Podcast special: Teacher wellbeing – nutrition tips for during the school day

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Thanks for downloading this podcast from Teacher magazine. I’m Dominique Russell. 

We speak often about the importance of students having an adequate amount of food to help them focus and learn during the school day. But what about teachers? Amongst the busyness of the school day, as a teacher, I’m sure you are aware of colleagues, or yourself, missing breakfast or lunch, or only really finding the time to snack. 

I’m joined today by Tammie Jakstas, an Accredited Practising Dietitian, PhD candidate and Research Assistant at the University of Newcastle’s School of Health Sciences in the College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing. Tammie is currently completing a Teacher Nutrition study and through this work, she hopes to be able to make a practical difference to teacher wellbeing through nutrition support. I hope some of the strategies Tammie shares today are ones you find useful, and that you enjoy the conversation. Let’s jump in. 

Dominique Russell: Tammie Jakstas, thanks for joining us on the Teacher podcast today. We're going to be discussing the Teacher Nutrition study that you've been undertaking since 2023 with funding support from Teachers Health Foundation. I thought to kick us off, it would be great if you could tell me a little bit about why we should be talking about teacher nutrition.

Tammie Jakstas: Thank you so much, Dominique. I'm so excited to be invited to talk about this today and the work that we've been doing. 

But your question, I guess has 2 parts to it – kind of, why have we chosen to work with teachers and why is nutrition so important? I guess I'll answer the nutrition part first, because there's so much research out there and fantastic public health messaging around why nutrition is important for our health, especially around the promoting those core health-promoting foods like vegetables and fruits and wholegrains and why they help in terms of reducing risk of heart disease and diabetes. 

But there's some fantastic research in the last few decades about why diet is connected to our wellbeing outcomes. So, in terms of preventing your risk of dementia down the track. So, in terms of cognitive and brain health, which is so exciting. But also in terms of treating things like depression and around – there's a really exciting Greek study that came out, I think, 2 years ago in teachers, in primary school teachers, and it looked at how, you know, those that had a healthier diet actually were better able to cope with work-related stress. 

Which brings me, I guess to the second part, the why teachers. And it's really around the discussion on teacher wellbeing. It's so prevalent at the moment. We know that teachers are under a lot of pressure. There's a great deal of, you know, increases in terms of burnout in teachers that has been reported. We know that teachers have long work hours, and this often has a disruption to their work-life balance. And a lot of them, in terms of the last wellbeing data that came out in 2022, when we look at Australian wellbeing in teachers. And teachers often reported this disruption to their work-life balance as kind of one of the reasons that they were intending to, you know, in terms of mental health and wellbeing, perhaps leave the profession. So, in terms of teacher retention. 

So, we wanted to take what's happening in the research around diet and wellbeing and implement that in teachers. Because there's some fantastic programs out there for teachers around improving teacher wellbeing. Some amazing research that's happening. But none of this research really touches on that connection between teacher diet and teacher wellbeing. And eating is something that we do every day. It's a practical part of our day. And I really, I'm a person who loves practical solutions, and I've always loved talking about food and nutrition. So, it's bringing the 2 together and seeing if we can provide teachers with some practical strategies to really improve their agency around their food choices and eating behaviours. In acknowledging that's really only part of the solution – so, as I said, there's some great programs out there, but this is one key part that's missing at the moment, and we wanted to know a little bit more about it and how we could help.

DR: And so, you are both a teacher and a dietitian yourself. I really want to know a little bit more about why you were passionate personally about conducting this study. What kind of led you to it?

TJ: Well, I loved – I trained as a teacher. I taught Food Technology. So, you know, being in the classroom full of kids cooking and learning about flavours and foods. And then I guess I threw myself into it all as a new teacher. I would often stay in my classroom through lunch, and I would miss eating lunch myself. 

And I guess I didn't really notice the impact of all of these, like small little things that I was doing around my eating habits and the impact that they were having in the long term. And I kind of got to about 5 years in and I was quite burnt out and tired; took some time off to travel – and I also always loved nutrition, and I'd sort of been retraining on the side, but then I decided to dive right in, and I retrained as a dietitian. 

