And in Spain people take siesta. And it makes sense, our body needs rest to digest food. That's why we get food coma. Every one not just children should do this.
Has it always been limited to the south? Or is the practice dying out because business has become more international and people in other countries find it inconvenient for Spain to be offline for two hours in the middle of the day?
You might have a long lunch break, where people go home, eat and come back, making the end of the work day pretty late. But siesta is easy to understand as a southern thing when one notices summer temperatures, and imagines physical labor outside, or a world with no AC. Trying to get anything done at 1:30 PM in, say, Jaen sounds unpleasant. Santander, Oviedo or Coruña are not going to face the same problem.
Spanish siesta's are still just 2-3 hours long. In traditional Indian cultures, people would often work between 6am and 11am and then from 5pm to 9pm, because middle of the day was too hot to do any kind of physical work.
So, I'm definitely going for weather as the reason for the tradition and not any timezone shift. And that also means that office work and air conditioning should reduce this practice over time.
My grandparents (born around the 30s) never described it as a common thing here in the north. I can't vouch for previous periods, but siesta mostly makes sense for outdoors jobs in hot climates (where it's actually a great idea), so I would assume it was never common in the north as the climate is much cooler.
In the south, it's also becoming less common with the change from rural to urban living and from outdoors to office jobs.
I'm from Castilla y León (mid west) and the only people I know doing this are people who have to work at unusual times that wake up at 3-5 in the morning.
People with normal working hours don't take siesta.
The city is "sleepy" around that time, true, and many stores close around that time and open again later.
But I only know a handful of people who actually take naps here in the afternoon. Sometimes yeah, but if you work in a typical office/startup, you can probably count the people who take a nap after lunch on one hand.
We also get two hours in Algeria and la siesta is very common (generally known with its french name "la sieste"). I always took a siesta and I still take it to this day. It helps immensely with productivity. Giving up to a little nap after lunch gives a very refreshing and energising restart for the rest of the day.
Like many Mediterranean cultures, the people like to appreciate family/friends time and food and they always make sure to make those a priority. In other terms, not rich, but chill laid off people.
Overwork culture have no place and society doesn't encourage that in general. In my opinion, for two reasons 1) it's not a competitive society as in China or India, as there is enough resources for everyone. 2) Hard work is not properly rewarded as in the USA/EU, as the country suffers from corruption and it has failed to develop a modern meritocratic economy, so far.
I read years ago that having a decent breakfast almost completely removes the blood sugar drop that happens after lunch.
It makes sense. Digesting lunch takes a lot of energy from the body. But if you’ve had a good breakfast, you’ll have plenty of energy available from breakfast to keep your brain active. And you can eat less for lunch, too.
You should really beware of referring to these things as absolutes. Everyone is different and there are a wide range of physiologies out there.
Personally, the bigger breakfast I have, the faster and more hungry I get around lunch. If I eat a big breakfast I’ll be ravenous by lunch. The only negative symptoms I experience after lunch happen if I eat a huge lunch.
How much energy it takes to digest depends on the food and the amount, not whether it's lunch or not, no?
If you get food coma because your body is lacking energy to digest lunch, you'll just get food coma after breakfast then, because you'll be lacking energy to digest that.
Yes, it was changed by Germany while they were occupying France during World War 2.
Most people are happy with it now though, and during the recent talks about whether to keep summer time or not in Europe, it appeared the opinion in France was mostly to stay on summer time year-round, so UTC+2. Which means more darkness in the mornings during winter, but keeping long evenings in summer and improving a bit the short evenings of winter.
I ate nothing but steaks for a few days (with a bit of butter) and was surprised to find that I did not get tired after a meal, nor hungry again for much longer.
This has been game changing (low carb, not steaks only) for those drowsy afternoons at work. More importantly, I go carb-free 24 hours before I drive any long distance. It makes it so much easier to drive safely for a long distance.
Why altering meaning by selectively cutting away words? Quote makes perfect sense to me and what I know about nutrition and digestion (not an expert/pro but way above average human)
over the years I have read arguments from both sides. It is not healthy to sleep after food! It is healthy to sleep after food.
I just tried it myself.
And it did help a lot to sleep after food. Limiting in take of sugar/carbs does help. However, personally going on diet like this does NOT suite me. I rather eat the food I want to eat and rest a bit, than watch what I need to eat.
This is very much a geographically specific thing. At further latitudes I can assure you we wouldn't want to waste our previous daylight by sleeping then away!
I was a lab engineer at a uni once. One day I saw an exchange student with his head against the desk motionless. I rushed to him and shaked him on the shoulder becouse I thought he had fainted ...
