Starvation: the cost of malnutrition at work

The concept of structured eating habits at work, and how they impact our productivity and wellness, is an emerging new field in the workplace and positively impacting business practices. Correct eating habits at work greatly impact personal career wellness as well as business productivity. When staff performance increases as a result of correct workplace nutrition, business will perform better too.

As staff performance increases through structured nutritional practices.

There are 4 common, detrimental eating habits which staff and employees can succumb to in any workplace environment. In this blog we will discover the causes and effects of ‘starvation’ upon mental and physical wellbeing at work, and how you can challenge yourself to make better, more informed nutritional choices.

• Snacking
• Binge-eating
• Starvation
• Eating on the go

Please click here to read about the “need-feed-proceed” cycle.

Starvation is classified as a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism’s life (wikipedia 2024). While most of us at work are not in fear of death from long-term food deprivation, many people do find themselves in a state of exhaustion caused by a lack of nourishment and caloric intake. This exhaustion state is known as ‘inanition’. Although actual starvation is exceptionally rare in workplace environments, ‘inanition’ is a common occurrence as staff can succumb to mental and physical fatigue and exhaustion from eating less or not at all for prolonged periods of time. The knock-on effects of inanition can cause harm to ourselves, colleagues, clients and the business. For ease of understanding we shall refer to the more commonly used term ‘starvating’ instead of the more accurate term ‘inanition’ to identify the lack of food intake.

During work hours there may be prolonged periods of time when wholesome food is either not available or not consumed. This can be due to time constraints, stress, budget or even lack of education (click here). Whatever the causes may be, malnourishment poses a real, and potentially dangerous, threat to your health and safety at work. The main reasons include: lack of concentration and focus, fatigue, mood changes, dizzy spells and even fainting.

To prevent malnourishment resulting from starvation, we need to identify what food actually does to the body. There are 3 main macronutrients necessary for human life. These are proteins, carbohydrates and fats  (for a brief explanation of these macros click here). These macros should be consumed in balanced, wholesome meals daily with no more than 4-5 hours* separation for optimum human performance. One of the most crucial functions of the macronutrients is to help keep blood sugar levels in balance, amongst various other cognitive and physiological roles they play.

Blood sugar levels fluctuate during the day, roughly every 4 hours. Blood glucose peaks immediately after a meal or snack and returns to homeostatic levels between 2 and 3 hours after eating (Otsuka 2024).  Beyond 3-4 hours blood sugar starts dipping below optimal operating levels and requires food intake to create homeostasis.

When blood sugar dips too low severe health issues can occur such as dizzy spells and even coma. But more commonly the effect of malnourishment is experienced as mood changes (anger, anxiety, aggression), fatigue, exhaustion, nausea, reduced human performance.

Cost of malnourishment

Companies take a lot of precautions to ensure the health and safety of their employees. However, there are ways in which employees themselves need to take action to ensure their best health and wellness is achieved at work, and nutrition is a key factor. When malnourishment sets in and human performance decreases, you can put yourself in various personal health and safety risks and become a liability to the company. Staff will commonly take shortcuts when their mental clarity is compromised. They may skip important procedures and checks or become negligent and wasteful in resources. When starving, staff can become aggressive to other employees or customers, they can start resenting their jobs and own wellness and cause damage to self and property just because they have not eaten adequately for the day.

How to avoid starvation and malnourishment at work

Prevention is the best cure. The macronutrients have different effects on energy release and supply, as per the graph below. The most important nutrient is protein as protein foods supply most substances needed for growth, repair and moderate energy supply in the body.

Eating a fair-sized, protein-rich breakfast, with low carbohydrates, will ensure at least a 4-5 hour optimum human performance run. If you know that mealtimes are limited at work, or expect long delays between meals (in excess of 4 hours), then fattier foods such at cheeses (cottage, haloumi, mozzarella sticks), full cream yogurts and whole eggs (yolks included)  may help prolong energy output beyond 5 hours when these fats are consumed with animal proteins. Alternatively fatty meats such a bacon, lamb, sausages and fatty beef cuts will also suffice.

A good breakfast example is 2 beef patties with cheese (no bun), lamb sausages or bacon and eggs, cottage cheese and chilli (beef mince with tomato and spices).

It should be noted that these suggestions are recommendations for when prolonged periods of time pass without food consumption. If eaten on a regular basis with snack in between the caloric intake would exceed physical output and obesity will creep in (this is not taking into account keto and carnivore diets. High protein and fat foods discussed here are the recommended use for people who are not on any diet but knowingly will be without food for extended periods of time).

When small, quick meals can be consumed at work, high protein meals and certain fatty foods should be considered. Note that fatty foods should only be an option when extended meal delays are expected, in excess of 4 hours. Ideal quick meals include beef jerky and biltong (dried meats), boiled eggs, protein bars and protein shakes, canned fish, sandwich meats/ cold cuts, grilled chicken/ meat strips, cheese slices (preferably white cheese), cottage cheese,full cream  yoghurts.

See our protein bar range here. The ideal, pocket-sized meal to keep performance optimum. 

What to avoid 

Highly processed foods, deep fried fatty foods and especially sugars should be avoided in between meals. Simple sugars, while providing an instant energy supply, will cause an energy dip within 20-30 mins after consumption (graph above). That means more sugar is needed  again shortly after. The daily sugar intake can easily go beyond recommended levels in this cycle and cause hormonal imbalances with insulin.

The real danger lies in the lack of nourishment in these instant snacks. To mitigate the damage done by these sugar and free-radical foods the body requires nutrients that are not supplied in the snacks. This means the body breaks down protein structures like lean muscle mass in the body to get the nourishment it needs for other physiological processes. The body is then in a state of constant deficit of nourishment and long term disease can ensue.

*Unless during controlled fasting and with medical guidance, food should be consumed regularly every 4-5 hours.