And I finished my studies, but I really missed being in the classroom with students. So, I went back into teaching, and I had, I guess, a new perspective. I had this new knowledge. I had these new skills from my dietetic training, and I tried to put them in action for myself because I knew that my eating habits before had had an impact on my health. So, I tried to implement some of these strategies, and they really helped. I would get to the end of the day, and I would feel better. I wouldn't be as tired. I'd be able to go into period 6 and be able to be focused enough to answer my students questions and really enjoy the class a lot more. 

And I noticed the difference and I looked around at my colleagues and I thought, wow, I really wish I could share with them the information that I've learnt in my degree, but there really isn't anything out there. As I said, I looked at some of the programs, I looked at some of the resources, and in terms of professional development, professional development for teachers (sorry, tongue twister, obviously), they don't really focus on wellbeing necessarily for teachers. It always focused on students. Which is very important, but it neglects the part that if teachers aren't healthy and happy, then they really can't be present for their students. And that's why teacher wellbeing is such an important conversation, because it's that connection between our health and wellbeing and how we're able to perform in the classroom in terms of providing a quality lesson, and then student academic and wellbeing outcomes. 

DR: And so let's talk about the study itself now in a bit more detail. Can you give me kind of a brief overview on what it's involved so far and also where you're up to now?

TJ: Yeah, I guess I really wanted to jump right in. As I said, I wanted to provide some programs or some solutions that teachers could have access to the information I had. But when I started out, I realised, well, we actually don't know much in terms of the research of what teachers in Australia are actually eating (like, what they're eating patterns are like) or what their main barriers to maintaining healthy eating practices in school are. 

And we had a look [at] what's been measured in terms of teachers globally around food, nutrition and wellbeing. We wanted to try and find a resource that could help us collect data here in Australia, but we found there wasn't really one key tool that would help us with that. So, we had to go back to the start, and we created a screening tool. And we wanted it to include key measures of food and nutrition as well as wellbeing, but we didn't want to just measure diet, because if I know what a person's eating, that's helpful, but it doesn't tell me how I can plan a program for them to help them improve their eating because it neglects all of these influential factors. You know, does the person have time to shop? Do they have a car to access the supermarket? So, we had to test some of these additional food and nutritional factors to help us really have the information to be able to plan a really helpful program for teachers. 

And things like social support. We know things like social support for teachers is really key in terms of maintaining healthy wellbeing, not just healthy eating practices in school, but having the support of your colleagues and the school leadership, it's really out there in the research. So, we included measures of social support as well. So, we created the tool and because it's research, we had to make sure that it was a valid tool and a reliable tool. So, we put it to a group of experts in a Delphi-style study. So, it's like a series of surveys that you put out to these experts. And we had experts from education, psychology and food and nutrition to see if the content of the questionnaire was going to give us valuable data. Because it's all good to create a tool, but if it's not going to work – so, we had to test it first.

 And then we put it to teachers to collect some longitudinal data. And that study just finished last year at the second half of last year. So we're still analysing all of the data from that, including some qualitative data we gathered around, you know, what are the key things for you as a teacher that are stopping you from practicing those healthy food and nutrition behaviours at school. And what's helping? You know, what are the barriers and facilitators around that? So, some really interesting findings coming out of that.

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DR: And so let's talk about those findings then. Can you tell me a little bit about what you've found so far?

TJ: Well, we're still analysing the longitudinal data.

DR: Yep.

TJ: But the qualitative data was really fascinating because, remember, at the beginning I said, you know, as a teacher I found, for me, I would work through lunch. So it's not uncommon, but one of the biggest barriers that clearly came through was around that work-life balance disruption. You know, both to having time to prepare healthy foods and having the time to stop, or I guess strategies around – because teachers are always pulled in so many directions at school. It’s like a parent at home; you really want to always help your students. You want to be there for them. 

So, it's around taking time to eat, because we know if you skip a meal, you're less likely to meet your fruit and veg targets. And we know nationally, I think, Australians, there's only 4.2% of us that are actually getting our 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of veg. And I think based on consumption data, it's like 180 grams on average for an adult. So that's 2 1/2 serves on average, every day. So, skipping lunch and trying to make sure that you have an opportunity to eat veg and eat those core health promoting foods was really an important barrier that we needed to address. So, we've taken all that and we've put it into the modules that we've now created around those key barriers that were being identified. Time was just one of them, but it was definitely one of the most important ones. 

