Feeding Resilience: How Nutrition Shapes Health and Performance at Sea

What if the key to sharper focus, better moods, and real crew resilience isn’t found in another training course — but on your plate?

Veteran yacht chef Polly Baptist has spent decades in galleys from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Her message is simple but powerful: the food culture on board can make or break a crew’s energy, morale, and long-term health.

From Racing Decks to Plant-Based Plates

Baptist’s career began in the late 1980s on charter sailing yachts before moving into private vessels, many active in regattas. Racing kept her loyal to the sailing world, where long passages and limited storage demanded creativity.

Early in her career, she gave up red meat after reading A Diet for a Healthy Planet, gradually moving toward plant-based cooking — but always keeping her approach flexible. Today, her menus put vegetables and grains at the forefront while still accommodating guests’ and crew’s protein preferences.

“Being a plant-based chef doesn’t mean I refuse to cook meat or fish — it means I balance the plate differently.”

The Gut–Mind Connection

Baptist is a firm believer in the science linking gut health to mental performance. She points to the vagus nerve — the body’s superhighway between brain and gut — as proof that what you eat directly affects focus, mood, and resilience under stress.

Repetitive diets, she warns, are a hidden hazard of life at sea. A lack of variety in vegetables, grains, and colours on the plate can flatten the microbiome, lowering immunity and even triggering food sensitivities over time.

“What you eat in your twenties and thirties shapes how you’ll feel in your fifties and sixties.”

Shaping a Healthier Crew Mess

To shift onboard food culture, Baptist suggests captains, chief stews, and chefs work together to diversify what’s available in the crew mess. That might mean swapping processed snacks for raw vegetables and hummus, adding fermented foods like sauerkraut and miso, or rotating menus to keep nutrient profiles diverse.

Storage limitations on smaller yachts can make variety a challenge, but freezing surplus produce, re-purposing leftovers into soups, and using colour-rich ingredients can help.

“It’s not about banning treats — it’s about giving the healthy option equal space, and making it taste good enough to choose.”

Balancing Preferences and Practicalities

Baptist believes a yacht chef’s duty extends beyond guest satisfaction — crew deserve the same standard of care. She encourages balanced menus, even if that means challenging dietary fads.

Sudden changes, she says, are best avoided mid-voyage. Provisioning for a crossing is planned weeks ahead, and chefs need advance notice to adapt effectively.

Small Changes, Big Impact

For crews looking to improve nutrition without overhauling the galley, Baptist recommends a few easy wins:

• Rotate vegetables and grains weekly to keep the microbiome diverse.

• Offer indulgent and healthy snacks side-by-side.

• Add probiotic-rich foods like kefir, miso, and sauerkraut.

• Introduce a variety of colours to every plate for broader nutrition.

“If you invest in what’s on the plate, you’re investing in the people eating from it.”

Building a Culture of Wellbeing

For Baptist, healthy eating is a leadership issue. When department heads prioritise nutrition, it sends a message that crew wellbeing is valued. Over time, small, consistent improvements not only boost health but also strengthen team performance and morale.

A resilient crew isn’t just trained for challenges — they’re nourished for them.