Is nutrition crucial for a Student Pilot?
So, I very much doubt that when you first started dreaming of flying big fast airplanes through the skies at a million miles per hour, that what you consume on a daily basis could impact how or even how long you could live this fairytale. After all, we are pilots, defying the laws of gravity and being role models whom little children look up to being someday, we are invincible right? I would like to beg to differ.
We are so focused on how we will achieve our dreams and all the aviation related steps we will need to take to achieve it, that it can be so easy to neglect the bare necessities which will enable us to do so. After all, what is the use of making such a financial and time investment into your future when your body and mind simply can't cope? I'm not just referring to the importance of attaining and maintaining a Class 1 Medical, but also ensuring that we operate day to day as safely and efficiently as expected of professional pilots.
With the hectic schedules and rosters of today, jet-lag and the ever present need to get as much crammed into the shortest time possible, it is very easy to ignore what we put into our bodies. But I feel we must give a lot more attention into nutrition as it has a direct impact on our lives and careers. It is the general understanding that without food, water and oxygen we simply can't survive. That is because the human body and brain is designed to operate and sustain using food, water and oxygen, likened to an airplane needing the correct fuel and aerodynamic forces to fly. So why is it any different when it comes to operating an aircraft?
It is ever so important that we keep a healthy and balanced diet during flight training, where we are learning and applying so much new material and developing our skills, that we need to be 'firing on all cylinders' to ensure we achieve our best. This is vital for student pilots who are just embarking on their hopefully long, fun and successful careers, and current commercial pilots who are active on the line.
Consuming food isn't just about satiating hunger and simply putting something in ones stomach to stop the frequent rumblings and 'hangry-ness", it is there to aid and assist our essential physiological functions. Did you know that the human brain, responsible for all cognitive functions, consumes approximately 20% of your daily calories, even though it only equates to around 2% of the body's mass? and that that it can only run off glucose, unlike the rest of the body which can acquire energy from the conversion of other Macro Nutrients? Come on, did they not teach you that at school, in between learning about the cross-section of an earthworm and how a leaf gets its energy from sunlight??? There is truth in the old maxim of "you are what you eat", in that if you feed your body with good, wholesome and nutritious food, you will feel good, be able to manage your workload and stresses and thus be productive, however in contrast, if you eat junk all the time and not be careful as to what you consume, you will feel lethargic, depressed and lacking in energy. You will also experience mood swings and feelings of agitation and irritability. Feel familiar? Not ideal in a cockpit scenario. Is this how you would want a pilot to feel when flying an aircraft with hundreds of lives behind them? More so, would you put your family members and loved ones in an aircraft flown by pilots who aren't fuelling themselves optimally? You wouldn't put the wrong fuel in your car or plane and expect it to run, so how are humans different in principle? I know I'm going a bit extreme here, but it's not far from reality. The point I'm trying to make is that how we look after ourselves has a direct correlation as to how we operate and thus more attention should be paid to this lesser discussed aspect of flying. It makes you ponder, that out of all the aviation accidents which were deemed to be of pilot error, how many of them could be attributed to a lapse in concentration and poor judgement due to a drop in cognitive function from not eating properly? It certainly is something to think about.
Blood sugar spikes and dips can be highly detrimental to mental and physical health therefore its vital to consume a diet rich in whole foods which provide the correct balance of macronutrients; carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and micronutrients; such as vitamins and minerals. Complex carbohydrates, as opposed to simple carbohydrates, provide a steady release of glucose into the bloodstream and ensure that blood glucose levels are stabilised throughout the day. That's not to say that there isn't a place in our diets for simple carbohydrates, because there is, such as when we need a "quick hit" of sugar for energy, or when time just simply gets the better of us. Proteins are the building blocks of the body and also provide satiety for hunger, ensuring we feel fuller for longer whilst helping to provide the energy we need. Fats are not the enemy we once thought. they are vital to our everyday health by optimising our hormone levels and also providing a satiating effect.
