Yes, you need to eat at work, just not these things

We’ve all had days at work when we wished we could just take a nice nap after a heavy lunch. The subsequent drowsiness after a heavy meal often interferes with our productivity for the rest of the day. While you need the nutrition to keep up the productivity, you also need to ensure that you are getting it from the right places. If not, at least make sure that you are not getting it from the wrong places.

Here are a list of foods to avoid at work to keep the workflow going:

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Pasta

Everyone loves a plate of delicious Pasta! As tempting as it sounds to indulge in its cheesy deliciousness, eating pasta during work isn’t recommended. Pasta contains carbohydrates which can make your blood sugar levels rise. As a result, a large amount of insulin is released by the pancreas. This causes the movement of tryptophan, a kind of amino acid, from the bloodstream to the brain resulting in the formation of serotonin, a chemical messenger that induces sleep. Like Pasta, processed food items like pastries, white bread, muffins and cakes also induce sleep due to their high flour and sugar content.

High-fat meats

Meats with high fat content cause drowsiness because fat digestion is one of the most difficult processes carried out by our digestive system. Our body utilises more energy for digesting fats, thus leaving us exhausted. So food items containing high-fat meats like steaks and hamburgers should be avoided for lunch.

Bananas

Bananas are rich in potassium and magnesium. But these nutrients relax muscles and nerves in our body and induce sleep. Bananas also contain vitamin B6 which causes serotonin formation in the brain. This will cause you to feel full and content, and also sleepy.

Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate also contains the sleep-inducing hormone, serotonin. While otherwise delightful to eat, chocolate when eaten at work can make you lethargic and unproductive.

Salmon

Salmon is rich in Vitamin B6. This vitamin helps in the formation of melatonin and serotonin, and the sedative effects of these hormones may cause you to doze off at work.

White rice

White rice has a high glycemic index. Glycemic index is the measure of the effect of a food item on the body’s blood sugar level. As white rice has high carbohydrate contents as well, consuming it leads to a higher rise in blood glucose levels, thereby leading to higher insulin levels. This leads to the formation of the sleep-inducing hormone, serotonin.

Desserts/sweets

Consumption of desserts or sweets shoots up your blood sugar level leading to an increased secretion of insulin by the pancreas. This gives you a sudden boost of energy, but when the initial effect starts wearing out and the insulin rapidly starts lowering your blood sugar level, you will start feeling tired and exhausted. This also speeds up the release of sleep-inducing enzymes like tryptophan and serotonin. So having desserts along with lunch could also be the reason for your lack of productivity.

In short, try to avoid sugary, fatty and processed food items for lunch as they can make you feel sluggish for the rest of the day.