It’s easy to skip lunch, especially if you have managed to have breakfast, so you’re not as hungry as you would be if you hadn’t already eaten. Sometimes it can just feel like the best thing to do, whether that’s because you’re busy and need to get lots done or because you feel you want to lose some weight, so you don’t want to eat as much. However, the reality is that skipping lunch is never a good idea if you can help it. Read on to find out why. 

Photo by fauxels

Energy Boost 

The food you eat does a number of different things for your body and mind, and one thing in particular that most people will find extremely useful is that it boosts your energy. When you eat healthy food, you’ll find you become more alert and awake, you’re more energized, and you can get a lot more done – you’re more productive. This is great because it means that after lunch, your afternoon becomes much more efficient; you can get all your work done and have time for yourself as well. 

Skipping lunch means you’ll miss this extra energy boost, so anything you have to do will usually take a long longer. It’s far better to take the time to eat your lunch than to skip it and take longer to do your work.

Promotes Weight Loss 

There is a certain logic that comes with the idea that, if you want to lose weight, you should not eat. It makes sense with that in mind to skip lunch – the fewer calories you consume, the more weight you’ll lose. 

The interesting thing is that this is not correct. When you skip a meal, your body will go into ‘starvation mode’. It doesn’t know when it will next get the nutrients it needs, so when you do eat again, perhaps for dinner, for example, your body will retain a lot of the food you’re eating as fat, rather than turning it into energy. This means it has a reserve in case it has to starve again. In other words, skipping meals can make you put weight on, not lose it. 

When you make yourself a healthy, vegan lunch, you can be sure of getting all the nutrients you need at the right time, and it’s the healthy food rather than a lack of food that will boost your weight loss goals. 

Fosters Social Connections 

When you have lunch with other people, it gives you a chance to make some important social connections, and these are crucial for your mental health. Humans are, at their heart, social creatures, and being alone all the time can be damaging – it can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression. Even if you are introverted, taking a little time to be with others each day is important, and you’ll usually feel good afterward. 

By having lunch and, vitally, having lunch with others, you can de-stress and unwind while you’re enjoying your food and get the health benefits from both of these things. Even if you only eat with others once a week, that’s still a great thing to do.