Out to Lunch
Looking for Lunch in all the Wrong Places
You've seen it plastered on your coworker's Gchat away status: "Out to lunch." A friend blue-lights your iMessage at noon: "Out to lunch?" This phrase has become a sort of modern-day "Gone fishing.” It’s a small window to the 5 o’clock escape from the mind-numbing work you've been doing since breakfast, an hour-long vacation in the calendar of an otherwise overcast workweek. But anyone who's taken many fishing trips or vacations knows that an ill-planned outing can leave you more winded and weary than you were before you set out. So it goes with lunch breaks.
The number of misguided lunch adventures the typical American employee takes is nothing short of overwhelming. We’ll go anywhere our clogged arteries and tired bodies desire – Applebee's, Ming's China Garden, McDonald's, Subway and, even though it’s Tuesday, TGI Friday's – in hopes of feeding the hunger brewed up during those four hours of relentless typing between lunch and breakfast. In addition to the fact(s) that you didn't work out this morning, aren't burning many calories while emailing Malaysia despite the geographical separation, and are most likely returning to that ass-worn office chair after break, you're about to put something terrible into your body.
The problem, my friends, is that we’re looking for lunch in all the wrong places.
These places do not actually feed you. Sure, they make you full - probably even more than full, if you're in the majority of American lunchers - but the gap between being full (a stomach thing) and being fed (a body thing) is as wide as the average American’s waistline and as thick as the lipid-rich plaque currently playing Tetris in our arteries.
In other words, we haven't just been out to lunch in the literal 'heading to grab a bite' sort of way. We’ve been out to lunch in the 'this decision is totally irrelevant to the rest of our lives' sort of way. Lunch has become some imaginary place where it's OK to eat whatever we feel like without suffering the consequences, because we work damn hard all day long…right? Clearly this a big (supersized?) issue, with consequences that not even the most optimistic among us should ignore.
A good friend recently recited a quote that sums up my feelings about this effort: "Dwarfs on the shoulders of giants can see more than them, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on their part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size." So a.) my friend has a damn good memory to be able to roll off such a quote without a stumble, and b.) I want to be a dwarf. I want to be a dwarf standing on the shoulders of modern-day giants like Michael Pollan, food journalist/researcher and one of Time's 100 most influential people; James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch, co-creators of the revelatory documentary Food Matters; Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell, both experts in the field of heart disease; and many, many more that I won't name now, but who will certainly be credited when their work is referenced within my own.
My aim is to untangle the web of abused buzzwords we currently hear, to better understand food and how it affects us, and to present that information in a way that’s both enjoyable and digestible for the reader. I also want to remind people that lunch break is a time where we are in control of the poor or positive choices we make for our overall health. FedEx packages, Excel spreadsheets, media buying contracts, and Twitter stalking may occupy our pre- and post-break hours, but that window of time between the madness is an opportunity for us all to start taking some ownership of our well-being. My belief is simple: by putting more thought into what, where, how and why we eat, we will not only reclaim our Gchat status, we will also reclaim our health.
Thanks again for stopping in, and from someone that is really into lunch, think before the next time you go out for it.
-Zack
Follow more posts about my journey of all things food here: start connecting the dots.
You've seen it plastered on your coworker's Gchat away status: "Out to lunch." A friend blue-lights your iMessage at noon: "Out to lunch?" This phrase has become a sort of modern-day "Gone fishing.” It’s a small window to the 5 o’clock escape from the mind-numbing work you've been doing since breakfast, an hour-long vacation in the calendar of an otherwise overcast workweek. But anyone who's taken many fishing trips or vacations knows that an ill-planned outing can leave you more winded and weary than you were before you set out. So it goes with lunch breaks.
The number of misguided lunch adventures the typical American employee takes is nothing short of overwhelming. We’ll go anywhere our clogged arteries and tired bodies desire – Applebee's, Ming's China Garden, McDonald's, Subway and, even though it’s Tuesday, TGI Friday's – in hopes of feeding the hunger brewed up during those four hours of relentless typing between lunch and breakfast. In addition to the fact(s) that you didn't work out this morning, aren't burning many calories while emailing Malaysia despite the geographical separation, and are most likely returning to that ass-worn office chair after break, you're about to put something terrible into your body.
The problem, my friends, is that we’re looking for lunch in all the wrong places.
These places do not actually feed you. Sure, they make you full - probably even more than full, if you're in the majority of American lunchers - but the gap between being full (a stomach thing) and being fed (a body thing) is as wide as the average American’s waistline and as thick as the lipid-rich plaque currently playing Tetris in our arteries.
In other words, we haven't just been out to lunch in the literal 'heading to grab a bite' sort of way. We’ve been out to lunch in the 'this decision is totally irrelevant to the rest of our lives' sort of way. Lunch has become some imaginary place where it's OK to eat whatever we feel like without suffering the consequences, because we work damn hard all day long…right? Clearly this a big (supersized?) issue, with consequences that not even the most optimistic among us should ignore.
A good friend recently recited a quote that sums up my feelings about this effort: "Dwarfs on the shoulders of giants can see more than them, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on their part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size." So a.) my friend has a damn good memory to be able to roll off such a quote without a stumble, and b.) I want to be a dwarf. I want to be a dwarf standing on the shoulders of modern-day giants like Michael Pollan, food journalist/researcher and one of Time's 100 most influential people; James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch, co-creators of the revelatory documentary Food Matters; Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell, both experts in the field of heart disease; and many, many more that I won't name now, but who will certainly be credited when their work is referenced within my own.
My aim is to untangle the web of abused buzzwords we currently hear, to better understand food and how it affects us, and to present that information in a way that’s both enjoyable and digestible for the reader. I also want to remind people that lunch break is a time where we are in control of the poor or positive choices we make for our overall health. FedEx packages, Excel spreadsheets, media buying contracts, and Twitter stalking may occupy our pre- and post-break hours, but that window of time between the madness is an opportunity for us all to start taking some ownership of our well-being. My belief is simple: by putting more thought into what, where, how and why we eat, we will not only reclaim our Gchat status, we will also reclaim our health.
Thanks again for stopping in, and from someone that is really into lunch, think before the next time you go out for it.
-Zack
Follow more posts about my journey of all things food here: start connecting the dots.