“A cookie please”: it is 2:30 p.m. this Friday and Sophie has gone down to the collective cafeteria of this building in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. She regularly accompanies her coffee with a “little candy”. “It could be in the morning when my breakfast was light, or just after lunch. It’s one of the little pleasures of the office,” she says… And she’s not the only one to enjoy these recurring moments.
According to a study carried out by Opinionway for the beverage brand Innocent (from June 1 to 5, 2022 with 839 people representative of the population aged 18 and over), 72% of working French people usually take at least one coffee (or tea) break each day. They are 52% to crack daily for a food outside the lunch break… including 20% several times a day.
“I never eat at home in the morning”
At the top of the favorite treats for these food breaks: squares or chocolate bars, candies or cakes (36%), pastries (31%) and dried fruit, fresh or stewed (31%). At the Popchef counter in this business building, Thibaut, manager, confirms: in addition to hot drinks which represent more than 60% of sales, the large plain madeleine at 1.50 euros or the dark chocolate cookie at 3 euros also win a nice hit. Purchases often made as a team: “We have quite a few groups of 2 to 5 people who consume on the spot and pay for their tour in turn”, continues Thibaut.
For some, these sweet breaks are as much an opportunity to share in a friendly way as to fill a basic need. Seated at 9:30 am with three of his colleagues, Stéphane bites into a beautiful croissant. “Without that, I would be too hungry at 11 o’clock. I never eat at home in the morning”, pleads the employee who has got into the habit of having breakfast at the office. Antoine has just swallowed a madeleine out of its individual packaging. “I had a rumbling stomach,” apologizes the young fan of coffee breaks.
But if 37% of working people surveyed by Opinionway eat at work to “fill a little hollow”, they are more likely (43%) to do so “simply for pleasure”. For 64%, there would even be beneficial effects to chew on a snack since it would be an opportunity to “relieve the pressure” of work.
It’s not new. If it is now encouraged by the overhaul of catering offers, the gourmet break has always been acclaimed in business. “We all have in mind the image of the colleague who goes around the office with his chouquettes”, summarizes Arnaud Collery, coach and speaker on happiness in business. This is all the more true as the average time devoted to the lunch break tends to shorten, it would have gone from 1h38 in 1975 to 38 minutes in 2019, before rising to 50 minutes in 2021. We now consume more frequently, but in smaller quantities, in the same day.
“Food pleasure activates the reward circuit”
Should we be alarmed? Not necessarily, because the food break can be good. And it is scientists who say so. In case of cravings, it may be legitimate to succumb to the call of the snack, so as not to “stay focused on this little peck and no longer advance on its task”, relieves Sylvie Chokron of guilt.
This neuropsychologist and director of research at the CNRS insists on the need to take breaks at regular intervals during the day. “For years, it was thought that during breaks the brain was shut down. However, we realized thanks to brain imaging that it works even more when it is not under duress. While we do nothing, the brain works a lot”, specifies the specialist, emphasizing the positive side of small sweets: “The pleasure of food activates the reward circuit which releases dopamine, the hormone of happiness”.
“A healthy food break provides nutrients that our body and our brain need, such as glucose which allows us to recharge the batteries”, confirms Dr Arnaud Cocaul, nutritionist. But the latter insists: to remain virtuous, this gesture must be made “in full conscience”, far from any professional file and any screen. “We have to be extremely careful about that. A break must be taken away from any attention distractor (email, computer, or telephone), at the risk of being counterproductive,” he says. A reminder that the doctor addresses in particular to employees in telework, more inclined to temptation. « The teleworker is not subject to the gaze of others, he has less regular meals and therefore tends to take less structured breaks. It is a disaster for some patients from a nutritional point of view”.
Eating from your office chair also leads to underestimating your food intake. What Dr. Cocaul calls the Obelix effect “which puts three boars before realizing that it is eating”. Hence the importance of getting up to mark the moment.
As for the question of knowing what one can consume so as not to have a bad conscience… Arnaud Cocaul recommends banning sugar and “all processed products”. Even more candy packets and other industrial bait. The ideal food break? A hot drink and dried fruit. “Public Health France recommends eating 50 g per day of oilseeds: almonds, nuts (cashew, pecan, etc.), hazelnuts… These are excellent anti-nibbling snacks,” continues the nutritionist. Working out at work, yes… but sparingly.