Healthy lunch for work, without pastries or the 3 pm slump

Why do you eat whatever you can grab at work?

In the morning you leave in a rush. At 11 you're hungry and grab a pastry. At 1 you have a meeting, so lunch is a sandwich from the petrol station or the vending machine, eaten in front of your screen. Around 3 your eyelids drop, and the second coffee doesn't help much.

It isn't a lack of willpower. At work, food is a last-minute decision, made when you're very hungry and have few options to hand. At that moment, what's close and quick to eat wins: pastries, white-bread sandwiches, something sweet with your coffee. If you want a better lunch, you have to decide on it before you get hungry.

Why do you fall asleep at 3 in the afternoon?

Afternoon sleepiness has a part that has nothing to do with food. A review by the researcher Timothy Monk describes the "post-lunch dip": in the middle of the afternoon, many people feel sleepier and work more slowly. It happens even in people who've had no lunch and don't know what time it is, so it's part of your body's rhythm.

The same review says a high-carbohydrate lunch makes it worse. A pastry and a white-bread sandwich are almost all carbohydrate. Add a little natural sleepiness, a long meeting and a short night's sleep, and you get exactly the afternoon you know.

What you can control: what's in your lunch and how big it is, when you eat, your sleep at night and whether you move a little after eating.

What does a healthy lunch for work look like?

The guide is the same as at home, the "Healthy Eating Plate" from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health:

• Half: vegetables and fruit. Salad, chopped raw vegetables, roasted vegetables, a vegetable soup.
• A quarter: protein. Chicken, fish, eggs, beans, lentils, chickpeas, cheese, tofu.
• A quarter: whole grains or potatoes. Brown rice, buckwheat, wholewheat pasta, a slice of wholemeal bread.
• A little good oil and water to drink.

Protein and vegetables keep you full for longer, and the carbohydrate portion stays moderate. The World Health Organization recommends that adults eat at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables a day. A lunch that's half vegetables covers a good part of that.

What do you pick at the shop or the canteen?

You don't have to cook every day. At the shop and the canteen you can choose better too, if you know what to look for:

Instead of	Choose	Why
A pastry or a pretzel	plain yoghurt and a piece of fruit, or a handful of nuts	more protein, less white flour and salt
A white-bread sandwich with salami	a wholemeal sandwich with egg, chicken or tuna and salad	fibre and protein; less processed meat
A meal deal with chips	a main dish with vegetables or salad on the side	half the plate becomes vegetables
Pasta in a cream sauce	vegetable or lentil soup and a salad	less saturated fat, more fibre
Fizzy drink or sweetened iced tea	water, sparkling water, unsweetened tea	no added sugar
Dessert after lunch, every day	a piece of fruit; dessert now and then	less added sugar

The WHO recommends less than 5 grams of salt a day and keeping free sugars below 10% of your daily energy. Pastries, processed meats and ready-made sauces quickly add salt, and sweetened drinks add sugar.

How do you make a packed lunch without losing your evening?

1. Cook double at dinner. What's left goes straight into the box. It's the simplest method.
2. Once a week, make the basics: a pot of brown rice, buckwheat or lentils, a tray of roasted vegetables, a few boiled eggs.
3. Put it together on the spot: a base, a protein, vegetables and a simple dressing of yoghurt or olive oil with lemon.
4. Keep a few things at work that don't go off: nuts, tins of tuna or chickpeas, wholemeal bread, fruit.
5. Put the box in the fridge as soon as you get to work and eat it the same day.

Three examples you can make in 10 minutes in the morning from what you've prepared: chickpea salad with tuna, tomatoes, cucumber and olive oil; buckwheat with roasted vegetables and a boiled egg; lentil soup with a slice of wholemeal bread.

How do you get through the afternoon without nodding off?

• Eat at regular times. A skipped lunch usually means a big hunger at 4 and a sweet snack.
• Don't eat at your desk, in front of the screen. When you pay attention to your food, you notice more easily when you're full.
• Go for a short walk after lunch. It gets you moving and out of your chair.
• Drink water through the day, not just coffee.
• Look after your sleep at night. The post-lunch dip is harder to handle after a short night.

How does MentorSano help you have a healthy lunch for work?

• For free, your daily to-do gives you small habits to tick off: vegetables at lunch, water in the morning, an earlier dinner.
• The daily journal, also free, records your sleep, movement and energy in a minute or two. After a few weeks, the chart shows whether your afternoons are getting better.
• With the subscription you get a menu for the week, built around your tastes and schedule, with lunches you can take to work. The shopping list comes with the menu.
• The photo food journal, with the subscription: take a photo of your canteen lunch and see how well it suits you and what you could change next time.

You can start without paying anything: create your free MentorSano account, fill in the 15-minute questionnaire and tick off your first habits in your daily to-do. The menu comes only if you want it, with the subscription.

What goes in your lunch box next week?

A simple plan for five working days, from two cooking sessions:

Day	Lunch
Monday	oven-baked chicken with vegetables and brown rice, from Sunday's dinner
Tuesday	chickpea salad with tuna, tomatoes and cucumber
Wednesday	lentil soup and a slice of wholemeal bread
Thursday	buckwheat with roasted vegetables and two boiled eggs
Friday	from the canteen: a main dish with vegetables, no chips

On Sunday you cook the chicken, rice and vegetables. On Wednesday evening you make the soup. The rest comes together in a few minutes.