Our school offers us 25 minutes to eat lunch. This may seem pretty good, but if you factor in getting out of class late and having to get back before the 25 minutes is up, we probably get about 20 minutes max. Studies show that you need a MINIMUM of 30-35 minutes to eat your lunch because your brain needs time to catch up with your body and let you know that you’re full. 

Giving students about 35 minutes to eat lunch gives them time to relax, eat more slowly, and leave lunch not feeling disgusting because they just scarfed it down. As a slow eater, I would benefit from closer to 45-50 minutes because I am always finishing the snack part of my lunch in my 6th hour, but I am speaking for the average student body, and 35 minutes is enough time that they wouldn’t have to carry their food into the next hour.

Now you may wonder, what are the benefits of eating more slowly? There are many benefits of eating more slowly. These benefits include: improved digestion, better nutritional absorption, enjoying your food more, better blood sugar control, improved energy levels, reduced overeating, and better portion control. These things are all important to know about and can very much affect your day. Improved energy levels will help students be more awake in class, better nutritional absorption will help students’ athletic performances, and better portion control will help you not eat too much food, which leads to feeling less lethargic. 

Another reason for extra lunch time is giving the students time to socialize. Many teachers feel that more time for students to socialize outside of class would help the focus inside the classroom because they have more talking out of their system.

This is why adding 5-10 minutes to our lunch time would greatly benefit the students of Southeast of Saline.