Lunch
New research reveals that longer working hours and busier lifestyles are eroding traditional meal times with almost half of Brits constantly eating on-the-go instead of sitting down at the table for three square meals.
The research, by the New York Bakery Co, revealed that modern day work and family pressures have left one in three Brits combining breakfast and lunch into a quick brunch instead. A fifth of Brits choose to snack five times or more throughout the day and often skip their evening meal because of this.
The traditional lunch “hour” is becoming a thing of the past with almost half of hectic Brits spending just twenty minutes or less eating their lunch each day.
Brits are spending 35 hours less a year on formal meal times than they did a decade ago with one in ten admitting that they simply do not have the time to eat breakfast. Almost half of Brits spend just ten minutes or less wolfing down the once most important meal of the day.
Brits are eating later in the evenings with 16 per cent revealing that they eat their dinner later than 8pm every night. Proving that we have become a nation of 24/7 snackers, more than one in eight peckish Brits admit to regularly waking up in the night to satisfy their snack craving.
Christopher Bigsby, Professor in American Studies at University of East Anglia, said: “Anyone going to New York is struck by the energy level. There are always stores open 24 hours a day. People snatch breakfast on the run, grabbing a coffee and blueberry muffin. At lunch, it’s often a bagel or a curbside hot dog.
“Brits are increasingly being influenced by this 24/7 culture, with one in three now opting for brunch instead of breakfast and lunch and many of us eating later in the evening. The American influence is not just limited to the foods we eat and the speed that they are served, but the clothes we wear and the films and televisions shows we watch.”
To offer Brits a solution to their 24/7 snack habits and to offer convenient food on the go, the New York Bakery Co has created the world’s first bagel grabber machine which dispenses free authentic bagels around the clock. The bagel grabber will make its debut in the capital, where it will be on hand to satisfy Brits’ hunger pangs.