DR: I'm sure many of our listeners who are classroom teachers or school leaders will resonate with that deeply. So, that's really interesting to hear, to kind of hear that validation of the experience across the board, absolutely. And so let's look forward, or perhaps at a bit more of a broader picture now then, and I thought it would be great if we could, you know, draw on your experience as a teacher and also as a dietician, being in such the unique, knowledgeable position that you are in – and kind of reflecting on what we know now from those initial qualitative findings – could you share with us perhaps a few general strategies for teachers out there who are listening to this podcast (and school leaders of course as well), who are really wanting to perhaps prioritise their own wellbeing in this area and take some agency with that?

TJ: I would love to give a few tips. I won't give everything away because of course, the modules that we're currently – we've just launched recruitment, so they'll go live in May [2025] and they're open to any teacher who would like to test out the modules. And as I said, there are only 3 small areas. 

And it's around those key areas. I guess for me, I guess from my own experience, some of the things that really worked to help me stop for lunch. You know, my father used to always say that if you advertise fruit, then you're more likely to eat it – like, if it's there on the table, you're more likely to select it. So, I would pack an easy to eat lunch. I found anything with too much chewing I would kind of ignore because I just didn't have the time. I worked in a practical setting, right, in the kitchen, so you’re always setting up and packing up. 

So, I would batch cook things. And one of my favourites is like a red lentil and sweet potato soup. It freezes really well – so, batch cooking some things in terms of maximising my time in the evenings to kind of have lunches ready. And I would pick up a few favourites and have them ready to take. And then I would make sure that I would pack some snacks on the days that I knew – so, like, planning ahead – if it's, you know, the week of parent teacher interviews and you've got, you know, maybe an excursion that's happening and other things, I would kind of look ahead and see, ‘oh, well, I might not get a chance for lunch today, but I really need to make sure I need to eat something’. And for me, fibre is really important too, so focusing on different kinds of fibre – if you're a nut free school, things like chia seeds – so, I would put chia seeds in yoghurt and put some fruit. So, it was easy to kind of pick up like a snack pack and take to my classroom while I'm setting up. Not ideal, it's still not stopping, but at least I'm making sure I'm eating something that's going to fill me up and help me just keep on going. Because, the worst thing would be, I found, especially when I started as a teacher – if you forget to eat breakfast and you run out the door, and if you haven't prepared or packed something to take, then you've missed breakfast; you may miss lunch and then you just can't concentrate for that afternoon. So, I guess, preparing ahead, it's not new. Nothing new. 

And I love always having a desk pantry, so not things that are going to tempt me, but things like cans of tuna, I guess, are really practical and shelf stable. I love those like Vita Wheet, you know, sesame things. So, something to munch on; or, you know, those mini cans of like mixed beans or something like that, you can throw together with a can of tuna for a quick lunch. So, a little mini desk pantry as a backup solution for the busy days and easy to eat things was kind of what worked for me. 

But our modules have a few strategies and one of the key features of the modules is to get teachers to collaborate on some ideas, because everybody has their own thing that works. So, what works for me might not work for you, but one of the key features that, when we ran focus groups at the end of the last year, we got some feedback from teachers around Australia on what they wanted in the modules. And how they wanted them delivered. And I guess a level of interaction and collaboration. So we've incorporated that in. So, in terms of these key areas, you know, what's going to help you overcome the barrier of time? Or stopping – so, for me it was maybe finding a colleague to sit with at lunch, because if I knew I was meeting them then I was more likely to leave my classroom and eat and then go back. 

So, that's what we've tried to build in so everybody can share their ideas. And we can have like a collaborative learning environment in and around this really important area.

DR: And so, finally, then let's talk about what's next for this study. Because as we've said, you’re nowhere near wrapping up with this whole project, there's still more work to do. If our listeners are tuning into this episode as soon as it goes live at the end of April, you mentioned just then that you'll be beginning your pilot for the online modules for teachers in May. Can you tell me a little bit more about this? I know you don't want to give too much away, but perhaps you can let our listeners know how they can get involved in it if it is something that they're really interested in.

TJ: Sure. So this is the first stage of testing the modules. As I said, it's only a pilot study. So we're just focusing on 3 key areas that we thought were really important to start with. Because arming teachers with, I guess, the information about why diet is important for their wellbeing is the first step. And the modules are really focused on just some positive strategies that we can implement. So, it's not a weight loss program, it's not a diet, you know, that you have to stick to. It's just around, you know, like I mentioned with vegetables before, we know that we're not eating enough vegetables. So, what are some solutions to help us eat some more of these important health-promoting foods? 

