including sleep, nutrition, stress, activity, hormonal shifts, and a number of
others—that jumble together in our anatomical energy centre. You can’t address
fatigue without looking at all the strands, but nutrition? That’s a big one.
Eating habits may be the cause of fatigue—or at the very least a contributing
factor. (Fatigue can also be a sign of a number of problems, so if you feel out of
sorts and don’t improve with changes in nutrition and sleep habits, talk to your
doctor.) The story of nutrition and fatigue starts with your basic bookends—what
happens in the morning and before bed. But there’s a whole lot that goes on in
the middle, too. Let’s examine how your body is fuelled throughout the day and
how your food choices inform your energy levels.
What You Eat
I felt the effects of profound exhaustion as a young doctor. One of my early
responsibilities was in the ICU. The resident assigned to the ICU is never
allowed to leave it, so you work through a thirty-hour shift—attending to any
need that comes up throughout the day or night. This is one of the reasons why
early career doctors run themselves into the ground. (We’ve all watched TV
hospital dramas, right? Burnout is a common storyline, because there’s truth to
the long hours and irregular sleeping and eating patterns.)