Connections Leaders Should Be Aware Of Between Burnout And Diet - Looking At Research On UPFs And Their Impacts On Productivity And Burnout

Productivity is at an all-time low in today's world.

It is not difficult to understand Why when you look at the Research.

Burnout.

Burnout is Impacting 80% of the Workforce with more who are in danger.

What happens when we are in Burnout?

Our Productivity Diminishes.

Based on the Research, a Person in Burnout is working at, "at most", 5% of their Productivity Potential.

However, most people do not Realize that Burnout is a Multifaceted Problem.

Burnout occurs when Humans have experienced Extreme Dis-Stress, for So Long, that their Bodies are "Literally" Tearing themselves apart.

The longer this occurs, the worse people become, and from a Productivity Perspective, this becomes Extremely Problematic.

You would "Imagine" that Having an Entire Workforce at 5% or Less Productivity Potential would be a Signal for Leaders to Fix Things - Yet it Rarely Happens.

I've discussed before "Why" most Leaders Fail to Fix their #1 Problem of Burnout.

Along with this, there "Are" Leaders who Attempt to do Something about Burnout, but they run into Another Problem.

Most "Solutions" Today are based on "Burnout Prevention", which when people are "Already" in Burnout, those Programs Fail to Have Any Effective.

If you "Really" want to Solve Burnout, you must Understand what Factors "Contribute" to It.

When it Comes to Burnout, the Major Problem is "Dis-Stress", but this is a much Larger Problem than "Work".

Why?

All Stress Adds.

It Does Not Matter the "Type" of Stress that People are Experiencing - "All" Stress Impacts us as Humans.

Work Stressors, Financial Stressors, Social Stressors, Physical Stressors, Emotional Stressors, Environmental Stressors, Mental Stressors, and Existential Stressors "All" Add Together.

We can only Handle So Many Stressors Simultaneously - Known as our "Stress Threshold".

Now, when we go "Over" our Threshold (aka Dis-Stress) a few things happen Simultaneously.

Our Stress Threshold Starts Decreasing.

Our Stress Damage (aka Oxidative Stress) Increases.

Our Need to Recover Increases.

So, if we want to "Overcome" Burnout, we must First get Proper Recovery and Fix Stress Damage (As Oxidative Stress Buildup itself is a Stressor).

Then, we can Increase our Stress Threshold (through Eu-Stress and Flow States).

Which brings us to the topic today - Diet.

What we Eat will Impact our Ability to Recover Properly and Fix Stress Damage.

Certain Foods can Improve our Recovery and help Fix Stress Damage More Quickly (via Ceruloplasmin Production).

However, other Foods can do the "Opposite" of this, and "Add" more Stressors, which on someone Already in Dis-Stress makes Burnout Worse.

What types of Food Cause the Worst Dis-Stress on Us?

UPFs or Ultra Processed Foods.

These make up over 50% of the Calories of All Western Diets.

This Includes Calories in "Diets" people are on including Vegan, Vegetarian, Keto, Paleo, Mediterranean, and More Diets.

Yes, just because you are on a Specific Type of "Diet" doesn't mean you're Avoiding UPFs.

Now, to Understand the Relationship between UPFs and Burnout Better, let's look at some Research that looked at the Relationship between UPFs and Adverse Health Outcomes.

How many Adverse Health Outcomes are Linked to UPFs?

32 in Total.

But, what makes this even "More" Fascinating for Leaders is "How" these Specific Adverse Health Outcomes not only Impact Burnout but "Also" Impact our Ability to Lead Effectively.

Yes, You are Understanding me Correctly.

UPFs can "Directly" and Negatively Impact Your Ability to Lead.

Why?

Part of it is because "All Stress Adds", but it goes further than that.

Let's look at some of these Adverse Health Outcomes to Understand this Problem more Clearly.

The First Outcome Mentioned causes a Pretty Significant Problem - Mortality.

I don't think I have to explore that more - Dead People are Dead.

But let's look at, say, Mental Health.

This has been a Growing Issue for Business Leaders for Decades.

Some of the Adverse Health Outcomes here?

Adverse Sleep Related Outcomes, Anxiety Outcomes, Common Mental Disorder Outcomes, and Depressive Outcomes.

All of these can "Directly" Impact our Ability to Work, and further our Ability to Lead.

If we Fail to Sleep Well, we Fail to Recover Well, which only Exacerbates the Burnout Problem.

Anxiety is in Direct Conflict with Flow States.

This means that it Decreases our Ability to Think, Decreases our Innovation Capabilities, Decreases our Ability to See Patterns, and Decreases our Ability to Solve Problems.

All of these Combine to Create Larger Problems for Leaders.

Common Mental Disorders often lead to Less Time In-Office to Take Care of those Disorders, and less Effectiveness when we "are" In-Office, which also Impacts our Ability to Lead.

