Snacking in the evening makes you less efficient the next day

Snacking is bad for your health. It would even have become the main factor of obesity in industrialized countries. Scientists are trying to figure out what drives us to binge on bad foods and suggest it may be due to specific brain cells. Indulging in food cravings in the evening even affects mood and performance at work the next day. This was concluded by American psychology researchers from the University of North Carolina in a study published on March 25 in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

short term effects

In order to be fit and efficient at work, it is better to avoid snacking the night before. “For the first time, we have shown that healthy eating immediately affects our behaviors and performance in the workplacesays Seonghee Cho, professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina and author of the study. It is relatively well established that other health-related behaviors, such as sleep and exercise, affect our work. But no one had looked at the short-term effects of a poor diet..”

The researchers studied 97 full-time employees who had to answer a series of questions three times a day for 10 consecutive work days. Before each day at the office, they answered questions related to their physical and emotional well-being. When it ended, the participants described the tasks performed during the day. Finally, in the evening, before going to bed, they indicated what they had eaten and drunk since they finished working. In the context of the study, the researchers defined unhealthy eating as instances when participants felt they had eaten too much junk food, when they felt they had eaten or drunk too much, and when they reported snacking late in the evening.

Physical and moral consequences

The results revealed that when people engaged in unhealthy eating behaviors, they were more likely to report having physical problems the next morning such as headaches, stomachaches and diarrhoea. They were also more likely to feel remorse and reported feelings of guilt and shame over their food choices. These two feelings combined decreased their “helping behavior,” referring to helping co-workers and going the extra mile when not required to, such as helping a co-worker with a task that is outside of their control. responsibility.

“The bottom line here is that we now know that poor nutrition can have almost immediate effects on job performance.summarizes Seonghee Cho. However, we can also say that there is no single healthy diet, and healthy eating is not just about nutritional content. It can be influenced by an individual’s dietary needs, or even by when and how they eat..”