https://www.wired.co.uk/article/eating-l...esk-health
EXCERPT: According to research by BUPA, almost a third of UK workers usually eat lunch at their desk, with 43 per cent saying that they were too busy to pause and take a break from their computers for even a few minutes. A separate survey commissioned by contact lens firm AcuVue suggests we spend about 1,700 hours at our computers every year. So, should we really be stepping away from our desks to take lunch?
The short answer is yes. Generally, our productivity goes down over the course of the day and we’re only able to concentrate for a limited amount of time before needing space to recharge. “Often meal breaks are a time where you are able to refresh your attention," says André Spicer, professor of organisational behaviour [...] “If you don't take a break in which you go away from your actual place where you're working, you're not able to get a boost in attention. Meal breaks basically allow us a productivity refresh."
“Essentially, with attention at work, you have diminishing returns, so that first half an hour you're able to focus very well, but that tends to go down and down and your productivity also goes down," Spicer adds. When you’re sat at your desk, often the temptation to answer a call, reply to an email or continue your work is so great that you’re never fully able to detach from what you’re doing on your computer, and replenish your energy.
In a 2012 study, researcher [...] Jane Ogden ... even says that you don’t get as full when you eat at your desk because of work’s distractions. “If you eat at your desk when you’re distracted through working and you’re not giving yourself a proper lunch break, then the food you eat doesn’t fill you up as much,” she says. “You don’t remember that you have eaten in the same way, and you don’t code food in the same way. You’re more likely to feel hungry in the afternoon and then eat more.”
Many of the negative effects could also relate to sedentarism, or the act of sitting in general. A study conducted back in 2012 on 800,000 Brits found that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to get heart disease, diabetes and die of an early death... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: According to research by BUPA, almost a third of UK workers usually eat lunch at their desk, with 43 per cent saying that they were too busy to pause and take a break from their computers for even a few minutes. A separate survey commissioned by contact lens firm AcuVue suggests we spend about 1,700 hours at our computers every year. So, should we really be stepping away from our desks to take lunch?
The short answer is yes. Generally, our productivity goes down over the course of the day and we’re only able to concentrate for a limited amount of time before needing space to recharge. “Often meal breaks are a time where you are able to refresh your attention," says André Spicer, professor of organisational behaviour [...] “If you don't take a break in which you go away from your actual place where you're working, you're not able to get a boost in attention. Meal breaks basically allow us a productivity refresh."
“Essentially, with attention at work, you have diminishing returns, so that first half an hour you're able to focus very well, but that tends to go down and down and your productivity also goes down," Spicer adds. When you’re sat at your desk, often the temptation to answer a call, reply to an email or continue your work is so great that you’re never fully able to detach from what you’re doing on your computer, and replenish your energy.
In a 2012 study, researcher [...] Jane Ogden ... even says that you don’t get as full when you eat at your desk because of work’s distractions. “If you eat at your desk when you’re distracted through working and you’re not giving yourself a proper lunch break, then the food you eat doesn’t fill you up as much,” she says. “You don’t remember that you have eaten in the same way, and you don’t code food in the same way. You’re more likely to feel hungry in the afternoon and then eat more.”
Many of the negative effects could also relate to sedentarism, or the act of sitting in general. A study conducted back in 2012 on 800,000 Brits found that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to get heart disease, diabetes and die of an early death... (MORE - details)