Don't eat at your desk - just don't

Foundation: Digestion - absorb & defend

Secondary Foundation: Stress management – minimize the stressors and build the defenses

I once came to the realization that there were times in my work life where I was eating all three meals of the day, at my desk: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

(And, you might as well throw afternoon snack in there, while I am confessing everything).

My mornings were so rushed, I didn’t have time to eat at home, eating breakfast on the train only gets you dirty looks (rightfully so), so the first point at which my morning chaos came to a close was...at my desk.

Moving on to lunch, I typically used my lunch hour to workout – when else is a commuting mom supposed to fit a workout into the day?

I spent my hour at the gym and then came back to eat lunch...at my desk.

During busy times, when there were evening events for me to attend and often speak at, the best thing to do was grab a bite before I left and that meant eating dinner...at my desk.

And while I absolutely do not blame the challenges I had in my health to my habit of eating at my desk, once I started learning about the proper process of eating and digestion, I soon realized that this pattern was certainly not doing me any favours.

I start with this confessional for you to know that I come in peace with what I am about share. There is no judgment in anyway if you have slipped into this pattern yourself. I understand. Clearly, I have been there myself. I recognize, too, that it’s a very common practice within our workplace cultures, so it’s not something we generally question.

I should clarify as well that when I say “eat at your desk” what I really mean is “eating while working.”

This would include email (reading or responding to), listening to a webinar, being in a virtual meeting and turning your camera off while you eat, working on projects and reports. You can fill in the blanks.

In this post, we’ll talk about:

1.    A simple look at the digestive process.

2.    How eating while working conflicts with this natural process and the potential consequences thereof.

3.    Ideas on how to establish the habit of joyfully stepping away and savouring your lunch break.

My hope is that in conclusion, you’ll feel ready and equipped to let go of the habit and forge a new path of mindful lunch breaks that support your long term health and ideally, your performance, too.

A simple look at the digestive process

Have you ever caught the whiff of a coworker’s lunch heating up in the lunch room and almost immediately, your taste buds start watering and you think, “damn, I wish that lunch was mine!”

Or, leftover sandwiches from a meeting have been opened up to all staff and they are so nicely adorning the main lunch room table. While you don’t usually take lunch for another half an hour, you are suddenly very hungry at just the sight!

We’ve all been there.

Believe it or not, those innocent reflexes of smelling or seeing food, and knowing it’s on the way, your mouth salivating and you starting to get hungry – these preliminary steps mark the necessary beginnings of the digestive process.

Overall, digestion is designed to both mechanically and chemically break food down, so that nutrients are small enough to be absorbed and used by our cells.

Let’s take a glance at the process of the digestion, so that you understand the key pieces:

Relaxed state – digestion happens in a parasympathetic state of the nervous system, often referred to as the “rest and digest” state. Only once the body feels safe does it give the green light for resources to be appropriately allocated to the digestive system to support its function.

Our digestive and nervous systems are more interwoven than we may realize, so thinking of them as operating hand in hand, is advantageous to setting ourselves up for digestive success.

Sight, smell & anticipation of food – while we often think of digestion starting in our stomach, it actually begins long before food even hits your stomach! The mere perception of food on the way is in fact that first phase, and the body is already preparing for food intake and revving up its acid secretions accordingly (yes, even before food reaches your stomach).

Chewing, tasting & saliva production – the ingestion of food is the first point where mechanical and chemical breakdown starts to happen. 30 chews per bite is the goal - or chew your food like you are chewing gum, is what I like to suggest. Saliva production, encouraged by tasting and chewing, helps to smooth and moisten food and salivary amylase is actually already starting to chemically breakdown carbohydrates as we chew – which is critical, since the amylase present in your pancreatic enzymes later on, isn’t enough to on its own to fully digest our carbohydrates.

Stomach, pancreas & gallbladder – while digestion happens through the concerted effort of the body’s innate intelligence, our nervous system, and hormonal feedback, from a functional perspective, the stomach, pancreas, and gallbladder are star organs that play a key role in the chemical breakdown of food. Their function, in large part, is mediated via appropriate acidity levels, starting with the stomach. The stomach is designed to be highly acidic (1.5 – 3 pH) with sufficient hydrochloric acid levels to break down protein, harmful bacteria and parasites, and keep the stomach environment clean; appropriate acidity of the stomach triggers the secretions from the pancreas with enzymes and sodium bicarbonate. The presence of fats triggers the release of bile from gallbladder. This all creates an environment where proteins, carbohydrates, and fats can be sufficiently broken down, emulsified, and absorbed.

Absorption – when everything has undergone sufficient chemical breakdown, nutrients are ready to be absorbed into either the bloodstream and transported throughout the body or, in the case of our fats, absorbed into our lymphatic system for circulation.

