Is breaking bad? In a new German study, people who stepped away for an hour lunch with a friend performed worse on cognitive tests than those who ate a 20-minute meal alone at their desks, according to new German research.
The results don’t mean you should be a permanent lunchtime loner, since office isolation can seriously affect your health. (A 2012 study found people lacking friends at work were 2.4 times more likely to die in the next 20 years than their more-social counterparts.) Researchers aren’t quite sure what accounted for the difference, but how long you eat (an hour vs. 20 minutes) might have a bigger effect on a postlunch brain slump than who you eat with.
So what is the perfect lunch break? Follow these three steps for a lunch that will fill you up, keep you alert, and get you through to dinner.
- Take it before 3 p.m. Late lunches can stymie weight loss, finds recent Spanish research.
- Get outside. Eating al fresco can prep you for tough tasks better than staying holed up in the office, according to a study at the University of Sussex. Plus, sunlight boosts alertness.
- Cut down on carbs and avoid large meals. Both make you sleepy, suggests research in Clinics in Sports Medicine.
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