit, or hummus with vegetables. This will fill you up so you aren’t starving at the end of your shift and keep your sugar and energy levels stable.
Try mindful eating. Have designated meal times when you focus only on eating and not on screens or stressors. This will help to prevent overeating and binge-eating because you won’t be distracted when your body tells you it is full.

How can you achieve a healthier lifestyle?

Incorporating these healthy tips can significantly improve your diet. However, nurses also need to prioritize their health in other ways, like the following:

Remember to prioritize quality sleep when possible (between 7 and 9 hours each night).
Don’t forget physical activity (at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week).
Manage your stress levels through hobbies, relaxation, sports, reading, or another activity that you enjoy.
Become a part of a support network, which can be other nursing professionals around you.
Establish a work-life balance. Your life is more than your work.

The most important thing?

It is imperative that if you start a diet, it is good for you: emotionally, physically, and mentally. You should still be able to enjoy what you eat and never go hungry.

When you are a nurse, every second at work is precious. You often can’t find time to think about eating something healthy, or you’re so exhausted that you need to eat something fast.One of our top recommendations is to prepare healthy snacks and meals in advance. Check out some meal preparation options for nurses to add healthy variety to your diet, have something to eat when you are tired, and improve your overall nutrition.