Why are Americans so bad at lunch?

[marmar]

We should all be lunching like Europeans — it's better for your mind and body
Put down your sad desk salad; experts explain why a real lunch break is better for your mind and body

By MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED AUGUST 26, 2023 3:59PM (EDT)


(Salon) The morning had been an intense morning of lessons and group work on conflict resolution and peacebuilding. We had covered terrorism and violence, from Palestine to Ukraine — but it was now 12:30, so we were going to go do the next important action item on our agenda. My classmates, facilitators and I were going go to downstairs for a three-course, hour-long meal. Because this is Europe, and people still eat lunch here.

In my regular American life, lunch is an afterthought, almost an embarrassment. The majority of my friends and colleagues, like me, only leave their desks for a proper midday meal a few times a year. I have a publishing executive friend who I meet up with occasionally for an early breakfast; by her own admission she hasn't actually eaten a weekday lunch in years. And this is all somehow taken as normal and productive. A 2021 survey by the hygiene brand Tork found that even with more of us working from home, 39% of respondents said they "occasionally, rarely or never" took breaks during the workday. Nearly a quarter admitted they "feel guilty or judged when they step away from work midday." A 2019 survey from the California Walnut Board & Commission found that two in three millennials responded that they often skip lunch to "get ahead" at work. And even when we do take a break, it's not for long. The recent Compass Group's Global Eating at Work Survey found that the average American lunch break is just 30 minutes long.

In other countries, though, it's understood that the rhythm of the day requires an ebb and flow. In France, eating your desk isn't just a strange idea, it's against the nation's labor laws. Food-culture historian Martin Bruegel told NPR last year, "People are just simply happier when they take some downtime during the workday. It's good for their well-being."

And well-being is both a physical and psychological investment. "In the fast-paced world of work, it's easy to overlook the significance of pausing to nourish ourselves, but doing so holds numerous benefits for our overall health," says Marissa Moore, a Licensed Professional Counselor and writer at Mentalyc. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/08/26/we-should-all-be-lunching-like-europeans--its-better-for-your-mind-and-body/

[Blues Heron]

1. In France, eating your desk isn't just a strange idea, it's against the nation's labor laws.

lol!

[Wonder Why]

6. Besides, I never heard of a tasty desk!

[Angleae]

13. Well, it does contain lots of fiber.

[RSherman]

26. "You're probably eating wood pulp" article

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/07/10/329767647/from-mcdonalds-to-organic-valley-youre-probably-eating-wood-pulp

[Elessar Zappa]

2. I've been lucky.

Most jobs I’ve had have given an hour for lunch.

[electric_blue68]

3. This is a great article. I always believed in having a real lunchtime.

[EYESORE 9001]

5. Can I take lunch like the French

And then siesta like the Spanish?

[Native]

9. Seriously, this is the one thing I didn't factor in when planning a 3 week trip to Europe.

Spain, France, England and Italy. Meals took hours!

[dweller]

15. And awaken

in time for Tapas !!
😋




✌🏻

[EYESORE 9001]

20. I might need a wake-up call

[ForgedCrank]

32. This is

exactly why I skip lunch and just eat a granola bar or something.
If I sit down and eat a proper meal, I'm at war with myself for hours afterwords trying to stay awake.

[calimary]

36. Yep. I know how that is.

I’m kind of a grab ‘n’ go gal. Unless it’s lunch with girlfriends. Then I can sit and nosh all afternoon.

[EYESORE 9001]

38. I call it 'the afternoon effect'

I flirt with disaster when having a heavy lunch with meetings in the afternoon.

[Freethinker65]

60. Agreed. A heavy meal at lunch doesn't make me more productive.

I am fine with eating some homemade leftovers during a 15 to 30 minute break. I think the nutritional value of what you eat is most likely more important than the quantity and length of time it takes you to eat it.

I can, however, understand the value in taking time during work to socialize with coworkers in a more relaxed atmosphere. I miss that now that the break room is most often occupied with coworkers wearing ear buds while scrolling their cell phones.

[Boomerproud]

7. I work in manufacturing and we get 20 minutes for lunch.

If there wasn't a law, we wouldn't get any. Happy Labor Day.!

[House of Roberts]

19. I also worked in manufacturing,

as a CNC machinist, and I only had one job where I had an hour for lunch. Trouble was, I gained 15 pounds while I worked there. Every day we ate at a buffet restaurant of one kind or another.

[EYESORE 9001]

39. I worked for years in a place that 'gave' us 18 minutes for lunch

Officially. Nobody adhered to it and nobody enforced it to my knowledge. Apparently, 2 minutes were taken from lunch as a compromise back when the earth was new and the first contract hammered out.

