As 5 p.m. is to co*cktails, noon is to lunch: It’s widely considered the earliest socially acceptable time to grab a slice of pizza or a sushi special, especially in traditional office environments. “I’m regularly hungry at 11 but feel too ashamed to leave the office so early for lunch,” an editor friend told me. Those brave souls who do venture out before 12 return to their cubes at their own risk. The sight of a Chipotle burrito when the clock still reads a.m. might inspire curious glances at best or outright mockery at worst.
It’s a daily struggle and, sometimes, a source of anxiety. Starving for lunch on many a morning, I’ve wondered if there was something wrong with my health (thankfully, blood tests at my annual physical confirmed there is not). On the contrary, according to registered dietician Brigitte Zeitlin, owner of BZ Nutrition in New York, it’s perfectly natural for some people to be hungry for lunch at 11 a.m., especially if they eat breakfast early, too.
“The truth is your body is trained to feel hungry three to four hours after your last meal. So, if breakfast was at 7 a.m., it’s normal to be hungry at 11 a.m.,” Zeitlin said. “That’s your body’s way of saying, ‘Yo, I need some energy.’”
It was just what I, and every other egotistical human being, longs to hear. You’re not weird; the rest of the world is. Or, in this case, early onset lunching isn’t the problem, but the tendency to suppress your body’s natural hunger cycle to accommodate workday norms. One friend who works in finance said she schedules an 11 a.m. call or meeting to distract her from her desire for “early” lunch. Another said he staves off hunger with a cup of coffee.
It’s better, Zeitlin says, to listen to those pangs. If you’re hungry at 11 or 11:30 a.m., you have two choices. “Embrace the fact that your lunch is going to be earlier in the day. Eat at 11, and then have a mid-day snack at 2 or 3 p.m.,” she suggests. Or, “if everyone at your office gets lunch together at 12:30 p.m., and you want to be part of it, structure in a mid-morning snack at 10:00 a.m., so you’re not starving later.”