Elimination – the show comes to a close with the recycling of water and waste materials in the large intestine, with one last chance for nutrient absorption or creation via our colon’s microbes. Whatever isn’t used is, of course, excreted.

I know we don’t always think about our digestion from top to bottom like this, but I wanted to make sure you had a clear picture, since you’ll better be able to appreciate why it’s so critical to get those early phases right and why eating while working really risks derailing the integrity of these early phases.

Let’s turn our attention to that now.

How eating while working conflicts with this natural process and the potential consequences thereof

As I mentioned earlier on, eating while working/eating at your desk is really quite common in our workplaces and just something some people choose to do (or have to do).

Of course, it’s not life threatening if this happens in one off occasions, but when it becomes a pattern, we are setting ourselves up for rough waters ahead.

When we are not taking the time to slow down, relax ourselves, properly chew our food, and focus solely on the experience of eating – those essential precursor steps - the whole digestive process can be compromised.

The downward cascade of undesirable effects could look a little something like this:

• When we eat in a stressed or distracted state, and we’ve not geared down and taken the time to relax ourselves, we are not in a parasympathetic state, the brain isn’t receiving the proper signaling to produce the digestive juices needed to support the flow of further chemical breakdown – saliva, acids (hydrochloric acid), enzymes, sodium bicarbonate (buffers), bile, as well as other digestive juices that are part of the process
• When food is under chewed, this means, insufficient mechanical breakdown
• When we are stressed or distracted, we can miss somatic queues of fullness and satiety and could eat more than we need
• When undigested food enters our digestive system, over time it can ferment, putrefy, and rancidify, creating a breeding ground for undesirable microbial growth
• Partially digested food particles, much larger than intended, can inflame and start to cross our intestinal lining during absorption. For our immune system, who dutifully guard this barrier, these large particles stop resembling food and start resembling something they don’t recognize – a possible invader
• Since food is meant to be our friend and source of nourishment, not an enemy, when this happens perpetually over time, our immune systems can simply become overwhelmed, not designed to fight so many repeated battles via this channel
• Over the course of time, continuous faltering on the early phases of mechanical and chemical digestion, can show up with different signs of imbalance for different people. It could be food sensitivities manifesting as digestive discomfort, joint pain, and challenges in cognitive function, metabolic issues (yes, your metabolism is tied to your gut health and function!), or just plainly getting sick more often – all things, I think we can agree, we really don’t want to sign up for

We are mistaken if we believe that we are in a relaxed state if we are multi-tasking or distracted. Our brain actually perceives this as a stress, and requiring of action, not rest.

We are also mistaken if we think that all we need to do is chew our food enough to swallow it and that your digestive system can muscle the rest.

Both beliefs are inaccurate.

Ideas on how to establish the habit of joyfully stepping away and savouring your lunch break

It may seem a little odd for me to offer you tips on how to take an enjoy your lunch break, but I’m going to do it anyways, because if you are like me, where the habit ran deep, breaking it takes both reassurance that you are doing the right thing and practical steps to lock some new behaviour into your day, and create a new ritual.

Here we go:

Learn how to eat mindfully

Slowing down and situating yourself in a relaxed state of mind and focusing on one thing – eating - is one of the best things you can do for your digestive health, and your overall health.

The practice of eating mindfully is just that – sustained moment to moment presence during the process of eating. It is when we purposefully give our focus to everything that is involved in that process.

Like any mindfulness practice, it requires that we become aware of the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that come along with that present moment.

Eating certainly gives your mind many elements to sink its attention into: flavours, textures, chewing, what to eat next, processing all the somatic queues between your brain and stomach of how full you are, etc. There is no shortage of opportunities to be drawn in.

Research from within the world of mindful eating shares the following benefits:

• Reduces our stress levels by intentionally bringing our bodies into a relaxed state
• Increases blood flood to your digestive system that supports its optimal function
• Increases the secretion of gastric juices, enzymes, and bile
• Normalizes the speed at which food moves through the digestive process (this is call “gut motility”)
• Improves nutrient absorption and assimilation
• Reduces the likelihood of overeating and missing fullness queues
• Improves satisfaction of meals
• Creates the opportunity to make better food choices in the future

So, how do you go about eating mindfully? Here are a few ideas that are often shared:

• Survey your surroundings and remove any distractions in it – this includes the temptation to read your phone, a book, the newspaper, or watch tv
• Take a moment before diving in to breathe and be grateful for the food that’s in front of you
• Take manageable bites and chew until food is thoroughly smoothened in your mouth (as I say, about 30 chews per bite or pretend you are chewing gum to be thorough in your chewing)
• Consider putting your fork down in between the bites you take and even take a few breaths as the meal proceeds
• Pay attention to the information coming into your senses without any judgment – sight, smell, taste, and textures
• Take an observational position and note how the heaviness or lightness of the food makes you feel; how your fullness progresses as the meal moves along; what you would do differently if you eat that meal again
• Take your time and savour

The practice of eating mindfully really seems to be where optimal digestion and stress management have the opportunity to intersect.

