Not too late snacking can derail your weight loss goals, but it can also negatively affect your productivity at work.
A new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that people who ate unhealthy snacks especially late at night struggled the next day to be a team player at work. For the study, researchers at North Carolina State University asked 97 full-time employees in the U.S. to answer a series of questions three times a day for ten days in a row.
Participants answered questions about how they felt emotionally and physically before the work day began and at the end of the day, they answered questions about what they had achieved. Before going to bed, the subjects then record what they ate and drank after work. (Related: 15 underrated weight loss tips that actually work).
For the purpose of this study, ‘unhealthy eating’ was used to describe moments in which subjects felt that they had given in to food or drink, especially had too much junk food or had too many snacks in the late evening. What did the researchers find? Those who participated in unhealthy eating behaviors were more likely to report physical and emotional problems the next morning.
Common physical complaints include headache, stomach ache and diarrhea. Mentally, the participants who engulfed the previous night said felt guilty or even ashamed about what they ate. Even more interestingly, these people also reported changes in their behavior at work, saying they were less likely to help colleagues the extra mile.
Instead, participants who engage in unhealthy eating behaviors feel more comfortable withdrawing, which means they avoid work-related situations despite being at work.
“The biggest takeaway here is that we now know that unhealthy eating habits can have almost immediate consequences for performance in the workplace,” said Seonghee “Sophia” Cho, the corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at the North -Carolina State University, said in a statement. .
“However, we can also say that there is no single ‘healthy’ diet, and that healthy eating habits are not just about nutritional content. It can be influenced by the dietary needs of an individual, or even by when and how he eats, instead of what he eats. ‘
Topics that were better able to cope with stress did not have as many adverse side effects of healthy eating habits as those that were a little more emotionally volatile. In general, those who transferred to food or alcohol (or both) the night before work reported significant changes in their behavior at work the next day.
Check out 15 Healthy Late Night Snacks for When the Midnight Munchies for tips on healthier meals to eat if you fancy eating late at night.