In almost all countries, people eat a warm meal around midday, but in the Netherlands, we typically have a sandwich with cheese. Is that healthier?
Eating a warm lunch used to be very normal in the Netherlands. In most households, a hot meal was served at home around noon. In the evening, people would eat bread, sometimes with soup or leftovers from lunch. That has changed. The average Dutch lunch now consists of bread with savory or sweet toppings, sometimes supplemented with a bowl of soup or a savory snack. The warm meal is usually eaten in the evening.
Having a warm lunch has its benefits. It usually includes vegetables or a salad. Since people in the Netherlands generally eat too few vegetables, this is a great advantage. Another benefit is that a warm lunch is usually a more complete meal than just a sandwich with cheese, cold cuts, or sweet spreads. It also typically contains less sugar because sweet bread toppings are skipped. Most warm meals contain vegetables, meat, fish, grains, and/or legumes — all of which provide valuable nutrients and contribute to a healthy diet.
The downsides are mostly practical: bringing a hot meal to work is inconvenient, and reheating is not always possible. Company cafeterias are often more expensive than bringing food from home.
If eating a warm lunch means you’re eating two hot meals a day, that’s not a problem. Whether a meal is hot or cold doesn’t matter — what matters is its nutritional composition.