[FailureToCommunicate]

44. Same. I work construction and most days we just snarf a brown bag sandwich, rest a

few more minutes and get back to work, 20 minutes tops.
There is seldom a good place to buy sandwiches nearby, so I end up eating whatever I sleepily put together in the early morning.
Sad, but I'm not putting on any extra pounds for sure.

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

[milestogo]

10. Working from home, I eat.

But I seldom take an hour away. I don't eat with other people. I does save some money, but I miss the old days when lunch was a social time.

[Native]

11. We also need to chew our food more! My doc advised 30 chews per bite.

It gets the digestive enzymes in your mouth working. After about a week of doing this I was no longer bloated. There's no way you can power thru a meal when you're chewing 30 times per bite.

[iluvtennis]

34. +++ agree. n/t

[BComplex]

12. And THIS is the biggest part of the reason Americans are so overweight.

Stress, and eating under stress.

[BannonsLiver]

14. The biggest reason?

I don’t think so. One of many.

[multigraincracker]

16. I take an hour work break

from my lunch day.

[bahboo]

17. I'm self employed....and live for lunch....

take some time afterward to read or lay down...then hammer it for the rest of the afternoon. Works great for me...

[brooklynite]

18. Question: how many Europeans go out for lunch in a post-COVID work at home environment?

[GoneOffShore]

25. By the looks of things where I live, lots are going to lunch - This is purely anecdotal.

But trying to get a table at a restaurant at lunch still requires reservations.

[Old Crank]

30. Here in Munich

There is a lot of business at lunch. If you have a group it is better to reserve a place. Plus many restaurants have outdoor areas when the weather is good and they fill up fadtest.

[NotASurfer]

21. Maybe Americans just want to get to 8 hours as fast as possible

after the soul-crushing, stop-and-go, bumper-to-bumper 45-minute drive to work, so they can navigate the even-more-time-consuming rush hour drive home out of the way, with all of the other tired, POed commuters, to wolf down a microwaved dinner and get as much of the housework and honey-do list done as they can before grabbing 5 hours of sleep and doing it all over again

Maybe self driving cars will free up some of the wasted commute time. Could use that for lunch, I guess. Or sleep

[Delmette2.0]

31. My boss let me take a 30 minute lunch on exchange for getting off 30 minutes early.

I loved getting off before the 5:00 rush.

[Wednesdays]

22. IIRC, the 30-minute lunch is a by-product of the Industrial Revolution

Bosses have long tried to squeeze out every little bit of productivity out of their workers, and one way was to limit break times.

That apparently hadn't happened so much in Germany, where they still have "Mittagessen," where workers close their shops, go home, and eat the MAIN MEAL OF THE DAY.

[Warpy]

23. When lunch is half an hour

that sad, fast food salad is most likely the best option. Eaten at your desk, it doesn't have to be crammed down as quickly as possible so there is time to dash back to work.

Executives do lunch just fine, they can take that hour and a half to sit down at a restaurant, pore over the menu, wait for their food to be cooked to order, dine at a leisurely pace, wait for the check and wait for the credit card to be returned. Lovely.

Americans eat sad lunches because that's all they have time for unless they were born into the executive class.

[former9thward]

37. We don't have an executive "class" people are born into.

We are different than Europe in that respect.

[Warpy]

46. Oh, yes we do

Scions of that class go to big name universities or extremely prestigious small colleges where they make friends and contacts that last a lifetime. If you're ambitious enough to want the upper reaches of Fortune 500 executive suites, be born into the right class.

Horatio Alger was always a cruel myth but it has gotten more so since the 1980s.

[former9thward]

47. That has not been my experience or anyone in my social circles.

There is a reason millions try to emigrate to the U.S. and not to any other country. There is upward mobility here which largely does not exist in other parts of the world.

[Bettie]

55. It's a myth...it used to be possible

but not now, not anymore.

Lots of references if you search it, you will find MANY more, but for the vast majority of people, you don't move up.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/13/american-dream-broken-upward-mobility-us

[former9thward]

56. Not true.

Most are able to out earn their parents.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwards-decline-usa-us-america-economics/

If the U.S. is this dystopian society as Trump says it is then why do so many migrants want to come to the U.S.? And not to other countries?

[edisdead]

51. Bwahaha say what???

[betsuni]

57. "Donor class" "billionaire class" "executive class" -- trying too hard to be cynical.