Not eating enough and/or leaving too long a gap between meals can cause these dips as well. Eating too much as well can cause lethargy and feelings of discomfort.
Low Iron levels can prove just as disadvantageous as well because it can restrict blood and oxygen circulation around your body and cause fatigue, weakness and general ill feeling. Certainly not what you want when doing an unplanned diversion during a navigation in your CPL Flight test, or doing a Single Engine ILS Approach in your Instrument Rating. Keeping an optimum level of vitamins and minerals is so important to our health, ranging from Vitamin B to Zinc & Magnesium. Each different Vitamin has its own benefits that ,when combined, provide a fully balanced set and contribute to optimal bodily and cognitive functions.
I recall during the early stages of my flight training where, as a gym goer, I used to adopt a low carbohydrate diet, which involved consuming well below the recommended amount of carbohydrates each day. I soon came to realise that this is not compatible with flying. I remember feeling tired, shaky, worried and out of focus during a few lessons and just could not concentrate properly and started to feel as though the aircraft was getting ahead of me. After speaking to a few of my fellow trainees, there seemed to be a recurring theme. I then started to research deeper into the effects of low carb diets and inadequate nutrition and came to realise that for high workload tasks which require so much energy, such as aviating and studying, it's not quite compatible as I once thought, causing effects along the lines of those I mentioned, and more. I then started to eat foods in moderation by introducing a more adequate and healthy amount of carbohydrates and quickly came to realise the importance of it. my energy levels were a lot higher and my mental performance was a lot sharper. This brings me on to the importance of nutrition during ATPL ground school, where there seems to be not enough hours in the day to get everything done, let alone pay careful attention to what actually keeps as alive and kicking. ATPLs being a time where we need to study, process and apply a lot of important material in such a short space of time, requires from us to be alert and focused, and also during your flight training and flight tests.
Speaking to my colleagues who went through the same process, I cannot stress enough, the importance of keeping a healthy and wholesome diet during this time, along with adequate rest and exercise. It helps a huge amount and will certainly not do any harm to give that extra 15/20 minutes towards freshly preparing and cooking your nutritious food each day. It certainly aids in both the short and long term. We can see it as a type of investment in our health.
I remember during my ATPLs, we were in the classroom, Monday to Friday 830am - 520pm. This residential course lasted for 6 months. I used to wake up early to have breakfast, which consisted of oats, protein powder and fruit, which honestly took less than 5 minutes to prepare. For lunch sometimes I came home and sometimes I took a packed lunch. it usually consisted of chicken, vegetables and a choice of carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta or sweet potatoes. dinner was similar, of course allowing some snacking in between, (because we don't have to be super strict with our diets all the time! "everything in moderation" including our favourite 'junk' foods. Life is there to enjoy after all!). You soon come to realise that frozen vegetables and microwaves can be your best and time saving friend if you're in a rush.
If you find there simply isn't enough time in the day, however, possibly set aside an hour or so on a Sunday to prepare meals and bulk cook them for the rest of the week and freeze them. This small investment of time will pay dividends in the long term.
Sports people have to keep a disciplined diet so they can perform their duties to the best of their ability and maintain their medicals, so why shouldn't pilots? I know you could argue that sports people get paid a lot more! but the principle is the same in that pilots must maintain their class 1 medical every 12 months (or every 6 if over 40) in order to keep their career going, and diet and lifestyle has a huge influence. It would be a shame to see careers cut short simply because people didn't pay a little more attention to what they ate and how they lived.
Exercise and rest is so crucial as well, but I will leave that for another blog post as I'm sure you're probably wondering when this one will finish!
To summarise, you simply can't perform to the best of your abilities if your mind and body aren't being looked after thus we must start to pay more attention in this industry to the topic of nutrition and integrate it into our training and lifestyles just as we do with our SOPs.
So after all, maybe Mr.T is right? YOU'RE NOT YOU WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY!
Thank you for reading, and please don't hesitate to get in contact for any further advice on nutrition and fitness if you have any questions or queries.
Thankyou for reading.
Varon
