More Americans are eating lunch at their desks or even forgoing it altogether. Is passing up a proper midday break bad for one’s health? Chris Cunningham, professor of Industrial-Organizational and Occupational Health Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, offers one view.Brain DrainThe attention it takes people to focus at work drains them of psychological, social and material reserves, says Dr. Cunningham, leading to stress and lower productivity. “Taking a lunch break away from the desk lets people separate themselves from the source of that drain,” he says. “And that offers the opportunity to build back some of those resources in the middle of the day—rather than just at the end when work is over.”