Revealed: The secrets of a perfect desk lunch (or food court order if you forgot to pack one)

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 and 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 and nutritionist and associate professor of health and wellness studies at the State University of New York. 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 per cent protein, 25 per cent unsaturated fats and 50 per cent complex carbohydrates, said Erin Palinski-Wade, a dietitian and 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 such as brown rice and wholemeal 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.

“Think about meals you really like and figure out how to add nutrient-dense options, including fibre and protein, to what you’re already eating.”

Maya Feller, dietitian and nutritionist

Because complex carbohydrates are rich in fibre, 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 (such as 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 per cent 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 fibre,” 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’ favourite 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 topped with vegetables (tomatoes, onion, cabbage or broccoli), a lean protein source (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 favours, 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.

Wholemeal hummus wrap

This filling vegetarian option travels well in a small lunch cooler and offers a mix of textures, flavours, colours and nutrients. Whether you make the hummus or buy it, start with a slightly warmed wholemeal wrap and place about a quarter cup of hummus in the centre. Top that with lettuce and thinly sliced red capsicum 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 such as kale, rocket, spinach and butter lettuce. This will provide both soft and crisp textures along with bitter, sweet and savoury flavours.

Add chopped vegetables like capsicum, 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 wholemeal 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 brown rice, if possible. To make it more filling, add a side salad or edamame.

Vegie-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, straight from a wood-fired oven. Order a thin crust (wholemeal if they have it) margherita pizza piled high with 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, wholegrain crackers and hummus in another, and cut vegetables sprinkled with lemon and olive oil in the third.

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 and food court 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 fibre and protein, to what they’re already eating,” Feller said.

The New York Times