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I'm a Norwegian, and where I work I have the option of eating a big warm lunch, but I very rarely do. I've noticed that eating a big lunch makes the following h

• chrisseaton 7y ago
  > 3 slices of bread ... liver paste, cheese or peanut butter ... waste 2 hours in the middle of the day on a heavy calorie lunch How many calories are in your sandwich though?! Sounds extremely calorie dense!
  • 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
    It's a single slice of cheese or meat. American deli-style sandwiches where there is more filling than bread are not a thing in Scandinavia. Also, if you were wondering what's up with "caviar" as a topping, it's this stuff made from cod roe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalles_Kaviar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalles_Kaviar
    • chrisseaton 7y ago
      Yes I'm European as well. Still seems like an extremely hefty sandwich from the video...
      • ryan93 7y ago
        Its an incredibly small sandwich.
      • vidarh 7y ago
        British slices of bread are usually far larger than Norwegian ones.
    • Moru 7y ago
      Warning, Kalles Kaviar actually contains sugar and lots of it. It's horrible, and I'm swedish. They actually make ads on the TV with people from other cultures trying to eat it. It's not as bad as surströmming but ew...
      • bifrost 7y ago
        Dare I ask your opinion of Matjes? That said, I've heard a some dissent from younger swedes about surströmming but not about Kalles heh.
      • Shaanie 7y ago
        12% sugar isn't that bad given that you don't use much. Messmör, on the other hand, is something that should be avoided.
      • Broken_Hippo 7y ago
        I can believe they have those ads! To be fair, though: My spouse, the resident Norwegian, really likes it. Soetimes with a sliced, hard-boiled egg. But he's also been eating it since he was a child as it is a cheap and easy thing to make children. It is more akin to American children with peanut butter. I, however, being the import to Norway, find it fairly disgusting.
        • vidarh 7y ago
          As a Norwegian, I agree with you it's disgusting.
    • bifrost 7y ago
      I love Kalles! I've eaten it since I was a kid. I make regular trips to IKEA just to buy it, apparently they're one of the US's largest importers of Swedish food. But yes, its very different than what most Americans think of Caviar; This is very much un-fancy.
      • Freak_NL 7y ago
        > IKEA Also, gooseberry jam.
    • Kiro 7y ago
      The filling is not what adds to the calories though, it's the bread.
    • mikkom 7y ago
      > American deli-style sandwiches where there is more filling than bread are not a thing in Scandinavia Denmark disagrees with you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B8rrebr%C3%B8d https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B8rrebr%C3%B8d
  • Chathamization 7y ago
    Yeah, if you look at the calories in the ingredients (3 slices of buttered bread each with a slice of cheese, liver paste, or peanut butter) you're looking at something that at best has the same amount of calories as a quarter pounder with cheese, and likely significantly more than that. A lot of people seem to be under the wrong impression that simple foods are low in calories. Compared to other sandwiches the Norwegian sandwich seems to substitute protein (less meat and cheese) for more saturated fat and carbs (an extra slice of bread, butter on the bread).
    • librish 7y ago
      Around 500kcals sounds about right. I wouldn't really call a single QP a big meal. I think your comparison to other subs is off thought. Depending on the meat of the sub you might be reducing protein, but the Norwegian sandwich definitely has less fat (less cheese, less calories in the butter than mayo or other sauce, less fatty meats). Usually the bread preferred also has more whole grain and fibers than what's used in the US.
      • Chathamization 7y ago
        > the Norwegian sandwich definitely has less fat (less cheese, less calories in the butter than mayo or other sauce, less fatty meats) Butter is much higher in saturated fat and calories than mayo, and you're putting butter on 3 slices whereas you usually only but mayo on one (per the article). One tablespoon of butter is 100 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat, one tablespoon of mayo has 60 calories and 1.5 grams of saturated fat. If I look at the nutritional information for Kalles Kavier (which someone suggested as a topping), it seems to also be pretty high in calories with a lot coming from extra carbs (sugar).
        • librish 7y ago
          Having eaten both the quantities really are that different. A typical American sub has much more sauce than a Norwegian sandwich has butter. Kalle's is so flavorful that you don't need a lot of it, but I agree it would be the most unhealthy choice of the ones listed.
• elliekelly 7y ago
  > I've noticed that eating a big lunch makes the following hour extremely unproductive I used to work with investment company boards and so I spent a lot of time in all-day meetings with a bunch of old men. I called the hour after lunch "nap time" because at least one of them would always fall asleep.
• ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  No offense, but honestly your lunch sounds depressing as hell. I never understood this nordic lifestyle I saw in Scandinavia, Benelux and Northern Germany where people refuse to take a proper lunch break and just eat some random cold food in front of their computer for the sake of productivity for their employer. It's just depressing to see and unhealthy in the long term. In southern Europe(Austria) having a walk to the bistro for a warm lunch with freshly cooked quality food, away form my desk is not only healthy but also gives me a refreshing physical, mental and morale boost. Sitting glued to my chair in front of the computer for 8 hours straight is not only unhealthy but would just burn me out quickly.
