Nutrition scientist Maryam Hamidi, PhD, conducted research recently which required her to repeatedly stay awake from 8 a.m. until 5 a.m. the next day. As part of the study, she also needed to keep supplies of both healthy and unhealthy snacks stacked in her office.
Then, somewhere along the line, Hamidi, who has a doctorate in nutritional epidemiology and is a trained nutritionist, began to notice something strange about her own food cravings:
“Around 6 or 7 p.m., I would start craving chips,” she said. “I started noticing these bags of potato chips in my office. I had not craved chips since my undergraduate college years. One day I had one bag. Then a Diet Coke. And then I went for a second bag, and then a third. I was having fun. I remember thinking, ‘This is great. I should do this more often.’”
As a nutrition expert, she realized she was providing an excellent example of just how hard it can be to eat healthy when you’re exhausted, no matter how well you understand the importance of a good diet.
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