Healthy eating tips for shift workers - The Derbyshire Benevolent Trust

Did you know that shift workers are more likely to have digestive issues, higher body mass index and be more prone to long term health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes? We know that long hours and irregular meal times can leave you reaching for fatty, salty or sugary foods for a quick energy boost. But these types of foods will make your energy levels crash resulting in feeling slow, groggy and unable to make rapid decisions. Therefore, it is important to ensure you eat healthily whilst on shift.

According to the British Medical Journal, there is evidence to suggest that you are more likely to crave sugary, salty and high fat foods when you are tired. So rather than leaving it until you’re hungry and exhausted, it is sensible then to plan your meals in advance, especially before night shifts. One way to do this is to make a meal plan for the week ahead. On the evening before your first shift, bulk prepare some meals that are suitable to eat cold (in case you can’t make it back to the station) and take these along with you to work. Knowing you’ve got your meal already prepared will stop you from calling into the supermarket and picking up a large bag of reduced price sausage rolls.

Before you start your shift, you should consume a meal that is packed with wholegrains and vegetables to keep you fuller for longer. Your meal should also include some healthy fats and proteins such as lean meats, fish, cottage cheese, eggs, nuts and seeds, avocado, yogurt, baked beans, chickpeas or lentils.

Always remember to take snacks to work that will help you avoid grabbing a bag of crisps and some chocolate from the tuck shop. Fruits and vegetables are good snacks as their sugar is converted into energy relatively slowly and they also provide your body with vitamins, minerals and fibre. Cereal bars, yogurts and unsalted nuts are all good snacking options too.

Staying hydrated helps to keep fatigue at bay, so make sure you take a refillable bottle of water to work with you and keep taking sips throughout your shift. If you get the time for a hot drink during the night, consider a mug of green tea instead of a coffee. Green tea contains enough caffeine to perk you up, but it won’t continue to keep you awake once your shift is over and you are ready to go to sleep.

The regular consumption of cakes, crisps and takeaways at night can make you feel drowsy, lethargic and unable to perform to the best of your ability. You may also find yourself quickly piling on some additional pounds if you’re having a treat every single shift. A balanced diet is really important so try not to get too dragged into ‘cake culture’, but do allow yourself the occasional treat at work.

Remember, as a shift worker, you’re already exposed to health issues that could be avoided with regular working patterns and consistent meal times. Using these tips, you can take control of your diet now and avoid suffering any long-term repercussions once you’ve finished working shifts.

I’ve not received a password reset email?

Be sure to check spam folders, Some email providers may consider the email to be a spam email and automatically file it into your spam folder.

The email is not in my Spam folder?

Some email providers may have very strict spam blocking in place. If this is happening you can add our email address to your ‘white list’

To do this please follow the instructions in the below links, by choosing your mail provider and adding the email: “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” to your whitelist.

AOL

Add the “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” to your AOL address book:

Click the “Mail Options” menu and select “Address Book”.
Inside the “Address Book” window, click the “Add” button.
Inside the “Address Card for New Contact” window cut and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the “Other E-Mail” field.
Make our From address the “Primary E-Mail” address by checking the associated check box to the right of it.
Click the “Save” button.

If the mailing is in your SPAM Folder, you can open the email and click the “This Is Not Spam” button.

Gmail

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Gmail Contacts List:

Click “Contacts” along the left side of any Gmail page.
Click “Create Contact”.
Copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the primary email address dialog box.
Click “Save”.

If the mailing is in your SPAM folder, check the box next to the mailing and click the “Not Spam” button along the top.

Hotmail/Outlook/Live

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Hotmail Safe List:

Open your mailbox and click “Options” (upper right hand corner).
Click the “Junk E-Mail Protection” link.
Select the “Safe List” link.
Copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the dialog box titled “Type an address or domain”.
Click the “Add” button next to the dialog box.

If the mailing is in your “Junk E-Mail Folder”, open the email and click the “Not Junk” button.

You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your Blocked Senders list. You can find your Blocked Senders list by following the directions above and going to “Blocked Senders List” instead of “Safe List”. If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the Remove button.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Thunderbird Address Book and configure your Junk Mail Controls to white list your address book.

Add an address into your Personal Address Book:

Click the “Address Book” button.
Make sure the Personal Address Book is highlighted.
Click the “New Card” button.
Under the “Contact” tab, copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the Email dialog box.
Click “OK”.

White list your Personal Address Book:

From the main drop down menu, select “Tools –< Junk Mail Controls..."
This will launch the Junk Mail Controls window that has two tabs: Settings and Adaptive Filter
Under the Settings tab, update the “White Lists” module by selecting Personal Address Book from the pull down menu and then check mark the box next to “Do not mark messages as junk mail”.
Click “OK”.

If the mailing is in your junk folder, right-click the mailing and choose “Mark –< As Not Junk".[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title="Netscape Mail" tab_id="1498728551530-a54d18f1-2c51"][vc_column_text]Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive into your inbox:

From the Edit drop down menu, select “Message Filters”.
Click “New”, and give the new filter a name (e.g. “Whitelist”).
Change the drop down on the left to “sender” and the one in the middle to “is”.
Copy and paste username@domain.com into the box on the right.
Make the bottom two drop downs “Move to folder” and “Inbox”.
Click “OK”.
Make sure that your new filter is located at the top of the Message Filter list so it is run before any spam filter.

Outlook 2003/2007

Add the address you want to receive mailings from to your Safe Senders list:

On the Tools menu, click “Options”.
On the Preferences tab, click “Junk E-mail”.
On the Safe Senders tab, click “Add”.
In the Add address box, copy and paste in username@domain.com and click OK.

If you are using a different version of Outlook you can add the mailers From address to your Address Book. This can be done by opening the email, right clicking the From address, and selecting “Add To Contacts”. You can also access your Address Book via the tools drop down menu.

Yahoo

Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive in your inbox:

Open your mailbox and click on “Mail Options” (upper right hand corner).
Select “Filters” under the Management column.
Click the “Add” button on the Filters page.
In the “From header:” row, make the drop down “contains” and put the mailer’s from address username@domain.com in the box.
At the bottom of the page Click the “Choose Folder” pull down menu and select “Inbox”.
Click the “Add Filter” button.

If the mailing is in your Yahoo Bulk Folder open the email and click the “Not Spam” button. You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your “Blocked Addresses” list. You can find your “Blocked Addresses” list by clicking “Mail Options” and then clicking the “Blocked Addresses” link under the Spam column. If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the “Remove Block” button.

Others

The most common way to whitelist an address is to add it to your address book, white list, or safe list. There is no universal way to whitelist an address, so if this is not an option, you will have to consult the help section associated with your email application. They should have instructions on how to whitelist an address there.