  • GuiA 7y ago
    It’s kind of sad to see the meal culture eroding in other parts of the world. The “quickly ingest some food at your desk so you can keep working” mentality has taken hold. I’m French, and at my first office job - almost 15 years ago - the entire office was empty from noon till 2p. People would go get their kids at school, have lunch with them at home, and bring them back before returning to work. Or child free people would go have a nice lunch out together. I personally would go back to my apartment and cook with my girlfriend. It was really nice. Adding to that, French companies have to give you a “ticket restaurant” if they don’t provide you lunches, which is essentially a 10 euro or so coupon that you can use at any restaurant, or even to buy food in grocery stores, so you get a lot of flexibility. It was all very pleasant. I haven’t worked in France in many years, and I hear from friends that this culture is eroding, and places that still follow this kind of pace are getting rarer and rarer. In my current team (US), we all take an hour long lunch break all together every day. That is a surprising thing to most other people at the company, and I suspect we started doing that because many of us in the team are European.
    • ChuckNorris89 7y ago
      The meal culture is probably eroding because of economical reasons. We're now under the constant reminder from our employers that there's always a bunch of people outside ready to do your work without lunch break for less money.
• euske 7y ago
  There are two solutions to this: Eating less for lunch is one, taking an afternoon nap is another. I'm taking the latter one. I eat lunch at 1pm in normal days, and my sleepiness usually kicks in around 2pm. Then I take a 15-min power nap, and I become fully energized again. The process I take a nap is 1) open up a terminal and press the enter, so the current time is shown in a prompt. 2) literally headdesk. 3) wake up and hit the enter again, then you'll know how long you've slept. You can even set up a small script to measure your sleep time. It turned out that my nap time is almost constant between 15 to 20 mins. Technically I can argue that I'm splitting my lunch break into two parts and using it for different purposes (45 min for lunch and 15 min for nap), so I'm not that much slacking.
  • camillomiller 7y ago
    The theory goes that a power nap shouldn’t be more than 25 minutes, otherwise you risk falling in a deeper state of sleep. I tested the assumption and I find it true. Also, napping quickly everywhere is a skill one can train.
    • chronogram 7y ago
      > Also, napping quickly everywhere is a skill one can train. I am interested! How did you, and how long did it take you?
      • fr1tkot 7y ago
        You just need to operate on a constant sleep deficit, just above total exhaustion, then you can fall asleep whenever and wherever you want
        • camillomiller 7y ago
          The infamous startup founder method
      • mos_basik 7y ago
        Not the person you were asking, but- I learned how to nap while adjusting to the Uberman polyphasic sleep schedule (20 min naps every 4 hours). Wouldn't have described myself as a proficient napper before that, but do now. My memory of the process is a little dim given it was in 2011, but the first thing most people I talk to about this say is "Man, I could never do that, I'd never fall asleep fast enough," and the answer to that is simple - during the adjustment period your problem is never falling asleep; it'll definitely be waking up. :) But I still nap even though I stopped Uberman after a year (it worked fine, life just took me elsewhere), and things I've learned: - I think most people would agree that meditating is definitely a trainable skill. The edge I ride while meditating is being completely immobile, comfortable and relaxed while keeping my awareness focused and sharp. Allowing my mind to wander is one failure mode, but falling asleep is another. For me, a "poor" meditation session frequently feels like a great nap ;) But in all seriousness, for me the physical setup for meditation and a nap is almost identical - comfortable position, no pressure points that I'll need to adjust in five minutes (this is just experience), and as relaxed as I can get. Some guided meditation tracks help train this by making you go through each part of your body and relax them one at a time. That's helpful to do a few times imo, but you get the hang of it quickly and should be able to do it yourself and all at once very fast. - As far as my thoughts go - it's almost the opposite of meditation. In meditation, I'm constantly wrenching my attention back to my breathing or my big toe or whatever. For a nap, I drop the reins on my mind and let it do whatever it wants. Free association. I have basically one rule, which is that I don't think about problems - nothing that I'm trying to solve or understand. If I'm fresh off of work or an intense game or something, I'll seed my thoughts with some pleasant topic, situation or person and then let it wander from there. The more nonsensical and unreal the thoughts are, the better - it's almost like maintaining internally-consistent thoughts keeps my brain conscious and vice versa. Think Alice in Wonderland nonsense-poem level absurdity. When I'm on a well-balanced schedule (I'm on a two-nap schedule now and trying to hit my naps with about 30 min accuracy), my naps are light enough that I dream easily - so frequently, whatever free-associated thoughts I'm having transition