Unhealthy Eating May be a New Occupational Hazard

The following is taken from AMA Morning Rounds on Dec. 30, 2011

Unhealthy eating may be a new occupational hazard.

The Time (12/30, Song) “Healthland” blog reports, “If you’ve ever sat at your desk scarfing a vending-machine lunch, then you’d probably agree with the authors of a recent editorial in the journal PLoS Medicine, who wrote: ‘[U]nhealthy eating could legitimately beconsidered a new form of occupational hazard.’” The editorial is “referring mainly to night-shift workers – doctors and nurses, for instance” because “off- kilter shift schedules are notorious for encouraging bad eating habits, and they also disrupt circadian rhythms and prevent adequate sleep – all of which conspires to make workers fat and increase their risk of Type 2 diabetes, among other ills.” The authors “cite the results of a recent study,” which found that “women who had rotating night shifts were more likely to develop diabetes over a 20-year follow-up, compared with women whoworked during the day.”