"Society and all its subsidiary institutions -- debutante balls, cotillions, charity events -- have now all but disappeared, and gone with them is the once dominant Wasp culture, with its interlocking directorates made up of select prep schools and Ivy League colleges, the Episcopalian Church, exclusionary city and country clubs, legal and investment firms. (All the institutions of Wasp culture continue to exist, of course, but in a vastly attenuated form.) But this is merely the first of the hierarchies that have broken down."

From "Snobbery" by Joseph Epstein (2002)

Saw a meme with photos of billionaires in the U.S. and only one of them from an upper class background (and not from the U.S.) as far as I know. It really bugs me when Democrats are accused of being out-of-touch elites who don't understand inequality in America because they managed to get an education and become successful. Carters, Clintons, Obamas, Bidens all came from working or middle class backgrounds. And what's the big deal about coming from an upper class background, like Al Gore?

[Aristus]

24. I'm sorry to say I pretty much have to brown-bag it at my desk.

Sandwich, yogurt, and an apple every day. I try to relax and either read or surf the net for an hour. But sometimes I have to complete charts, refill prescriptions, and otherwise keep my electronic in-box cleared out. Otherwise, the mountain of work would get too high to climb over.

There are a couple of good sandwich shops, Chinese take-out, and other lunch spots a short walk or an easy drive away. But waiting in line to order and then waiting in line to pick up eat away at my relaxation time. So I just keep lunching at my desk. Plus, by noon on a clinic day, I'm usually so frazzled, I don't want any human interaction for an hour, so I can re-charge. I just close my office door and unspool a little.

[D_Master81]

27. I get 30 minutes

We have a half hour to eat and I pack my lunch the night before and am able to eat a decent size, decently healthy lunch daily. It takes some work, but time to eat is only an excuse that people use when eating poorly.

[Javaman]

28. Many years ago I had gone to Sicily with my wife

In the various towns we visited, the hours of operation listed always had a two hour space for lunch. Close at 11am, reopen at 1pm.

I thought this was wonderful.

When we got back, even though I got only an hour, unlike the Europeans, at noon, I left my desk, ate my lunch outside and made sure I took a 15 minute nap. I do this everyday now.

At first they would ask where I was during lunch and I would blankly respond, eating. Lol

now they know they won’t find me at my desk during lunch and what ever “world ending emergency” will have to wait till I get back lol

[Skittles]

54. oh I remember that in Sicily!

signs on the door saying they were out to lunch!

I don't get an official lunch break so I just graze, I still have to monitor systems while I eat.

[A HERETIC I AM]

29. "Well-being?"

This is America! We don't give a shit about your god damned well-being! You have to make more money for the rich! Now put down that croissant and GET THE FUCK BACK TO WORK!

[llmart]

40. LOL!

I got a kick out of your reply. After all, caring about someone's well-being is just waaayyyy too "woke" for me.

[drmeow]

50. Ding, ding, ding

we have a winner!

The reason Americans are "so bad at lunch" is because we have a culture which considers people to be a "commodity" that businesses "acquire" to use.

We went from personnel - recognizing that we are persons - to human resources - which recognizes us as humans but labels us resources - to talent acquisition - which turns us into specific talents for a company to acquire.

We are dehumanized and we have shitty labor laws.

(Full disclaimer - when I worked in the office, I took 1/2 hour for lunch so that I could carpool which meant I arrived about 1/2 hour later, but I would often take my box lunch into the conference/lunch room to eat rather than sitting at my desk. Now that I work from home, most days I eat my lunch at the kitchen table or on the porch. Sometimes I only take 1/2 hour, sometimes I take longer.)

[ecstatic]

63. Lol! nt

[Oneironaut]

33. Capitalism.

For example, as an anecdote, nobody cares about lunchtime where I work. They’ll just schedule meetings back to back to back from 11a - 2pm. My lunch involves working.

However, corporations also claim you’re supposed to work 8.5 hours every day (including a lunch you can never take). I never take a lunch and just do the normal 8 hours. I’m not donating them a half an hour.

[llmart]

42. Don't get me started on the obsession with meetings.

What a huge non-productive waste of the work day. I worked in an office from the time I graduated from high school until I retired at 69. This obsession with meetings is ridiculous. Someone always drones on and on and others rarely participate. I can't remember many that were actually productive. Sometimes you'd have three meetings in one, 8-hour day. Then the boss would wonder why you couldn't get your work done.