seamlessly into dreamstuff. - I used to sleep with closed-back around-ear headphones playing music the vast majority of the time (my naps are almost always on my back; my core sleep is usually on my front). I was diagnosed ADD years after learning to nap; I interpreted my use of music as giving my brain the stimulation it needs to relax or something. I was also in a college dorm, so I also experimented with earplugs under the headphones but generally found them uncomfortable (basic etymotics, not foam ones). I don't sleep with music much any more, but I still frequently sleep with headphones on for some basic background conversation reduction and as a visual "don't interrupt me" signal if I'm in public. - sleep masks are a gift from heaven. I didn't use them back then, but I seriously picked them up last year and after a week or so of getting used to sleeping with something strapped to my face, they are astoundingly helpful. It's worth it to get a pair with eye cups so your eyelashes don't brush the inside (much) when your eyes move or open. These are a much stronger "don't interrupt me" signal than headphones, lol. - I'm pretty skinny and don't have a big caffeine habit so small amounts of it noticeably affect my ability to nap. Be aware of any stimulants you're consuming - coffee, cigarettes, adderall, what have you - and if napping is hard, consider experimenting with timing / ordering naps and stimulants. During the Uberman transition period, I did play around with chugging a bottle of Coke and immediately taking a nap, so I could fall asleep but the caffeine would hit as early as possible after I woke up and not affect my next nap too much. I don't remember if this worked well, but this is the kind of thing you can play with. - During Uberman, I was sort of forced to nap anywhere and everywhere - on lawns, in the backs of SUVs, on buses, in movie theatres, etc. I actually put my mattress away, and when napping in my room, I folded a rough blanket into four or six layers on the floor and slept on that (to make it less tempting to stay in bed). This definitely got me more accustomed to sleeping in mildly uncomfortable places and that's stayed with me. (But I tell you what, it's real hard to nap at Disneyland. All the benches I found were too short to stretch out on, there are no grass areas that aren't fenced off, shade is a valued resource that's almost always either in a high-traffic area or, in the more isolated pockets, already occupied. I ended up on a bench in the sun with a sleep mask on, my legs threaded through the armrest and my head on my gf's lap so randos wouldn't call security on me... it was not a best nap ever :) )
• unixhero 7y ago
  You were right about the matpakke, except for the peanut butter. And also it is not customary to eat the lunch in front of the computer. Even in the blandest of work environments, there is a welld defined lunch room and time, and expectation, where people have their lunches.
• mikorym 7y ago
  Yeah, I don't see how this is a boring lunch at all, that sandwich looks great to me. Does it mean though that your supper is usually "heavier"?
  • azinman2 7y ago
    It’s really 2-3 open face sandwiches, each being one slice of bread, butter, and exactly one topping of meat or cheese. No condiments. Rarely any veg or any extra flavor. And that’s it. If this isn’t a boring lunch, I have no idea what is.
    • AznHisoka 7y ago
      Butter is a condiment. a boring lunch to me would just 2 slices of bread over just ham.
      • azinman2 7y ago
        So because of the butter is no longer boring?
        • AznHisoka 7y ago
          Absolutely, butter makes things taste so much better. Plus if you just got bread and meat, it can easily get stuck in your teeth. You need a condiment to make the sandwich easy to eat.
          • azinman2 7y ago
            > “ boring lunch to me would just 2 slices of bread over just ham.” Literally we’re talking about exactly that plus some fat. I don’t see how the fat all of the sudden makes it not boring. Especially given this is then eaten daily.
    • jplayer01 7y ago
      > If this isn’t a boring lunch The qualification seems unnecessary to me. It's lunch (well, to me, it's breakfast). It's no wonder people are depressed eating it when everybody keeps calling it boring. It's bread with a topping. It's fine. It tastes good. Does every meal need to be akin to a sushi buffet?
• camillomiller 7y ago
  As an Italian, I am profoundly offended by this statement and most of the comments in this thread :D
  • arcosdev 7y ago
    Italian Canadian, living in Norway. You have no idea the level of mangia cake going on here. It's like no one's palate evolved past preschool.
    • username90 7y ago
      Being happy eating boring food is a superpower, lets you focus on more interesting parts of life.
      • collyw 7y ago
        Eating good food is one of the interesting parts of life for me.
        • piva00 7y ago
          It definitely is for me also but I've changed from "I need to eat something good for every meal" and being enslaved by that to "I can eat my boring, cheap and quick food just for sustenance and save time and money to enjoy a proper food experience" the older I get. No idea how that happened, I used to be really really into having nice and fancy team lunches now and then, nowadays I save those times for a nice date in a pretty good restaurant.
      • darkwater 7y ago
        Eating, sex and defecating are three pillars of the human experience. Only after them it comes all the other fun.
