This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Canada, which closed in 2021.

Canadian Lunch Habits: What Most Of Us Do During Our Lunch Break

40% Of Canadians Do This During Their Lunch Break
Shutterstock

The clock is ticking, it's almost noon — and for most Canadians, that means they're thinking about leaving the office to buy lunch.

According to a new poll conducted by Ipsos Reid for Tim Hortons, 40 per cent of Canadians eat out for lunch. Even though 47 per cent of us bring our lunches to work, we sometimes wish we had gone out to eat instead — and 17 per cent of us actually leave that brown bag behind and do it.

And when we do eat out, we want something hot. The poll found that Canadians (60 per cent) prefer a hot lunch and 10 per cent of men find this "more important" than women.

This shouldn't be much of a surprise. A study conducted by Visa Canada suggests that 60 per cent of us like to eat out during the week, and on average, the cost of buying a lunch is $8.80, according to My Canuck Buck. It sounds cheap, but that lunch is costing you $44 a week and over $2,200 if you bought lunch every day for a year.

And despite stepping out of the office to do so, the eating habits of Canadians (and most adults) also seem rushed. The poll found that two-thirds of respondents ate their lunches in 30 minutes or less. Another study even suggests that adults work an extra 16 days a year thanks to skipping lunch breaks, according to the Daily Mail.

Besides the dangers of sitting all day, this type of sacrifice also leaves adults eating lunches at their desks, feeling too guilty to take off a full hour and believing this would impact their careers.

"Resting, or taking a break in the middle of the day helps to clear out the mind and prepares us for a productive afternoon," said Dr. Patrick Tissington, associate dean of business partnerships at Aston University in an article on The Daily Mail.

And taking that hour for yourself may be worth it after all. According to Dr. Janet Scarborough Civitelli, work day energy and job satisfaction can increase when employees take a break, she told Yahoo News, adding that lunch breaks can also help people's bodies stretch and de-stress.

Do you take a full lunch break? How little or how long? Let us know in the comments below:

ALSO: Buying lunch everyday? Snacking on bagels? How much is this costing you? We did the math:

Lunch

17 Things We Spend Money On Mindlessly

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Canada. Certain site features have been disabled. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.