The Healthy Fix for Lunch’s Middle Child Syndrome
If meals were children, lunch would have a full-on case of middle child syndrome. If you look at breakfast as the eldest child showered with praise and endorsements as the most important meal of the day, and then dinner handled with care and doted on like the youngest, lunch is left with little to hold up its head about. Instead, you see it brooding at fast food lines or in the empty wrappers of candy bars tossed aside on desks. Poor lunch. Can’t it get any love?
The truth is it should. Lunch deserves as much respect as breakfast, if not a little more.
“Even though a morning meal is very important to let your body know it’s not starving and to energize you as you start your day, lunch may be even more important — especially if we’re doing errands and are on the go, chasing after our children, or working hard at our desks,” said Elisa Zied, RD, author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips. She continued to praise lunch saying, “We need to keep energy levels high throughout the day, and having a healthful lunch packed with protein and fiber can help you stay energized and alert to perform optimally both physically and mentally. It also provides a great opportunity to supply our brain and muscles with key nutrients to keep us healthy.”
Talk about a self-esteem boost for this mid-day meal! Breakfast might get you going but lunch will keep you going. That 3:00 lull that has you inhaling Doritos? Kiss it good-bye. If you eat lunch, especially a healthful lunch, you’ll forget 3:00 even happened.
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