Rating: 7˝ out of 10

User's comments:
“This is the lunchbox that I took to work today. I had a brown-bread sarmie with cheddar cheese and low-fat margarine. I also had a pear and a banana. It’s not in the photo, but I had a cup of Rooibos tea (with some low-fat milk; no sugar) before and after lunch.”

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Our expert's comments:
We all experience those mid-morning or mid-afternoon lows at some point in our working careers.

Ensuring you nourish yourself appropriately and adequately throughout the working hours is extremely important to optimise performance, concentration and energy levels and to minimise fatigue.

Unfortunately, most of us neglect what we put in our mouths between our clocking-in and -out hours and may even completely ignore our hunger queues at the body’s expense.

Packing your own lunch is a great way to control portions, ensure nutritious options and is a huge cost saver.

The verdict:
Well done for choosing brown/wholegrain bread (two slices) instead of white bread.

Even though the margarine is ‘low fat’, remember to spread it thinly on your bread. Margarine is a good source of vitamin D as it is fortified. We get our vitamin D fix mainly from sunlight and there are very few good food sources (fish oils, oily fish, fortified margarine and fortified breakfast cereals).

We need the vitamin for mineral absorption (especially calcium) and bone health. In our mostly indoor, computer-driven work environment, less and less of us are getting moderate sun exposure (about 30 minutes a day), so small amounts of margarine may be the only source of the fat-soluble vitamin.

Although Cheddar is considered a high-fat cheese, thin slices or grated Cheddar cheese is a great sandwich filler. I would suggest you include tomato, lettuce and cucumber to add some vitamin- and mineral-rich crunch.

Rooibos tea contains no caffeine and is believed to contain a number of antioxidants with a variety of potential health benefits. It would be a good way of getting in your minimum 1˝ litres of fluid a day.

Fruits are excellent snacks and you are well on your way to getting your five-a-day (two to three fruits and three to four vegetables daily)! Bananas are excellent sources of readily available energy (carbohydrate), vitamins and minerals (particularly potassium).
 

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