What with our careers being more important than ever to us these days, a new trend has begun to dominate the workplace—ladies and gentlemen, we present to you: the deskfast.
What is the deskfast, you may ask? The word deskfast is an amalgamation of two words: desk and breakfast, meaning deskfast is the first meal of your day eaten at your desk at work.
Deskfast Day Timeline
Rise of the office worker and desk-based routines
The expansion of white‑collar employment in the early 20th century, particularly clerical and office jobs in cities, creates a new daily pattern in which workers increasingly eat hurried meals on the way to or at their desks rather than at home.
Breakfast on the go becomes a mass-market idea
Food companies and advertisers in the United States and Europe begin heavily marketing convenience breakfasts, including instant cereals and breakfast bars, reflecting and reinforcing a culture where workers often eat quickly at work or during their commute rather than sitting down at home.
Longer hours culture spreads in finance and professional services
Deregulation and globalization fuel “workaholic” office cultures, especially in financial centers like London and New York, where early-morning trading and long hours prompt many white‑collar employees to eat their first meal at the office instead of at home.
“Desktop dining” identified as a growing trend
The American Dietetic Association reports that more than half of U.S. workers eat lunch and snacks at their desks, coining the phrase “desktop dining” and warning about both health risks and opportunities to improve nutrition for people who habitually eat meals while working.
Research links breakfast skipping with busy work schedules
A study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition finds that many adults skip breakfast due to time pressure and work demands, highlighting how modern office schedules push the first meal of the day into the workplace or lead to it being missed entirely.
Recession intensifies “breakfast at the desk” behavior
Following the global financial crisis, European and North American surveys document employees working longer hours and taking fewer breaks, with many reporting that they now eat breakfast while already at their desks to save time and signal commitment to their jobs.
UK survey finds workers commonly eat breakfast at their desks
A poll by the British Heart Foundation reports that nearly two-thirds of UK office workers regularly eat breakfast and lunch at their desks, citing heavy workloads and a desire to appear hardworking, and raises concerns about sedentary behavior and unhealthy snacking at work.
How to Celebrate Deskfast Day
Enjoy Breakfast at Your Desk
If you have an office job and do in fact work at a desk, the best way to celebrate this day would be to enjoy your breakfast at it on Deskfast Day morning.
Get Others Involved
Of course, if you want, you could make an effort to get others involved in your deskfast as well—with one person bringing one thing, and another person bringing something else, you could end up with a very enjoyable picnic-style meal, which will inevitably be a great start to your day.
Increase Deskfast Popularity
A bit of socializing with your coworkers over hot cups of coffee, creamy yogurt, energy-packed muffins and fresh sandwiches could only serve to bring you all a bit closer and improve your cooperation in the future.
Chances are, this kind of deskfast will benefit you and your coworkers on a great many levels.
So why not take part in this ever more popular trend by celebrating Deskfast Day this year?
History of Deskfast Day
Unsurprisingly, the fad for eating breakfast at your desk in front of your computer came into existence around the same time as the European economy went into recession in 2008.
Many people who simply feared for their jobs found they needed to spend more time at work if they wanted to keep them, and so they began working longer hours.
Deskfast Day seems to have been more actively promoted by the UK organization called A Better Breakfast. The event was first promoted by them in 2021 and has been sponsored and celebrated annually ever since.
Coming into the office earlier and leaving later, these people needed to find a new breakfast solution so they could avoid getting up extra early just to manage to have a bite to eat in the morning, and the deskfast was born.
At the beginning, the deskfast was widely criticized by dieticians, nutritionists, and even physicians, who claimed eating breakfast while slowly starting work in the morning was somehow bad for your body by putting too much stress on it at the very time it should be slowly gearing up for the day.
Soon, however, it became apparent that deskfasts were often much healthier than the breakfasts employees would have eaten at home—because you can hardly eat a bowl of cereal or syrup-drenched pancakes over your keyboard without dripping milk, syrup or grease everywhere, deskfasts tend to be much lower in fat than traditional breakfasts.
Fruit smoothies, for example, are a popular deskfast choice, and what could be better for your body than a banana and a few strawberries blended together? In all honesty, nutritionists etc. are still not huge fans of the deskfast, but they are not nearly as opposed as they were at the beginning, either.
At first, nutritionists were appalled by the idea of not eating breakfast at home, but as time went on, it turned out that thanks to deskfasts, people were eating less sugary cereals jam-packed with preservatives and sodium and more decidedly healthy things, like sandwiches, breakfast muffins or porridge.
And needless to say, eating your breakfast at work is definitely better than skipping this most important of meals entirely!
Facts About Deskfast Day
Breakfast Skewed Toward the Workplace
Time-use surveys suggest that a sizable share of adults now eat breakfast away from home, often at work or on the move.
For example, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show that among working-age adults who eat breakfast, about one in five consume it away from home, reflecting longer commutes, early start times, and the growth of office-based work with on-site food options.
Breakfast and Cognitive Performance at Work
Controlled studies indicate that eating breakfast can improve attention, working memory, and executive function, especially in the late morning, which matters for desk-based workers handling complex tasks.
A systematic review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that adults who regularly eat breakfast tend to perform better on tests of cognitive function than those who habitually skip it.
Skipping Breakfast and Metabolic Health
Habitually skipping breakfast has been linked in large cohort studies with higher risks of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, outcomes that occupational health programs increasingly flag for desk-bound employees.
A prospective study of over 4,000 adults in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reported that breakfast skippers had a significantly higher risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease compared with regular breakfast eaters, even after adjusting for lifestyle factors.
From Farmhouse Meal to Office Habit
Breakfast as a distinct, time-bound meal is a relatively modern construct shaped by industrial work schedules.
Historians note that in preindustrial Europe many people ate intermittently from early morning onward, but the rise of factory and then office work in the 19th and 20th centuries pushed eating into a more rigid pattern, with breakfast squeezed into the period just before or at the start of the workday.
Office Kitchens and the ‘Grab-and-Go’ Culture
The spread of office kitchens, vending machines, and in-house cafés has changed how workers obtain their first meal of the day.
Research from the UK’s Food Standards Agency has found that workplace food environments, including convenience options like microwaves and refrigerators, encourage employees to bring portable items such as yogurt, fruit, and sandwiches, reinforcing the shift toward quick, desk-friendly breakfasts.
Work Hours, Commutes, and Compressed Morning Routines
Longer working hours and lengthy commutes are strongly associated with irregular meal timing and reduced time for breakfast at home.
Studies of European workers have found that those with commutes of 45 minutes or more are significantly more likely to delay or skip breakfast, or to eat it at work, compared with workers whose commute is under 15 minutes.
Hygiene Concerns Around Eating at the Desk
Occupational health guidance often cautions about hygiene when meals are eaten at computer workstations.
The UK’s National Health Service notes that desks, keyboards, and phones can harbor high bacteria levels and recommends workers wash hands before eating, regularly clean surfaces, and avoid leaving perishable foods unrefrigerated, particularly when meals are routinely consumed at the desk.
