To provide the best possible care, nurses, midwives and nursing or midwifery students require healthy and nutritious food. What you eat while you are at work plays a substantial role in your diet.
Challenges to healthy eating
Why healthy eating matters
Paying attention to a healthy diet, and drinking enough water every day, are essential ways for you to maintain optimal physical, emotional and psychological health.
Long hours, missed breaks and shift work can result in nurses, midwives and students not having time to prepare and eat healthy, nutritious foods. Rotating and night shifts and/or 12-hour shifts can result in you drinking more caffeine and eating high-sugar foods to keep you awake and functioning throughout your shift.
By deciding to eat healthily you are helping to:
- maintain a healthy weight
- reduce major health risks such as heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and certain types of cancer
- improve bone health by ensuring adequate calcium
- improve the immune system
- increase energy levels
- improve concentration and mood, to think more clearly and handle stress better, and
- promote better quality
The link between good nutrition and healthy weight, reduced chronic disease risk, and overall health is too important to ignore. By taking steps to eat healthily, you’ll be on your way to getting the nutrients your body needs to stay healthy, active and strong. Making small changes to your diet can go a long way – it’s easier than you think.
Achieving a healthier diet
Australian healthy eating guidelines recommend adults choose from five food groups:
- Vegetables and legumes as a source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre. The recommended daily intake is 5 serves (1 serve = 1 cup raw or ½ cup of cooked vegetables or legumes).
- Fresh fruit as a source of vitamins
- Grains and cereal foods (preferably wholegrain) are high in protein, dietary fibre, minerals and vitamins. The recommended amount is 6 or 7 serves per day (1 serve= 1 slice of bread or ½ cup of rice, oats, pasta or other grain or 30 grams of cereal).
- Lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, legumes, tofu, nuts and seeds provide a good source of protein, minerals and vitamins. Legumes, nuts and seeds are also a source of dietary fibre. The recommended number of serves for adult women is 2 ½ serves per day, and adult men 3 serves per day. Adults are recommended to not eat more than 500 grams of red meat per week.
- Milk, cheeses and yoghurts provide protein, vitamins and calcium. The recommended daily intake for all adults is 2 ½ serves per day.
Staying hydrated
Water makes up approximately 50–60 per cent of an adult’s body weight and every system in our body depends on water. Water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to cells. Most mature adults lose about 2.5 to 3 litres of water per day. Water loss may increase in hot weather and with prolonged exercise.
Why drinking water is important
Lack of water can lead to dehydration, a condition that occurs when you don’t have enough water in your body to carry out normal functions. Even mild dehydration can drain your energy and make you tired.
How much water?
You should drink the recommended 2–3 litres water per day to ensure adequate hydration (of an average healthy adult). The amount required may vary if you are exercising, if your environment or the weather changes, and for other diagnosed health conditions.