Pilot's Eating Habits May Affect Their Flight Performance
How much do you believe your diet affects your job performance?
I know for sure when I don't eat regularly, I get tired and a bit cranky! And, I suppose if I think about it, a poor diet could potentially effect my job performance too.
If your job requires that you are responsible for the safety of others, the results of a recent small study may be of interest to you. Researchers found that what a pilot eats may impact the way they perform on the job.
According to Glenda Lindseth (PhD, RN), of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, previous studies have shown as much as 80% of flight accidents are the result of human error. That's pretty shocking. So, if changing the diet may be of help I'd say it's worth looking into.
In the study led by Lindseth, when commercial pilots ate a diet high in carbohydrates or fats, they did significantly better in simulated flight performance, in comparison to when they ate a high protein diet.
- Response times were significantly faster for participants on the high-fat diet, especially at higher memory loads.
- Those on the high-protein diets performed significantly worse than pilots on high-fat diets, and high-carbohydrate diets.
- Even brief manipulation of diet significantly impacted performance on a test of short-term memory.
Lindseth went on to say:
These study results contribute significantly to our understanding of the effects diet can have on cognition and performance... With additional research, these findings may help decrease the number of aviation accidents due to pilot error, which is especially important for the warfighter.
The researchers suspect the performance edge with the high-carbohydrate and high-fat diets was related to metabolism of B complex vitamins, which occurs with carbohydrate intake. It's thought that the fats may help sustain the carbohydrates, allowing for greater availability of the B vitamins--deficiency of B vitamins has been shown to lead to irritability and poor cognition.
I know there are a number of readers on Diet-Blog in favour of low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on these findings? Do you think these results can be translated to those of us with "normal" day jobs?
Regardless, further study is needed to provide greater clarity as to whether the impact of diet on cognitive performance is a major risk for aviation safety.
Source: Med Page Today and Science Daily.
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It is interesting but I say further study is good. On high protein diets, I think that makes sense. If you don't eat enough carbs, it can hinder performance. I was there in bodybuilding first hand. I think you need a good balance of protein, carbs & fat in general. I would not want that high sugar & sugar "crash" pilot though.
ReplyWhen you have someone's life in your hands you should take better care of yourself.
ReplyWhat you put in your body and how you choose to nourish yourself has a great effect on your performance.
Sorry I'm not buying the idea that high-carb diets will improve job performance. There's the inevitable sugar crash.
ReplyTalking about complex carbs here, not refined ones...
ReplyWell, the brain does run on glucose, so it makes sense that a ready supply of sugars would help brain function. Probably better if they're complex carbs, though...simple carbs are going to get used up too quickly and will give you sugar-crash.
ReplyPerhaps. I usually have oatmeal in the morning after my workouts, and I'm sharp as a tack all morning long at work. Not quite as much after a strictly protein/fat breakfast.
ReplyI think lack of sleep is a much bigger problem for commercial pilots than what they eat.
ReplyVery true Dr. J!
ReplyIt is not just about not eating it's a lifestyle change as well. You can't go to your friends house when you are on a diet if they get out the cakes and pies. You just bound to have one. I have read there is a different way or ways to drastically reduce your size without necessarily torturing yourself. It's a fat busting diet and they show video proof too of why some people are fat.
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