Healthy office lunch ideas

Health conscious individuals are often concerned with the foodstuffs that enter their body and the way they affect their energy levels at work. If you are the type who treats your body like a temple you'll no doubt be familiar with the daily quandary over what to eat for lunch.

Office work requires focus, organisation and planning, which can only be promoted through implementing a healthy lifestyle replete with fruits, vegetables, slow releasing carbohydrates and lean meats. But sadly, nutritionally heavy foods are often thought to be lacking in flavour and texture. This doesn't have to be the case!

There's an abundance of tasty morsels out there that can satisfy your taste buds whilst promoting a healthy heart and inducing a happy colon. The humble salad has a reputation for being bland and tasteless but the addition of simple ingredients that pack a punch into any lifeless leafy concoction can be priceless. Pickles, spices and roasted vegetables can make a dull salad into a thing of beauty. The action of roasting a simple carrot or tomato with a little olive oil (full of healthy fats), salt and pepper can intensify flavour no end leaving you with a bursting palate of choice flavours to enjoy.

For those who love a spicy lunch add pickled jalapeno peppers or a dash of Tabasco to a roast chicken salad. Use tuna fish, cannellini beans, sweet corn, beetroot, peppers or cold cuts of meat left over from Sunday lunch. Add simple lemon or vinegar based dressings that taste just as good as creamy sauces loaded with calories.

Create multigrain open faced sandwiches filled to the brim with lean chicken slices, a dollop of mayonnaise and seasonings to avoid extra carbohydrates. Try home-made soup that easily be jazzed up with a sprinkle of fresh herbs and a crusty roll or heat up wholemeal pitta bread to eat with a humous dip as a snack.

For those with an unstoppable sweet tooth, exotic fruits like mangoes and pineapples can be far more exciting than apples and bananas. Juicy and colourful, they can be eaten at any time of the day without the guilt that comes with scoffing a mid-morning chocolate bar.

So tomorrow morning when you leave for your Bristol or Westminster office space don't forget your lunchbox filled with healthy delights and delicacies. It's much easier to be healthy than you'd imagine - all you need is a little forethought and some culinary imagination.