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Ana Toscano

Professor Nelson

English 1302-104

14 September 2021

The Importance of lunch

Introduction

In today's world many people think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day,

but I and many other people would disagree. Many others say that the most important meal of the

day would have to be lunch for college students. There have been several studies conducted for

more research on this topic so that we can see if it does influence a college student's behaviors,

cognitive functions, physical health, and productivity. While this topic is debatable, many can

say that lunch would be the most important meal that students could have since it does improve

the student’s behavior, cognitive functions, physical health, and productivity.

Experiment Information/Method

A 3-day research experiment was conducted to see if eating lunch or not eating lunch can

affect the student in different ways. The research study was going on from Thursday through

Saturday all of which have different schedules for classes and meetings, and it also includes how

they are eating lunch at the same time and one day without lunch. During the experiment, lunch

was eaten on Thursday and Friday, but lunch was not eaten on Saturday. Something that is a

factor to we need to track is the subject going to sleep at 12PM (Midnight), Then eating breakfast

at 7:30 AM, and walking to class # 1 in the morning from dorm class 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM and

from 9:30 to 10:30 for class # 2. Using this method helps structure all the days of the experiment

better and keeps it from interrupting the experiment.

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Results

The results of this research from the subject since they were to eat lunch or not for the 3-

day experiment

Chart Title
12

10

0
Lunch 1 Lunch 2 No Lunch 3

Time Behavior Congative Exersise Productitity

Behavioral Benefits

The first factor that can be influenced by eating lunch is that it can boost the

improvement of a student's behavior. During this research it showed us that the student behavior

improved since the subject was getting along with the students of their class and professors.

According to the article “How School Lunches Can Benefit Your Child – Healthy Food Choices

in Schools” by eating properly it overall does improve the student's behavior in everything that

they do for the rest of the day. This shows us that eating lunch does have an effect on the

student’s behavior from that time till the end of the day. The example from this research shows

me that the student in the study was able to get along with others with no attitude and was able to

become closer to other students in the class.

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Cognitive Functions

The second factor in this experiment that was affected due to eating lunch was the

subject's cognitive function in terms of a participant's cognitive process. On Thursday and

Friday, listening to the lecture was easy, but on Saturday it was harder. Having lunch helped the

subject to be more observant of their surroundings in the classroom. For example, in this

experiment on Tuesday, the subject was given an exam, the subject studied that day before with a

full stomach showed that there were no complications when going into the exam on Thursday.

In the article it shows us that having lunch helps students with their short-term memory and helps

students do better on exams/quizzes by helping the students to concentrate on the task at hand.

This showed the same results in this experiment which does provide that the subjects cognitive

functions can be influenced. All and all, having breakfast does have a strong effect on increasing

the subject cognitive functions to help them understand the materials to study for the exam. So,

when the exam is here, he can do great.

Exercise/Physical Health

The 3 factors that can be found in this experiment would have to be the student's physical

health. There were several major findings in this research that should be considered, such as the

exercising which is walking from class to class is being influenced by lunch intakes. On

Thursday and Friday there was enough energy to continue the second half of the day with

walking being the exercise and not feeling tired from all the walking the subject does in just one

day. Additionally, after eating their lunch they felt that they should use that energy to walk to

class. However, on Saturday, the subject did not have lunch so that left them with no energy to

do their day walk around campus. In the article “How School Lunches Can Benefit Your Child –

Healthy Food Choices in Schools. “it states eating lunch then doing exercise helps the student to
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become distressed and it also does improve their mood. A student giving their body lunch helps

the student increase their exercise.

Productivity

The last factor for this experiment would have to be the productivity of the subject for

when they do eat lunch. On Thursday and Friday, the subject's attention was attentive on what

needs to get done for the day but was the complete opposite on Saturday. When it came to Friday

the subject did eat lunch due to the fact, he did have an exam later and he needed the energy for

it. It showed on the days they the subject ate there was no sign of laziness.

Conclusions
In this research experiment concluded that having lunch in fact, had an impact on the

subject’s behavior, cognitive functions, physical health, and productivity. This research showed

us that on the days where the subject did not eat their lunch it was hard for them since they

needed energy for the body. It showed us if they did not have their lunch their body functions

were down. Findings of this research are significant for university students since they

demonstrate the importance of breakfast for educational objectives. The documentation gathered

evidence from this study that proves that lunch is an important thing to eat since it helps in

behavior, cognition, physical health and productivity. Nevertheless, some uncertainties persist

today, as well as further research is needed to determine which forms of lunch are ideal to take

on a regular basis in order to get as much out of each day.

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Works Cited

Ben“Why Lunch Breaks Are Important to Your Health | Ben.” Ben, Aug. 2017, ben.org.uk/ben-

blog/lunch-breaks/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2021.

Hecht, Amelie A., et al. “Impact of The Community Eligibility Provision of the Healthy,

Hunger-Free Kids Act on Student Nutrition, Behavior, and Academic Outcomes: 2011–

2019.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 110, no. 9, Sept. 2020, pp. 1405–1410.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305743.

‌Hill, Tisa & Apuzzo, Julianna “How School Lunches Can Benefit Your Child – Healthy Food

Choices in Schools.” Extension.org, 12 June 2019, healthy-food-choices-in-

schools.extension.org/how-school-lunches-can-benefit-your-child/. Accessed 11 Sept.

2021.

‌Willoughby, Michael T., et al. “Testing Longitudinal Associations Between Executive Function

and Academic Achievement.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 55, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp.

767–779. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/dev0000664.

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