And in terms of our wellbeing, what we're seeing in the research is some key concepts around variety. So, it's not just making sure I maybe have my 2 fruits a day, it's around mixing it up over the week. So, you know, if I pack an apple, instead of packing another apple I might pack an apple and a banana. And then, you know, on Tuesday I might have some blueberries and strawberries. And the reason for that is, you know how we tell children to eat the colours of the rainbow in primary school, and we sort of focus on those key concepts? The idea is that we're eating a variety of not just like different types of foods, but they're giving us – those different colours are giving us key things like phytonutrients. So, it's the key components in fruits and vegetables and plant foods that we're noticing has a really important role to play in terms of diet and wellbeing. And things like different types of fibres that you're getting in wholegrains. So, a little bit focus on variety and those key concepts and how we can incorporate it, how we can try and eat and stop, you know, in terms of those core promoting foods, like stop to eat, and maybe that will help. 

And it's just some of those simple strategies. It's just to get us started. And anybody who would like to participate in terms of primary/secondary teachers can get involved. Registrations will remain open until early May. We start, I think, around the 5th or 6^th we launch the first module. And it's only open to the first 200 participants because we're just testing them at the moment and then we're taking the modules into schools later on in the year. So, it will be interesting to see what teachers have to say. 

The focus groups were really positive. So, I'm really excited to see how the modules go in terms of teachers actually working through them. And they're set up in such a way that teachers will have a chance to do the content and then have a fortnight after each module to kind of focus on some of those key goals. So, it's not just giving you information, it's kind of helping you to have strategies and then time to implement it and some healthy, helpful hints along the way. Just to kind of provide encouragement.

DR: And so the modules going to the schools after the pilot test is done – is that an important part of the process to kind of go back to that collaborative way of thinking, like you mentioned earlier? What do you hope that will show you compared to this first initial pilot test?

TJ: Well, we’re hoping that, you know, as I said, those key things around social support. We know social support is so important and the school environment. So, teachers, you know, it was so important if we can give them agency around some of their own personal strategies, but if we can give the modules to teachers in say offering a whole school can work through it together then you're having that opportunity where everybody's focused on a common goal. And everybody's trying to improve their own agency, but then they will be more inclined to maybe sit with you and have lunch. So, there's that kind of collaborative leaning on each other, but also that teachers are so important in creating that food and nutrition environment. Not only for themselves, because it does affect us – you know, if the teachers’ lounge has lots of tempting treats. Well, that's going to be a barrier that you need to overcome. And we had that come back in the feedback. But, if everybody's trying to work towards a common goal then, and that really helps and we're hoping to see that that might have a greater impact on some of those school measures. So, social support boosting improvements to diet quality. 

But we'll have to wait and see. It's only a theory at this point. We'll have to see what comes out of it. But I know that definitely when I have had support in my life on different things, it's helped improve the outcome. So, the teachers have said that a positive school environment really helps in terms of their wellbeing and in terms of healthy eating, so we'll see what happens.

DR: Thank you, Tammie. It's been really interesting to hear your insights on this project and we'll definitely have to stay tuned with what's going to happen next. Before we let you go though, is there anything else final that you wanted to mention?

TJ: Thank you so much for having me. I guess I should also mention that my work is supervised by a group of wonderful people in Laureate Professor Clare Collins and Dr Drew Miller, Dr Vanessa Shrewsbury and Professor Tamara Bucher; all my amazing supervisory team, and they've really helped in terms of collaborating and bringing all this research together. And the funding support that we've had from Teachers Health Foundation. So, it's so encouraging to see when I had this idea in the beginning that people really are interested in finding solutions to help teachers improve their wellbeing, but also from this practical point of view, in terms of diet. So, I'm encouraged by that and so grateful for the support that I've had along the way to bring all this together.

That’s all for this episode. Thanks for listening. I’ll leave a link to the pilot study in the transcript of this episode, which you can find under the podcast tab at our website, teachermagazine.com. Don’t forget to follow our podcast channel wherever you get your podcasts from, so you can be notified of any new episodes as soon as they land. It also helps more people like you to find our podcast and it’s a really big help for our team. We’ll be back soon with a new episode. 

You’ve been listening to a podcast from Teacher, supported by Sora, the student reading platform that provides access to curriculum and popular digital books for schools. Learn more at discoverSora.com/global.