Programming Food

One of the ProgrammingEssentials

Consists of pizza, toast, sweets, processed cheese slices, microwave food (because you don't have to watch it cook) anything served in disposable packaging, cereal with or without milk, food requiring only a single appendage to eat.

Programming drinks : cans or bottles of anything fizzy and sweet, cups of tea or coffee, (beer?).

Anti-Programming foods include cereal in a bowl, soup, foods that 'slosh' therefore increasing risk of need to dry keyboard with hairdryer, anything requiring two hands to eat.

Disagree with the anti-slosh... given a surface that can put some distance between the foods and the keyboard, they work quite well (cereals, soups, etc, fit with the single appendage clause), they're really little different from drinks in this regard.

Double on the no anti-slosh.

Cold pizza fits the bill, but fresh pizza can be messy unless it is ordered with little or no sauce... which severely detracts from the flavour when cold. Otherwise, the whole problem of 'fresh pizza' is of rather temporary nature.

-- WilliamUnderwood

that's why you need toilet paper; see ProgrammingEssentials

...cereal in a bowl...

No way. It's programmer kibble! If you don't add milk, you can simply munch away. For some cereals, I don't even use my hands.

I think we should change cereal to roast dinner with gravy as I once tried to balance one on the edge of my keyboard shelf and it fell straight off.

I'm not so sure pizza is a good idea. To quote from ThereMustBeWhatKindOfFood:

Too much simple sugar (candy bars) and your blood sugar spikes and collapses (sugar crash). Too much fat (pizza) and the sugar doesn't get to the blood stream fast enough, your energy is spent digesting, not thinking (sugar slump). A happy blood sugar level makes for a happy brain!

That's not to say that pizza isn't popular among programmers. If you need any evidence: http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/pizza_party/

I'm just saying that it contributes to lousy software.

Double on all that -- I've studied nutrition a little bit and verified the book learning with observation... stay away from that stuff.

I've noticed over the years that loads of programmers and infact techies in general eat cereal without milk and I was just wondering what the favorites were - personally I go for sugar-puffs or frosties.

Sugar puffs are good but get sickly real quick and make for sticky programming fingers. I tried rice crispys but they're difficult to pick up. Frosties or plain old cornflakes go down well with me but I occasionally venture into wheetos just for flavor varitey, you know :)

The best food for programming (or pretty much anything requiring brain power) aren't the stereo-typical 'geek foods' (soda, pizza, margaritas, etc.). I suggest from experience:

Spicy soup (no ramen noodles or pasta -- rice noodles are cool, though) with plenty of veggies
Whey protein shakes
Fruit
Rice

By themselves, those are balanced, high-energy foods that are easy to digest. Oh, and one more thing:

Tea (or coffee or espresso or some other source of caffeine, but just remember: small amounts of caffeine at a time are actually more effective)

I was always at a loss for what food to keep in my office. My trials have exhausted a long list of inappropriate items (spam is overkill, ramen is crap, junkfood makes you crash, good stuff doesn't keep fresh or needs refrigeration, etc). Recently I stumbled on the perfect solution: canned nuts (preferably cashews). Here are my thoughts.

Pros:

delicious
high protein, high fat, all around high-energy stuff
the salt is good (if you're low blood pressure like I am), and it keeps you drinking water (hydration is equally important, as is the bathroom-trip break)
easy to store, and they keep a long time (at room temp, and with re-sealable cans)
they don't compel immediate tooth brushing or long term dental work
no post-binge crash
they crunch
are readily available
plenty of variety

Cons:

can go rancid (not quickly if unopened)
greasy hands (though you can eat right from the can, with the potential danger of pouring salt in your eyes)
excessive crunching may annoy others, require your music to be louder, and eventually make your jaw muscles tired
can ruin your appetite (though that's the general idea here)
people will mooch
not the cheapest stuff

Thoughts anyone? I seriously intend to stock up the next time I have an office.

There's also this 4 month old orange on my desk, which is in remarkably good shape, still a little green even. My friends are threatening to name it. I'm pretty sure it's real.

--LucasAckerman

It's good to keep that orange around. It gives you vitamins by osmosis! I think it works on the same principle as chocolate (just looking at chocolate makes you gain weight).

I've got an orange, too. His name is Larry. (The last one was Harry, so I had to say goodbye.)

CategoryFoodAndDrink