Student Name 1

Student Name

Professor Nelson

English 1302

18 September 2021

The Importance of Lunch

Introduction

In today's world many people think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day,

but I and many other people question that claim. Many others say that the most important meal

of the day would have to be lunch for college students. There have been studies conducted for

more research on this topic so that we can see if it does influence a college student's behaviors,

cognitive functions, physical health, and productivity. While this topic is debatable, lunch is the

most important meal for college students because does improve the student’s behavior, cognitive

functions, physical health, and productivity.

Experiment Information/Method

A 3-day research experiment was conducted to see if eating lunch or not eating lunch

affects the student in different ways. The experiment was conducted over the course of three

days from Thursday through Saturday, all of which have different schedules for classes and

meetings. It also includes how they are eating lunch at the same time and one day without lunch.

During the experiment, lunch was eaten on Thursday and Friday, but lunch was not eaten on

Saturday. Something that is a factor to we need to track is the subject going to sleep at 12PM

(Midnight), Then eating breakfast at 7:30 AM, and walking to class # 1 in the morning from
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dorm class 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM and from 9:30 to 10:30 for class # 2 this is used on both

Thursday and Friday. While on Saturday the subject would sleep at 2AM and then would have

breakfast at 10AM and does not walk since the subject does not have class and also meant lunch

was skipped. For this experiment we will measure the subject in their behavior, cognitive

functions, exercise, and productivity.

Results

The results of this research from the subject since they were to eat lunch or not for the 3-

day experiment. The data collected in this research showed that on days that the subject ate his

behavior, conative, exercise and productivity were at its highest. While the third day every

function was at its lowest.

Behavioral Benefits
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The first factor that results suggest that student behavior is beneficially influenced by

eating lunch is that it can boost the improvement of a student's behavior. During this research it

showed us that the student behavior improved since the subject was getting along with the

students of their class and professors because they were in a good mood. According to the article

“Student Perception of Healthfulness, School Lunch Healthfulness, and Participation in School

Lunch: The Healthy Communities Study. “by eating properly, it overall does improve the

student's behavior in everything that they do for the rest of the day especially being happy to see

and talk to their classmates. This shows us that eating lunch does influence the student’s

behavior from that time till the end of the day. The example from this research shows me that the

student in the study was able to get along with others with no attitude and was able to become

closer to other students in the class.

Cognitive Functions

The second factor in this experiment that was affected due to eating lunch was the

subject's cognitive function in terms of a participant's cognitive process. On Thursday and

Friday, listening to the lecture was easy, but on Saturday it was harder. Having lunch helped the

subject to be more observant of their surroundings in the classroom. For example, in this

experiment on Tuesday, the subject was given an exam, the subject studied that day before with a

full stomach showed that there were no complications when going into the exam on Thursday.

In the article it shows us that having lunch helps students with their short-term memory and helps

students do better on exams/quizzes by helping the students to concentrate on the task at hand.
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This showed the same results in this experiment which does provide that the subjects cognitive

functions can be influenced. All and all, having breakfast does have a strong effect on increasing

the subject cognitive functions to help them understand the materials to study for the exam. So,

when the exam is here, he can do great.

Exercise/Physical Health

The 3 factors that can be found in this experiment would have to be the student's physical

health. There were several major findings in this research that should be considered, such as the

exercising which is walking from class to class is being influenced by lunch intakes. On

Thursday and Friday there was enough energy to continue the second half of the day with

walking being the exercise and not feeling tired from all the walking the subject does in just one

day. Additionally, after eating their lunch they felt that they should use that energy to walk to

class. However, on Saturday, the subject did not have lunch so that left them with no energy to

do their day walk around campus. In the article “School Health Guidelines to Promote Healthy

Eating and Physical Activity. “it states eating lunch then doing exercise helps the student to

become distressed and it also does improve their mood it also lowers their chances of becoming

sick. A student giving their body lunch helps the student increase their exercise.

Productivity

The last factor for this experiment would have to be the productivity of the subject for

when they do eat lunch. On Thursday and Friday, the subject's attention was attentive on what

needs to get done for the day but was the complete opposite on Saturday. When it came to Friday
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the subject did eat lunch due to the fact, he did have an exam later and he needed the energy for

it. It showed on the days they the subject ate there was no sign of laziness. In the article “Testing

Longitudinal Associations Between Executive Function and Academic Achievement.” it tells us

that having lunch does help a student attention while they are in class.

Conclusions
In this research experiment concluded that having lunch in fact, had an impact on the

subject’s behavior, cognitive functions, physical health, and productivity. This research showed

us that on the days where the subject did not eat their lunch it was hard for them since they

needed energy for the body. It showed us if they did not have their lunch their body functions

were down. Findings of this research are significant for university students since they

demonstrate the importance of breakfast for educational objectives. The documentation gathered

evidence from this study that proves that lunch is an important thing to eat since it helps in

behavior, cognition, physical health and productivity. Nevertheless, some uncertainties persist

today, as well as further research is needed to determine which forms of lunch are ideal to take

on a regular basis in order to get as much out of each day.

Works Cited

Division of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and

Health Promotion. “School Health Guidelines to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical

Activity.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: Recommendations and Reports, vol.

60, no. 5, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), 2011, pp. 1–76,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/24842389.
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Hecht, Amelie A., et al. “Impact of The Community Eligibility Provision of the Healthy,

Hunger-Free Kids Act on Student Nutrition, Behavior, and Academic Outcomes: 2011–

2019.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 110, no. 9, Sept. 2020, pp. 1405–1410.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305743.

Tsai, Marisa, et al. “Student Perception of Healthfulness, School Lunch Healthfulness, and

Participation in School Lunch: The Healthy Communities Study.” Journal of Nutrition

Education & Behavior, vol. 51, no. 5, May 2019, pp. 623–628. EBSCOhost, doi:

10.1016/j.jneb.2019.01.014.

Willoughby, Michael T., et al. “Testing Longitudinal Associations Between Executive Function

and Academic Achievement.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 55, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp.

767–779. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/dev0000664.