Healthy Eating for a Healthy Meeting

Lunchtime often provides a crucial moment to refresh during a hectic workday, conference or meeting. But without carefully considering the nutritional value of this midday meal, people can often find themselves in a post-lunch slump, or even tugging at their tightening waist bands as the weeks go by.

Seemingly balanced lunch options can hide a lot of calories. A typical boxed lunch of a turkey sandwich, apple, small bag of potato chips and cookie can stack up to almost 1,400 calories. With national nutritional guidelines recommending approximately 700 calories per meal, eating those extra calories even once a week can add up to gain of more than 10 pounds per year.

Sugary sodas, juices, and other artificially sweetened beverages also play a leading role in sabotaging healthy eating. Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, asserts that Americans drink 46 gallons of soda and sweetened beverages each year, contributing to consumption of 71 pounds of sugar and 85 pounds of corn syrup annually.

The totally unsexy path to healthy eating (and why we’re not following it)

When it comes to nutrition, moderation simply isn’t sexy. What grabs our attention and our clicks are headlines like “The poison lurking in your kitchen,” as if we’re one bite away from death, and “Why you must eat this exotic superfood,” as if we’re one bite away from a miracle.

Unfortunately, these alluring-but-false promises distract us from a more moderate, and ultimately more successful, path to better health. A balanced eating plan that offers both nutrition and pleasure can help you be your best while actually allowing you to enjoy your food — no extremism required. What’s sexier — or saner — than that?

Weekly meal plan: Healthy eating has never been so tasty

MONDAY
Hearty chicken, barley and pancetta casserole is a winter warmer the whole family will love. This one pot wonder is one you’ll have on rotation well into the warmer months. Quick and easy to make, serve this dish still in the pan and let everybody help themselves.