And, while you may not be able to fit full blown eyes-closed corpse poise style meditation into your day, eating your lunch mindfully, may be a more practical way to fit mindfulness into your day and is easily ritualized.

Secure the time - block-off your lunch break in your work calendar (and a little buffer time around it, if you need to) so that you can protect this time and no one try to book meetings with you.

Consistency - aim to have your lunch break at a consistent time every day, so that your colleagues are conditioned to know when you take this sacred break (and they should do the same!)

Team up - for in-office days, team up and have lunch together with coworkers so that you keep one another accountable for leaving your desks and enjoying lunch together – even if that means meeting in the lunch room or local park at 12 pm and munch your homemade lunches, that would be a beautiful ritual.

On that note, aim to save chats about shows and movies for lunch breaks, rather than during work or team meetings. Many times, I think we end up working through lunch breaks because we are catching up on time wasted in other areas of the day.

Keep work in its place - work when it’s time to work and chat when it’s time to chat.

Savour at home - for work-from-home days, make your lunch from scratch so you can savour the meal preparations (wash and chop your ingredients you think you might want beforehand, if you need a little extra time), intuitively throw together what your body is asking for, and subsequently relish your creations.

Do the “wrap up write down” – before you leave on your lunch break, write down everything you would have done, had you worked and ate at your desk. Point form is fine, just get it down so you can see it.

When you return from lunch (refreshed), tackle those items that you had listed.

I have found that the act of capturing those lingering items helps put my mind at ease that they won’t be forgotten, and as you may discover, too, you can plough through material a lot faster and with better quality with your entire attention, rather than divided attention.

Vow to come back better – let your lunch break be a transformational break. Vow to return with some improved element of your character – more compassionate, more patient, more creative, more insightful, more open minded…whatever it may be that steps you up a notch.

I often believe we get so hyper-focused on the quantity of our work, that we forget about the quality in which we are delivering it, which matters, too.

Attend to both and let your lunch break enable that balance.

Conclusion and final thoughts

As we wrap things up, the take home message is this:

Keep your lunch break sacred.

Allow it to be an opportunity for your mind and body to reconnect  - slow down, relax, become present and bring your attention back into your body, taste, chew, and take in the whole experience of eating.

Doing so is so powerful, not only to improve your digestion, but it is supportive to your health as a whole.

The best thing about this all, is that this sizeable important chunk of digestion – the early phase  - is well within your control.

As I reflect back on why it is that I had my claws so deep into eating at my desk/eating while working, it was because I was trying to either get ahead, stay afloat, or fit in everything I needed to within the time I had.

My concluding thoughts to this whole experience, knowing what I know now and recognizing the issues I struggled with, is that this notion of “getting ahead” was perhaps just an illusion.

The minor infractions I was committing time and time again were adding up and simply costing me in a different vein.

How it costs you, may be different.

The need to both eat and work is nothing new.

Eating and working have coexisted for centuries and probably longer.

Yet, these two meaningful acts are so tightly compressed together within our modern day work environments and it becomes very easy for lines to be crossed.

But, in the face of this standoff, our biology must take precedence – it has to.

Simple acts and rituals part of each day (like taking and enjoying your lunch break and using it as a chance to decompress) add up to health and wellbeing, situate us in far stronger position in the long run, to deliver a better version of ourselves – in both work and life.

And, one last thing I’ll add.

I have it on good authority that your IT team also doesn’t like when you eat at your desk. The number of coffee spills on laptops they need to clean up is more than they can count and those quinoa grains can really lodge themselves in between keyboard keys. So yes, there are also very practical reasons for you to change your ways.

Don’t eat at your desk – just don’t!

References and Further Reading

Camilleri, M. (2019). The Leaky Gut: Mechanisms, Measurement and Clinical Implications in Humans. Gut, 68(8): 1516–1526. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6790068/

Cherpak, C. (2019). Mindful Eating: A Review of How The Stress-Digestion-Mindfulness Triad May Modulate And Improve Gastrointestinal And Digestive Function. Integrative Medicine, 18(4): 48–53. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219460/

Smeets, P, Erkner, A, de Graaf, C. (2010). Cephalic phase responses and appetite. Nutrition Reviews, Volume 68, Issue 11. Pages 643–655. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2010.00334.x

Tortora, G., Derrickson, B. (2015). Introduction to the Human Body, 10th Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Tribole, E. & Resch, E. (2012). Intuitive Eating. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Pages 138 – 141.