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Burnout Has a Biology: The Nutrition Layer Most Well-Being Strategies Miss

Three in four U.S. employees report burnout at least sometimes, and those who experience it most often are 2.6 times more likely to be actively seeking a new job. Most burnout strategies focus on workload, culture and access to care. But there’s another piece of the picture: biology. By three o’clock on a hard day, nutrition can affect focus, patience and decision-making, yet few benefits strategies address it. This session looks at where nutrition fits into the broader approach to workforce well-being. We'll examine why app-based and awareness-led programs often fall short, what research says about eating patterns, mood and anxiety, and what a 100,000-employee workforce learned after changing its approach to nutrition. Attendees will leave with a framework for evaluating dietitian-led nutrition care alongside existing mental health benefits, plus questions to ask any nutrition partner.

Learning outcomes:
- Recognize the workday pattern behind fatigue, irritability and mid-afternoon drops in decision quality, and why it's not a motivation problem.
- Understand what chronic stress does to eating behavior, and why willpower-based nutrition advice fails.
- Know what the published research on eating patterns, mood and anxiety supports, and where the evidence stops.
- Position dietitian-led nutrition care alongside the EAP, therapy access and resilience training you already fund, and know what to measure at renewal.

This session is hosted by the From Day One editorial team, with support from Nutrium.

From Day One is a Recertification Provider for SHRM and HRCI. This session is eligible for 1 credit from both organizations. The Activity IDs will be sent to attendees after the conclusion of the session.

Burnout Has a Biology: The Nutrition Layer Most Well-Being Strategies Miss

Tuesday, November 17, 2026