By Rachel Rabkin Peachman, The New York Times
Trying to make time for a nutritious lunch during the workday can feel like a losing battle.
Between meetings, deadlines and a never-ending stream of emails, many of us give in to the convenience of fast fare — or worse, skip the meal altogether.
But no matter your schedule, a balanced lunch deserves to be a priority. “Food is a biological need,” Maya Feller, a dietitian nutritionist in New York City, said, “and I know that sounds straightforward, but we all behave as if it’s not.”
When you skimp on lunch, your blood sugar dips. That zaps your energy, focus and stamina, said Lina Begdache, a dietitian nutritionist and associate professor of health and wellness studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton. And low blood sugar takes your mood “from happy and motivated to hangry and stressed out,” she said.
So how can you make time for lunch? And what should you be eating? We asked nutrition experts for their strategies.
It’s All About Balance
The goal with a midday meal is to consume the right mix of lean protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. That generally works out to about 25% protein, 25% unsaturated fats and 50% complex carbohydrates, said Erin Palinski-Wade, a dietitian nutritionist in New Jersey.
“That framework will help you to feel full and give you sustained energy so you don’t have those blood sugar spikes and crashes later on in the day,” she said.
Complex carbohydrates (found in foods like brown rice and whole wheat bread) are better choices than simple carbohydrates (like those in white rice and white bread) because your body won’t “convert them into sugar immediately, and then run out of energy,” Palinski-Wade said.
Because complex carbohydrates are rich in fiber, they’re harder to break down, so they move through the intestines more slowly, keeping you fuller for longer and providing a steadier stream of energy.
Adding sources of lean protein (like grilled chicken, fish or black beans) and unsaturated fats (like avocado, olive oil or nuts) will slow digestion even further, helping you stay satisfied and productive for the rest of the afternoon.
What Your Body Needs
As a general rule, lunch should make up about 25% of the calories you consume in a day — with the rest split relatively evenly among breakfast, dinner and snacks, Palinski-Wade said.
If you follow a diet of roughly 2,000 calories per day, then you might devote 500 calories to lunch. Within that, there should be about “31 grams of protein, 14 grams of fat, 62 grams of carbohydrates and ideally 10 to 12 grams of fiber,” Palinski-Wade added.
This is not meant to suggest that you should count calories or nutrients, she said — and everyone’s calorie requirements will vary. But it can be useful to think about what your body can process at one time.
For instance, we can’t make efficient use of more than about 40 grams of protein at once, Palinski-Wade said. Excess protein will either be stored as fat, used up as energy or excreted. Similarly, too many carbohydrates at lunch can make you “feel uncomfortably full and sluggish and tired later,” she said.
Make Lunch Exciting
With only a short window each day, many of us resort to the same dull lunch choices and gulp them down in front of our monitors. That’s a recipe for disappointment, Feller said: “No one is thinking, ‘I love eating in front of my computer!’”
Making a lunch you’ll be excited to eat is easy once you know where to begin. So we asked for nutrition experts’ favorite lunch ideas.
These lunches can be prepared on the weekend or the night before work. But you can find many of these options at delis, grocery stores and restaurants, too.
Grain Bowl
One of Feller’s go-to lunches is a scoop of a cooked grain (such as fonio, which has a nutty flavor and is packed with fiber and protein) topped with vegetables (like tomatoes, onion, cabbage or broccoli), a lean protein source (like lentils, tofu, fish, chicken or eggs) and healthy fats (such as avocado or roasted nuts).
“Sometimes when we skimp on fat, it doesn’t do us any favors, because we’re not actually satisfied,” Feller said. Healthy fats also help our bodies absorb fat-soluble vitamins, like vitamins A and E, she added.
Whole Wheat Hummus Wrap
This filling vegetarian option travels well in a small lunch cooler and offers a mix of textures, flavors, colors and nutrients. Whether you make the hummus or buy it from a store, start with a slightly warmed whole wheat wrap and place about a quarter cup of hummus in the center. Top that with lettuce and thinly sliced red pepper and cucumber. Add a few mint leaves if it suits you and wrap it all up to go. Round out your meal with a side of fruit.
Not Your Average Desk Salad
Liven up a standard salad with a combination of greens like kale, arugula, spinach and bibb lettuce. This will provide both soft and crisp textures along with bitter, sweet and savory flavors.
