{"id":147754,"date":"2025-09-16T09:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T09:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/147754\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T09:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T09:28:13","slug":"61-per-cent-of-canadians-skip-lunch-break-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/147754\/","title":{"rendered":"61 per cent of Canadians skip lunch break: study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new study suggests working through lunch could be holding productivity back. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theharrispoll.com\/solutions\/the-harris-poll-canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/theharrispoll.com\/solutions\/the-harris-poll-canada\/\">A new study<\/a> suggests the Canadian lunch is \u201cdisappearing,\u201d as poll results from Factor Canada show 61 per cent of Canadians skip their work lunch break altogether.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">For those who do take lunch, the study shows two in five people eat it at their desk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIf you have a balanced meal, looking at your carbohydrates, your protein\u2026 that is a good first step. An even better step is to get away from the desk, go for a walk, see other people, maybe get a, get some fresh air while you\u2019re having that really balanced meal,\u201d says Tanya Ter Keurs, a nurse practitioner at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niahealth.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.niahealth.co\/\">NiaHealth<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cPeople will skip lunch thinking that you\u2019re going to get that little bit more productivity out of yourself. But really, it sets you up for less productivity throughout the day. Your energy levels go lower, you can\u2019t think so clearly,\u201d says Ter Keurs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Still, many agree that a lunch break is a chance to refuel and recharge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Thirty-eight per cent of respondents who took a lunch break said it reduced stress, 25 per cent say it fostered stronger connections, while 24 per cent say it powered afternoon productivity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cJust to continue to sit down your desk at 9:00, not move until 4:00. Sometimes you have to if you have a lot of work, but on a regular basis, just stopping and eating or eating with friends and discussing work or games and stuff that is very important for your overall health,\u201d says Robert Thompson, a Halifax visitor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ter Keurs says there are many ways to avoid skipping lunch, even if it means eating at your desk. One option being meal prepping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThat can be really helpful\u2026and to make sure there is fiber, proteins, vegetables\u2026a really balanced meal,\u201d says Ter Keurs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Factor Canada says <a href=\"https:\/\/edge.prnewswire.com\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=4508576-1&amp;h=3290029708&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheharrispoll.com%2Fsolutions%2Fthe-harris-poll-canada%2F&amp;a=The+Harris+Poll+Canada\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Harris Poll Canada<\/a> conducted the survey overnight on Aug. 22, with 961 randomly selected employed Canadian adults \u201cwho are Maru Voice Canada online panellists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThe results have been weighted by age, gender, region, and education (and in Quebec, language) to match the population, according to Census data,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"A man is pictured working at his desk. (CTV Atlantic \/ Vanessa Wright)\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/LHP6LM7TM5H43FAXYXRVNO7KKY.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>desk A man is pictured working at his desk. (CTV Atlantic \/ Vanessa Wright) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study suggests working through lunch could be holding productivity back. A new study suggests the Canadian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23416,49,48,18865,44,795],"class_list":["post-147754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-break","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lunch","tag-news","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}