Think of your body like a car, there are a lot of moving parts that all need to be working well so the car runs smoothly. Of course your car needs fuel too. Now, consider the level of maintenance your vehicles require to keep them working efficiently. Do you routinely or frequently service them? 

• Do you check for corrosion & damage?

• Do you care if the air filter is dirty & clogged?

• Do you think that using quality motor oil is important?

• Does it matter if the radiator dries out?

My guess is you answered “of course” to all of those questions, and you’d be right.

Now ask the same questions about the care you give your own body. Is your response the same? Do you think your staff are fit and making good food choices?

All things considered, if we eat and sleep well, exercise, and look after ourselves, then we would wake in the morning feeling hungry. We need to re-fuel to create energy for the day ahead. We’d should be driven by the desire for good sources of fuel. That would give us sustained energy to get us through to the next meal, when we’d re-fuel again for the next phase.

But if we haven’t been looking after ourselves, progressively eating more processed food, drinking more sugary drinks, more alcohol, getting to bed later, feeling more stressed, then we may find ourselves stuck in a whirlpool of feeling fatigued. Other common symptoms might be feeling less motivated and engaged, facing challenges to our mental and physical health and possible relationship issues. An employee nutrition program can help your staff make better food choices and improve their nutritional habits too.

Our brain relies on and uses glucose for energy, for fuel. So when we are fatigued and struggling to concentrate, when everything gets fuzzy, our brain actually sends out an urgent signal that we need fuel. When fuel gets low in our vehicle the red fuel light comes on, but we can push on a bit before we need to fill up, we’re still gonna get a certain amount of k’s out of the tank. But when our brain’s fuel light comes on, the tank is already empty, and the thing that tops up energy the fastest is processed sugar. It’s the fastest but worst fuel we could reach for; it just locks us into the fatigue whirlpool.

The difference with a car and your body though is that you can’t overfill your car with fuel, the tank only holds so much. However you can overfill your body with fuel it can’t use, and that fuel is then put into storage which leads to weight gain. Too much body weight causes many things, fatigue, poor concentration, presenteeism, reduced productivity  and even absenteeism. But the additional stress on our joints and back increases aches and pains, and directly contributes to workplace injuries and accidents.

However, we will have the reserves to create sustained energy, concentration and safety if we eat plenty of fresh, unprocessed food, avoid processed and high sugar food and fluid where possible, and drink plenty of water. The key is to make good food and fluid choices so your fuel light doesn’t go on.

Our training helps employees view food as a major source of fuel, not of comfort. We motivate them to prepare food, to eat smaller and more often, to challenge their choices, and ultimately, to believe that food is pivotal to their endurance and performance.

Our staff nutrition training focuses on the:

• Psychology of food choice

• Importance of food preparation

• Fact that food is the body’s medicine

• Relationship between food and work performance

• Relationship between food and safety

• Relationship between food and mood

We encourage you to believe that changing what your employees eat and drink on a daily basis will be paramount to the performance and sustainability of your business.