In the middle of a busy day, the lunch break remains sacred. Good news, eating quickly, but well, it’s possible without going through the compulsive junk food or sandwich box in front of the screen. Our advices.
Taking the time to eat when you work is essential: to recharge your batteries with calories and nutrients, and therefore energy, but also to take a breather, treat yourself and relieve the stress of work. Gold, “eating is often just an additional task to be carried out as efficiently as possible, to get rid of it quickly and return to our professional activitiess”, explains Charles Brumauld, dietician. The risk? Not taking a real break, neglecting your satisfaction, swallowing anything to calm down and just not feeling your stomach complain, gulping down at full speed, snacking…
Take a moment
On average we take 50 minutes lunch break (CHD Expert study for the Sandwich & snack show, March 2022). Our expert’s recommendation? Create a real decompression airlock! “Stop the TGV meal! I advise not to sit down at the table as soon as you leave your office, but to take a few minutes to walk, do breathing exercises,stretch… This activates the parasympathetic system and stimulates the vagus nerve: the heart slows down, we relax. This also improves peristalsis (progression of the food bolus in the digestive tract): we will digest better!“
“Then sit down, enjoy your plate, look at it, smell it, enjoy it calmly while chewing well, and try to observe the feeling of hunger, then of satiation..” In short, savor the moment, whether you are alone or with colleagues, and leave your mind aside.
Company restaurant: how to make the right choices?
There is always choice. Rule number 1, adapt your meal to your hunger, more or less depending on the day, the time, the time elapsed since breakfast: nothing obliges you to chain starter, main course, cheese and dessert if you feel little appetite! Rule number 2, limit cooked fats (puffs, fried foods, breadings, pastries), which weigh on the stomach and whose difficult digestion risks making you feel depressed and want to nap…
What to eat? “I suggest always starting with a raw vegetable to chew (grated carrots, red cabbage or cucumber salad, radishes, etc.), especially if you feel hungry, to calm your impulsiveness: you will thus ingest fiber (good for transit and satiating), and we will avoid throwing ourselves on the main course.”
Then, it is better to avoid the soft one, which is swallowed too quickly and pushes us to gulp down and finish our plate as soon as we have started. “It is better to have “mash”: rather hard-boiled eggs than an omelette, a whole steak instead of minced meat, a pan of vegetables and not a puree (even celery)“, indicates the dietitian.
If you choose a pasta dish (ideally al dente and with a tomato sauce and not the bacon-cream-cheese trio), we complete with proteins which satiate and keep you awake: shrimp, hard-boiled egg or slice of roast as a starter, natural yogurt as a dessert, to avoid the meal ” all carbs.” And if you tend to eat quickly, take a minute’s break between the starter and the main course, then in the middle of the dish: the opportunity to take stock of your taste and food sensations.
And for dessert? Ideally, a seasonal fruit to munch on (or a fresh fruit salad) and more occasionally a pastry, generally very fatty, sweet and… often industrial!
Lunch box and homemade “lunch”
Bringing your meal is the solution chosen by nearly one in two French people (45%, according to the study mentioned above). You can bring back the leftovers from dinners taken at home, without hesitating to add ingredients to give them a “bento-stagging” makeover, or to shift them with those from the day before if you hate eating twice as much. sharpened the same thing.
If you cook on purpose, you keep it simple, effective and balanced, with a cereal base that varies every day (bulgur, quinoa, rice, buckwheat, semolina, pasta, etc.), a protein (meat, poultry, egg, fish, shrimp, etc.) and vegetables of all colors: slices of tomato and cucumber, strips of zucchini or carrot, peas or beans, asparagus, florets of broccoli, spinach shoots, strips of fennel or celery, peppers … “We then pimp with something sweet and creamy (chickpea hummus, plain or with beetroot or pepper; guacamole…), herbs for flavor and to aid digestion, and a small handful of seeds (walnuts , almonds, cashews, grilled buckwheat or kasha, pine nuts…) for crunch. Perfect with a separate homemade sauce (good rapeseed oil, olive or nuts, vinegar or lemon).”
Enough to satisfy yourself without weighing yourself down, and without eating monotonously! If necessary, finish with plain dairy and/or fruit (or compote), or even a square of chocolate. Snack or nibble? Feeling hungry in the afternoon? Especially if you have had an early lunch, take another “snack break”. Drink (herbal tea or tea), fruit (banana, apple, kiwi), small handful of oilseeds, chocolate: enough to regain energy and enthusiasm, and avoid “holding on” until leaving work, then devouring as soon as you get home cheese platter or aperitif biscuits.