[Javaman]

61. 90% of the meetings I have are completely useless and ridiculous...

the only reason meetings happen is so middle management can justify their existence.

most of the things discussed can be solved in one or two emails.

the 10% that are "useful" generally run way too long and can be wrapped up in 10 or 15 minutes.

all meetings, mostly are just people reiterating the same bullshit over and over. That's why when I have a meeting I quietly refer to them, to myself, as the "parrot squad meetings".

[betsuni]

59. European countries are capitalist. Cultural differences.

[bottomofthehill]

35. So true of us.

I was in a similar training last week. High pressure, management mandated.

Started at 0700 with coffee, juice, danish, donuts and water.

0950 we got 10 minutes to hit the head, grab a snack that had been sitting out all morning and be seated at 1000.

At 1150 we got a half hour lunch break. Back in the seats at 1215, yes, we got a 25 minute half hour lunch break. Cold cuts, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles and condiments a variety of breads and rolls, pasta salad, salad, fruit and cookies. Sodas, juice, water, coffee.

1350 break for 10 minutes, head run, coffee, juice, waster or soda left from lunch

1400wrap up hour.

How much do you think was actually retained by the classroom participants. I would have loved a 3 course meal, but even a little time to BS and decompress between would have dramatically helped with retention.

[yardwork]

41. Sounds familiar. And it's because of poor planning.

Poor management, poor planning, poor presentation skills, and a work culture that expects presenters to cram every little piece of information possible into the presentation.

Better planning would ask hard questions about the importance of every slide, every module, every nugget of info. "But we HAVE to talk about this!" Probably not.

[bottomofthehill]

48. Two days of material in 7 hours and 15 minutes.

Kindly, the trainer gave us online access to his PowerPoints.

[former9thward]

43. As long as Americans eat too much, which they do, extending lunches will not help.

The article does not mention that in Europe, which they seem to want to copy, portions in restaurants are generally much smaller than in American restaurants. Restaurants which tried that here would quickly fold. The average BMI of European countries is less than the American BMI.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_body_mass_index

[hunter]

45. This nation needs more taco trucks and longer lunch breaks!

One of the most depressing places I've ever eaten lunch was when I was working for a mainframe computer company that was slowly withering away because of the PC revolution. Three-quarters of their huge open factory floor was dark.

The cafeteria was 1950's modern and large enough to serve hundreds of people. It was still open with two older women cooking and making sandwiches. They'd been working there many years and all the old-timers knew them. The seats and tables further away from the cafeteria counter were dusty. Some of the fluorescent lights in the ceiling flickered, others were burned out entirely. There were no windows, the cafeteria was near the center of the factory.

Me and some of the guys I worked with would eat our lunches in what used to be offices for the R&D managers, now abandoned. We'd set up one office with random furniture. These offices had large windows with an excellent view of the hills across the valley.

I'd been awfully excited to get a job in the computer industry, especially since I'd quit my college engineering major two years in, but it turned out I was only there because so many people had been laid off or abandoned the sinking ship.

They still had some contracts going with the government and a few stodgier conservative businesses satisfied with their 'fifties and 'sixties computer technology.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

49. My contract says duty free lunch

I have not had a duty free lunch in 22 years 8 more to go, you never know

[Bettie]

52. In offices you aren't considered a 'good worker' unless

you eat at your desk or you have meetings during lunch.

Heck, most people answer work calls on the weekend, on vacation (if they even take vacation days), and of course, on holidays.

[Skittles]

53. LOL

I cannot even remember the last time I got a "lunch break" at work.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

58. Back when I could work.....

Most places would schedule to work 5 hours so they didn't have to give you a lunch break. Then ask you to work a few more days hours because "oops" they messed up with scheduling. And to turn them down would your quarterly review.

I'm sure I had a couple that gave me a lunch break but I can't really remember them.

[ecstatic]

62. That wouldn't work for me

If my lunch is too over the top I will want to take a nap. Lol.

What works for me is a light breakfast (if any), light lunch (if any) and splurging around dinner time.

I usually execute breakfast and/ or lunch with protein bars or the low carb Atkins meal bars. Ideally it would be fruit or potentially a salad but I'm not organized enough and I hate feeling pressured into eating fruit / salad before it goes bad.

I'm not on a diet and I'm not living a low carb lifestyle, but I acknowledge how "bad" carbs can screw up my day. If I go off the rails with a bunch of carbs for breakfast or lunch then any hope of productivity and focus is pretty much done, not to mention the severe acid reflux that comes with it.

[Polybius]

64. I usually skip breakfast and lunch

I usually eat one super-meal at night. Sometimes I'll eat twice, but if I do it's a very late lunch at 2:30/3:00. Never breakfast. I can't look at food when I wake up.