Efficiency and energy from lunch

An adequate but light lunch will help you stay attentive and energetic for the rest of your working day. It is also good for your body and mind in many ways.

Lunch is the best break of the day. It helps to maintain efficiency and energy during the working day. When it is well-balanced and appropriately sized, your body and mind will thank you. Even when schedules are busy and conditions are challenging, it is important to try to maintain your energy levels by eating regular meals.

Lunch is a significant part of your daily diet, since about a third of the energy can be accumulated from the lunch meal. Therefore, lunch choices are of great importance not only for your energy levels, but also for your health and overall wellbeing.

Wellbeing from lunch

Concentration, memory and decision-making skills are required at work. Healthy eating facilitates these – also outside of working hours. Drinking enough fluids is also part of a good whole.

Eating well and regularly can

  • support brain functions such as memory, concentration and decision-making ability
  • facilitate your energy levels at work
  • maintain functional capacity
  • promote recovery
  • reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, etc.
  • support weight management
  • strengthen your musculoskeletal system
  • strengthen your mental health

Don’t skip lunch

If you skip lunch during your work shift,

  • your state of alertness decreases as the afternoon progresses, even when there are no signs of this at lunch time. At worst, you will spend a third of your working day at half capacity.
  • you will feel like eating snacks in the afternoon, even if you’re not actually hungry. All kinds of sweet snacks will start feeling like a good idea. The craving for sweets can continue well into the evening.
  • in the evening, hunger can be endless. This, in turn, easily leads to eating a heavy and often fatty meal in the evening. This can make it harder to fall asleep and impair recovery.
  • the amount of vegetables eaten during the day can be too small. At lunch, it is easy to get some of your daily vegetables in the form of a salad and vegetable side dishes.

Coffee for energy?

In the afternoon hours or on the night shift, energy often comes from coffee. Moderate coffee drinking can be part of a good diet. However, the effect of the caffeine in coffee is individual. Sensitive people should enjoy the last cup of the day in the early afternoon or, at the night shift, during the first half of the shift, if they notice that late coffee drinking interferes with sleep.

A moderate lunch helps you stay alert

A lighter, suitably filling lunch has been shown to improve your attention after lunch, while a heavy lunch weakens it. Those who do heavy physical work need a lot more energy than those who work in an office. When you assemble your lunch according to the plate model, it is easier to enjoy a nutritionally varied and appropriately sized meal.

A varied meal ensures your energy levels

Even lunches with the same energy content can have different effects on post-lunch fatigue, depending on what you choose to put on your plate. A lunch high in carbohydrate and fat and low in protein seems to increase fatigue. This is, for example, a pasta dish with a low protein-content.

Lunch choices affect alertness levels up to three hours after lunch. Fatigue seems to be at its worst around 1.5 hours after eating lunch. In the afternoon, the decrease in the alertness level is also influenced by the innate biorhythm. Thus, the easiest way to influence your alertness level is to pay attention to the quality and size of your lunch.

Moderation is key at the buffet

Even though at a buffet, you may often feel tempted to “get your money’s worth”, the better choice in terms of wellbeing and energy is a reasonably sized meal. You can always go for seconds at the buffet table, if your initial portion seems insufficient. With a full belly, thinking is sluggish and the body feels heavy. You also shouldn’t go hungry after lunch until you get home from work. If dessert seems tempting, but you are already quite full, why not save it as a snack before the end of your work shift? A small snack at the end of the working day gives you some energy, and helps keep hunger moderate until dinner.