      • mcv 7y ago
        I agree with the first part of that sentence, but good food is absolutely one of the more interesting parts of life. It's just that it can be very convenient if you can eat without it having to be an interesting meal.
• thendrill 7y ago
  I have lived in Norway for 16 years. I am a foreigner. One thing to keep in mind, when it comes to Norwegians: It is not only the food that is boring. It is a whole nation that is boring. Also every time they get together the topic would naturally drift off to either work or food. And boy it gets strange when they talk about food. They can sit and talk about a salad recipe or a pizza they had eaten in town in quite the boring detail, yet one chance arises they keep eating boring food. Yes if you look at Scandinavian societies in isolation, they are a happy and wealthy people. The type of happiness you can feel for every minute that you do not freeze to death. If we look at Scandinavian societies in comparison to the rest of the world and taking in consideration things like food, family, social connections, friendships, and general person to person connections, then you end up with a sad sad story just like that most boring lunch. Especially for an outsider living in Scandinavia. Norwegians have a completely different value system from the rest of the world. Having weak social and family relations does not help. No morals outside of what is legal and not is a recipe for disaster. The worst of all is that they have the feeling that they are better than others. A lot can be told about these people by looking at their past and current habits.
  • wattengard 7y ago
    You misspelled happy...
  • undreren 7y ago
    What a load of over-generalising bullshit.
    • thendrill 7y ago
      Here comes some of that sweet sweet jantelov! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante
      • librish 7y ago
        What? That's not how Jante works.
  • 7y ago
• regularfry 7y ago
  I suffered from this until I cut out simple carbs at lunch. Bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice all send me to sleep if I have them. Salads and meat I can pig out on without problems.
  • peteretep 7y ago
    Any lunch that isn’t mostly cheese and sausage by weight is just a recipe for disaster
  • bonesss 7y ago
    I started intermittent fasting, eating all my calories at home at night, and the result is no blood sugar dip or post-lunch fatigue at work. When you add up the meal prep and time eating every week (for what are generally low quality calories), it's a tremendous time saver, in addition to the productivity boost.
• sock-puppet 7y ago
  As a South African I am genuinely offended that you get to go home early when you skip lunch and you're done with your work.
• tallanvor 7y ago
  Pretty much everyone in my office (in central Oslo) eats a hot meal in the canteen every day, I think there are maybe 5 people out of over 100 that have opted out of hot meals. I'm also curious about you using peanut butter, in my experience, even though it's readily available in stores (well, one brand), it doesn't seem like many Norwegians actually eat it regularly.
• greggman2 7y ago
  my thought process is that I enjoy work and my co-workers and that spending an hour a day eating and socializing together makes work and my life more enjoyable. If feel that tech companies' free lunchs work against this since lunch ends up only taking 20-30 mins instead of an hour. And no they don't get more work out of me, I just leave 30 mins earlier. That great if you want to get home as quick as possible. I'd prefer a balance of making work more enjoyable and feel the lunch socializing contributes to that.
  • Oreb 7y ago
    > I'd prefer a balance of making work more enjoyable and feel the lunch socializing contributes to that. I want to feel that way, too, but unfortunately long lunches -- and especially social ones -- kill my momentum. I lose so much time getting back into the zone afterwards that I just can't afford it. I eat my lunch alone and as quickly as possible, and socialise with my co-workers after work instead when possible.
  • dannyw 7y ago
    I usually follow up a 20-30 minute lunch with a 20-30 minute coffee walk, or bubble walk. It’s great to go outside and soak in the sun (weather permitting).
• wildduck 7y ago
  Maybe a siesta after lunch will be nice ;)
• mikkom 7y ago
  IMHO the drowsiness has nothing to do with calories, it's the carbs and the related blood insulin spike causing drowsiness. My hint: Experiment with a meal without or with very minimal amount of carbs (for example eat a salad with meat or something like that) - that keeps you full of energy and doesn't drive your productivity down or that is at least how it works for me.
  • zodiac 7y ago
    Another thing to try: experiment with not eating lunch at all
• gerardnll 7y ago
  Screw productivity, think about your health. Your flawed thought process went to either eating a bad but fast meal or a heavy calorie lunch for 2 hours? First, nobody 'wastes' 2 hours, just 30-45min in a regular lunch. Second, a healhty lunch means, adequate calories and nutrients. And that does not mean it will kill your productivity. As a Spaniard, I'm very offended by your opinion. Also, I would like to know what your ancestors ate before all these ultraprocessed food existed, pretty sure it was more nutritious. Also, pretty sure they invested more than 10 minutes.
• Vrondi 7y ago
  It is lovely that you have that option. For many American workers, if you work through your lunch, you do not then get to leave early. You've just donated your lunch hour as extra work time to the company, and you will often not get it back. It does vary, of course.