Add chopped vegetables like peppers, celery and carrots, and top it with a source of lean protein like grilled chicken, tofu or canned, water-based tuna. Add a bit of crunch and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids with a sprinkle of flax or chia seeds and serve with a piece of whole-grain bread.
To make it vegetarian, use black beans or lentils instead. Top it off with a drizzle of lightly seasoned olive oil and vinegar.
Sushi
While you can prepare your own sushi (or even poke bowls) at home, it’s usually quickest, freshest and tastiest to leave it to the professionals. When ordering out, opt for fish like salmon or tuna, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. And ask for whole-grain rice, if possible. To make it more filling, add a side salad or edamame.
A Chilled Summer Soup
Cold, salty and refreshing — gazpacho is the perfect choice for a hot summer day and offers a hefty dose of lycopene, an antioxidant with cardiovascular and other health benefits. Gazpacho also freezes well, making it ideal for prepping in advance and freezing into portions for easy access during the week. Serve with whole grain bread smeared with cream cheese for a little extra protein.
Veggie-Heavy Pizza
Pizza is fun to make at home and leftover slices store well in the fridge, but there’s nothing quite like freshly made pies straight from a brick oven. Order a thin crust (whole wheat if they have it) margherita pizza piled high with shredded lettuce and lightly cooked vegetables like broccoli, eggplant and tomatoes. If you think you’ll still be hungry after one slice, add a fruit or side salad.
Bento Boxes
Palinski-Wade recommended preparing Japanese-inspired bento boxes filled with different foods each day. You might pack a hard-boiled egg in one compartment, whole grain crackers and hummus in another, and cut vegetables sprinkled with lemon and olive oil in the third. Another combo to consider: a pouch of tuna, a whole-grain roll, an apple, and carrot sticks to dip into Greek yogurt seasoned with herbs or spices.
Be Smart About Ordering Out
Picking up lunch from a restaurant is one of the pleasures of office life. But “even healthy seeming options often have more calories, saturated fat and especially more salt than you might want to get in a single meal,” said Edward Saltzman, an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
Restaurant salads, for instance, sometimes have more sodium, calories and fat — largely from the dressings and toppings — than you should have in an entire day. If you buy a large portion, try splitting it in half and saving the rest for later, Saltzman said.
However, try not to deprive yourself. “I’d rather have people think about meals they really like and figure out how to add nutrient-dense options, including fiber and protein, to what they’re already eating,” Feller said.
Recipe: Grain Bowl With Sardines and Sauce Moyo
By Genevieve Ko
A satisfying grain bowl doesn’t need to take a lot of time, especially if you start with a quick-cooking grain such as fonio. Fonio, tinier than even couscous or quinoa, takes five minutes to cook and delivers a deep nutty taste. This ancient whole grain, which is also gluten-free, is prepared throughout West Africa, as is sauce moyo, a sauce of crisp onion and pepper, juicy tomatoes, chile and lime. Here, that sauce adds crunch to the tender, sandy grains, and tinned smoked fish delivers a savory richness. You can assemble the whole thing to enjoy at home or pack up to eat as a fresh and filling desk lunch.
Yield: 1 to 2 servings
Total time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/4 medium red onion, finely chopped
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, plus more to taste
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
- 1/2 cup fonio (see Tip)
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 green bell pepper, finely chopped
- 1/2 habanero or Scotch bonnet chile, seeded and very finely chopped
- One (4- to 5-ounce) tin smoked sardines or other fish in olive oil
Preparation
1. Combine the onion, garlic, lime juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Let sit to mellow the bite of the raw onion and garlic.
2. Meanwhile, bring 1 cup water and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in a small saucepan (with a lid) over high. Stir in the fonio and 1 tablespoon oil, cover and decrease heat to low. Cook until the water is absorbed, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit, covered, to steam for 1 minute. Fluff with a fork.
3. Stir the tomatoes, green pepper, habanero, the remaining tablespoon olive oil and a generous grind of black pepper into the onion mixture. Taste and add more lime juice, salt and pepper as desired.
4. You can enjoy this as one big serving or two smaller ones. Scrape the fonio into a serving bowl or lunch container. Lay the sardines on top then drizzle the sardine oil all over. Spoon the sauce moyo on top and eat right away or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Tip
Fonio is an ancient whole grain that resembles coarse sand and is prepared throughout West Africa. It’s available online and in African markets; large grocery stores such as Whole Foods carry the Yolélé brand.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
