Working Nights

Shift Worker Liquid Intake Extremely Important!

Most shift workers admit they don’t have the best understanding of nutrition and that they find it challenging to follow good nutritional habits. It makes sense that sticking with good nutritional meals can be difficult when working shifts – most shift workers admit they eat what they can find with the least effort – which is often food from vending machines, 24/7 convenience stores, or fast food restaurants. What doesn’t make sense is that shift workers don’t have better knowledge about their own nutrition. Certainly with education, just as with everyone, shift workers’ nutritional awareness can be exponentially increased.

We often read about nutrition and relate it immediately to the food we eat. We’ve written in other posts about the importance of eating healthy food – see “Be Careful What you Eat When Working Shift Work.” However, liquid sustenance is a significant part of our daily intake as well. When we’re awake, we drink water, juice, soda, coffee, tea, alcoholic beverages, and some of us drink liquid nutritional supplements too. What’s important about the liquids we put in our body? The essential information to know is about hydration and dehydration, calories and caloric content, and how where you live, the job you perform and your overall activity level impacts your body’s need for liquids.

Safe Drinking Water

Access to enough safe and healthy water is probably the most important nutritional need we have. Water is necessary for maintaining a normal body temperature, digesting food and transporting nutrients to all parts of the body, and facilitating the excretion of waste products. Yet, according to the Global Water Challenge, a coalition of 24 organizations ranging from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to Coca Cola, 884 million people in the world don’t have regular access to safe drinking water.

The United States’ Environmental Protection Act (EPA) has some terrific educational tools about ‘safe’ water, including modules for kids and teachers. But, any adult will learn a tremendous about access to safe drinking water by reading over this material. For example, the EPA has set standards for 90 water contaminants. Examples of toxins in water include:

1. Nitrates – often from fertilizer run-off, sewerage leaking and leaching, or erosion of natural deposits,
2. Lead – may be from household plumbing system oxidization or wearing down of natural deposits,
3. Copper – could be from corrosion of household systems, erosion of natural deposits, or leaching of wood preservatives,
4. Microbial contaminants – from human and animal fecal waste leaching from septic systems or , for example, and
5. Disinfectants and related products, like bleach, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and alcohol that make their way into the water supply when mixed with water.

Hydration and Dehydration

The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends that to stay sufficiently hydrated adults should consume at least 2 ½ quarts of water a day and that children should take in half this much. Much of the water we need comes from the food we eat. For example, fruits and vegetables are up to 85% to 98% liquid. So, eat lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, red bell peppers, celery, papayas, strawberries, and watermelon as these are all more than 90% liquid.

Besides not drinking enough fluids, the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) offers other risks of increased dehydration, such as:

• Having diarrhea or vomiting
• Urinating frequently
• Having a fever
• Not eating due to nausea or lack of appetite
• Having a sore throat or painful sores in the mouth

And the NLM cites the following symptoms of dehydration:

• Dry or sticky mouth
• Low or no urine output; concentrated urine appears dark yellow
• Not producing tears
• Sunken eyes
• Markedly sunken fontanelles (the soft spot on the top of the head) in an infant
• Lethargic or comatose (with severe dehydration)

We all know that sweating can cause us to become dehydrated. So people who work certain jobs, like those in construction, utility company employees working outside, and people working in fire and police units need to be especially careful to keep hydrated during hot weather periods. Generally, if you live in a hot climate, you have a greater risk of dehydration. If your job requires you to be constantly active, such bricklayers, metal fitters, welders, packers, painters, tool and die makers, security workers, and janitors, you will need extra fluid on a regular basis to remain appropriately hydrated.

Sodium Impact

Our bodies need some sodium to function properly – e.g. to maintain the right balance of bodily fluids, have proper muscle functioning and control, and keep our nerve cells firing. Sodium comes from processed and unprocessed foods, like canned soups or vegetables, cold cuts, and frozen foods. The condiments we put on our food, like table salt, ketchup and mustard, or soy sauce all have high levels of sodium. We also get sodium from the natural foods we eat like meat and dairy products. Some liquids we drink contain high amounts of sodium, such as certain sport and energy drinks.

Most of us are aware that too much sodium isn’t good for us. When our kidneys can’t eliminate enough sodium, the sodium accumulates in our blood. Too much sodium causes our bodies to retain water, and as a result our blood volume increases. Then our hearts have to work harder to move all this blood through our blood vessels, increasing pressure in our arteries, and boosting our risk of congestive heart failure. According to J. James Rohack, the President of the AMA, “The average daily sodium intake for healthy adults should be no more than one teaspoon of salt, or 2,300 milligrams of sodium, yet the average American consumes nearly twice that, with an estimated 75 to 80 percent of the daily intake of sodium coming from processed and restaurant foods.” Cardiovascular disease is the top killer of Americans and, also according to Rohack, “the scientific evidence linking a lowered salt intake to a reduced risk for heart disease is overwhelming.”

Drinks with High Calories

Balancing our need to get enough liquid in our bodies without overdoing our caloric intake can be challenging. Here is a list of liquids with high calories:
1. Ice cream shakes and frappuccino’s – see Seven High-Calorie Beverages That Pack on Pounds
2. Juice – particularly large bottles sold in many convenience stores – the 16 oz or 21 oz varieties can have upwards of 300 calories
3. Sports drinks in the large, individual sizes can have up to 250 calories
4. A cocktail such as a Pina Coladas or frozen Strawberry daiquiri can have up to 300 calories

When working shifts, you should plan ahead to ensure you have the right foods and liquids available at work. Click here for a terrific healthy eating plan put together by the AMA.

©2009 Circadian Age, Inc. – “Working Nights”

Tags: 24/7, health care prevention, heart disease, shift work, Working Nights