Depression often Impacts our Ability to be Motivated, and Unmotivated Leaders and Teams are Notorious for being Underproductive.

But this is "Just" the Tip of the Iceberg.

Let's look at Respiratory Health Problems that can be caused by UPFs.

Breathing has often been a Tool used to Improve our Mental Health and Wellness, and Indeed it Can.

However, it also works the "Opposite" way.

Breathing can Deteriorate our Health and Wellness, especially when we Grow Habits of Improper Breathing.

UPFs are linked here to Asthma and Wheezing, which when Prolonged could easily create Improper Breathing Habits.

This, itself, can also Cause things like Anxiety, which as a Habit can become a "Perpetual" State of Anxiety.

From the Leadership Perspective, as well, if we look at Mirror Neurons, it is possible that these Breathing Patterns can become "Mirrored" by those around us, making it a Problem at Scale.

We can go Further Yet looking at the Cardiovascular Health problems linked to UPFs.

There are a wide variety of outcomes that go alongside Cardiovascular Health Problems, but the Hidden Problem for Leaders occurs with Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

When we have Cardiovascular Health Problems, our HRV will Decrease.

Now, HRV has a few Roles, but one of the Lesser-Known Roles happens via Neurocardiology.

One facet of HRV is known as "Coherence" and this changes based on different Emotions and Stressors.

When HRV is low, it will likely also occur that our Coherence is Low, leading to Less Helpful Emotions and Increased Stressors.

This alone can Decrease Emotional Intelligence (EQ/EI), but it is worse than this because "Coherence" can Spread.

Via Electromagnetic Waves, our Hearts can Communicate our Levels of Coherence to each other.

This can Notify Others, often Subconsciously, that you are in Dis-Stress, even if you Do Not want them to Know.

But Worse Still is that Low Coherence can be "Spread" through a Process Known as "Entrainment".

That means that, as a Leader, if you or anyone on your Team is constantly in Low Coherence, there is a Strong Likelihood that they will "Entrain" others into Low Coherence with them.

This means that Stress and Decreased Emotional Intelligence are "Literally" being Spread like a Virus.

Still, there are more Problems for Leaders that are Linked to UPFs!

We can see from the Research that UPFs are linked to Gastrointestinal Health and Metabolic Health.

Now, the other Day I discussed Research Showing a Direct Link between Psychological Resiliency and Neurogastroenterology (aka Gut Brain).

As you can imagine, Psychological Resiliency is a "Key" Aspect of our Stress Threshold, which is Impacted by the Neurons in our Gut (aka Gut Brain).

Anything that causes Damage to our Gastrointestinal Health will Impact our Gut Brain, which will also Impact our Resilience.

This means that UPFs will Directly Decrease our Resilience.

With this, when we look at Metabolic Health, what we are most interested in as Leaders is Mitochondrial Health "because" this is where Energy (Mg-ATP) is Created.

When our Metabolic Health Decreases, our Mitochondria are Negatively Impacted, which means we have less Energy (Mg-ATP).

What does this mean for Leaders?

How do you think Energy (Mg-ATP) Impacts Productivity?

They have a Direct Link.

If you have Less Energy (Mg-ATP), your Productivity will Decrease.

If you have Less Energy (Mg-ATP), you will be Less Able to Recover (Energy is Needed to Fuel Recovery Processes in the Body).

The Less You Recover, the More Quickly You End Up in Burnout, or the Worse Burnout becomes as is the case for 80% of people.

All of these Factors are Directly Tied Together.

This is why I have in the past said that our Vitality Quotient (VQ) is More Important than Both EQ/EQ and IQ.

We can see from just "One" Aspect of VQ - Our Diet - how it Directly Decreases both EQ/EI and IQ.

But the Relationship also works in the Opposite Direction as well.

If you Increase your VQ, then you can "Directly" Improve Both EQ/EI and IQ, which is Extremely Impactful as a Leader.

Now, it is Important as a Leader to Pay Attention to this for Yourself.

However, perhaps it is "More" Important to be Paying Attention to this from a Team Perspective.

Many offices provide a Plethora of UPFs to Employees, through Snacks, Cafeterias, and even Meal Vouchers.

Are you, as a Leader, Unintentionally making your Work Significantly More Difficult?

Based on the Research, the answer is likely Yes.

But there are ways to Fix these Problems, even without "Mandating" what People are or are not allowed to Eat (which I'm pretty sure that type of policy would send Shivers down the Spines of HR Departments Everywhere).

This is why I so Frequently talk about Designing a Regenerative Legacy.

This is the Key to Solving the Burnout Problem.

If you Solve the Burnout Problem, you Fix the Productivity and Innovation Problems.

If you Solve the Burnout Problem, you Increase EQ/EI and IQ.

If you Design a Regenerative Legacy, you Solve the Burnout Problem.

This is what Every Leader is Looking For, and it is Hiding in Plain Sight.