I sometimes even surprise myself. How can I be so disciplined when it comes to dining at home and yet consume so much airline food in lounges or in the air that I would never consider eating at home?
Saying Farewell To Airline Food – Can I Actually Say No?
If you’ve read my trip reports, you’d be right to wonder why I don’t resemble a Chinese balloon, considering how much I eat. It seems that when I put my mind to it, my appetite is bottomless. Thankfully, I’m still young(ish) and my metabolism has not slowed down. Furthermore, I exercise often. That certainly helps. But I do have to wonder whether it is time for a change.
Perhaps the greatest change for me in 2023 will be that I stop eating airline food. That’s difficult when I write a blog that focuses so much on the soft product of airlines and yet as I scarfed down that United breakfast last week and then proceeded to the lounge and ate chips and a sandwich, I stopped and shook my head. What the heck is wrong with me?
Sure, reviewing the food is my job, so to speak. But couldn’t I review it by photographing and then not eating it or just taking a bite? I fast 16 hours per day when I am home. When I am traveling, I eat all day long. Croissant? Don’t mind if I do. Chips? Why not. Potatoes or rice with my protein? Pile it on. Ice cream sundae? Can I have a second helping?
I eat to live, not live to eat. But you’d be right to be skeptical of that claim when I travel.
Thus, I am seriously considering “flipping the switch” and bringing my diet with me to my travels. That will require packing my own food and turning down the convenience and comfort of food I enjoy when traveling. But somehow I think it will be worthwhile: I think my body will thank me.
And that’s the ultimate goal: not resist processed food, but no longer crave it. Perhaps one day I will even be repulsed by it.
Of course, the better option would be that airlines start offering fresh salads with raw vegetables and lean protein…but that won’t happen when you have bean counters running catering departments and (more importantly) when most people don’t want it. The best-selling and most popular item on United Airlines remains the cheeseburger. I’m not the only sucker who loves it. But even turning down the freshly-baked breads and desserts on airlines with superb catering like Turkish Airlines would be part of the plan. That will be tough.
CONCLUSION
I am mulling over a radical change to my diet that would represent an “all-in” approach to rejecting processed food, simple carbs, and essentially anything in a package or with a long shelf life. I don’t know whether I have the willpower and resolve to do this, but the radical difference between my diet at home and diet in the air has grown too incongruous to continue.
image: Turkish Airlines
If flying domestic, airline food is certainly best avoided for health reasons.
Yes, some of the items that you consume on planes can look questionable. But life is meant to be enjoyed and the “all-in” approach is really not doable for most. Life is a bit too short to discipline yourself like that imo, barring some religious or spiritual requirement. Approx 15 years ago I went up to 225 at my heaviest and then lost 75 at the gym. If you work out, have a fast metabolism, buy organic and eat clean, and treat yourself at times, then you should be okay. Yes, the “all-in” approach is good to avoid toxins, additives, preservatives, and the worst offenders–artificial flavors and colors. But we are being poisoned in every other direction anyway, land air and sea, so you’d only be mitigating toxicity, and not even coming close to removing it. That said, you do have kids, and if you want to be here a long time with them, then eating as clean as possible could be meaningful to increase life expectancy.
I agree with AJ above. If you’re otherwise healthy, and derive enjoyment out of trying airline/lounge meals to present a thorough review to your readers (and I gather that both are true), why punish yourself by cutting that out? I’m slightly older than you, and also stretch the boundaries a bit and enjoy myself while traveling when it comes to food. I also make sure to keep my vacations “active” by packing in plenty of walking, and when I’m at home, cook my own meals to limit portion sizes and processed ingredients. My health is still good but I make no excuses for having fun when I’m traveling. It’s all about moderation and going overboard in small doses.
P.S. Please DON’T order meals just to take photos but not eat them. That’s just wasteful. If you’re committed to foregoing airline meals, just cut that out of your reviews. I really enjoy the food part of your posts and will miss them, but you have plenty of other content in your reviews to make up for it.
Everything you’ve stated is true. Airline food wasn’t designed to replace a healthy diet for many reasons. (sodium, preservatives, balance etc.) More about portability & shelf life than anything.
And hey, you absolutely will be able to photograph, sample and continued to review. You know what you’re doing. All the best with the new health plan!
I eat airplane food but do not wolf down lounge food.
You can eat a much lower sodium and lower fat diet at home if you cook right. A high fat diet can result in erectile dysfunction later in life.
How about if you eat something on your travels, you have to review it. You’re not going to review the cheese cubes at the United Club or another berry sugar waffle in first class, so don’t eat them anymore. But if there’s something worth putting the time forward to review because it’s new, interesting, or looks good, then go for it, just know that something is owed when you do so and your readers expect to hear about it.
For me, having a 3 course business class meal is a way to kill 90 or so minutes of a 10+ hour flight. Same with the pre-landing meal of 45 minutes give or take. It’s not that the food is that good or that I’d eat that way at home, but it’s a way to fill up the time. Because I rarely sleep on planes and there’s only so many old movies and magazines I can read
Very true
You can do it!
I do. I never eat airline food, EVER, despite being close to UA 1 Million Miler.
I always bring my food with me on to flights — salads, fruit, dehydrated snacks I make, even homemade pizza with sprouted spelt flour.
It’s totally do-able, I know you can do it!
And an added benefit for me is on transatlantic overnight flights, I actually am able to sleep through the meal service and get extra winks.
You go!
I’ve been wanting to do dehydrated strawberries. I hear they come out like fruit roll ups. My fav
I honestly think food on a plane tastes much better than its counterpart on the ground, partially ’cause I’m usually more hungry inflight due to out-of-sync mealtimes, and I haven’t seemed to have the awful luck with business class meals that you and your blogging companions have had over the years…
For you, does part of it come down to that it’s “free” food and harder to turn down b/c there’s no cost associated with it? On the other hand, I have some friends that even for business class, would rather buy food in the terminal and forego the inflight meals which they are never satisfied with and I would never spend my money when I had a guaranteed, at-least-half-decent meal later!
@Matthew: regarding diet, feel free to reach out to me on my email and I am happy to share some great info about changing diets and the huge issue with processed foods. That’s part of my work as an investor in healthier food companies.
As for the meal on business class, it all depends. Between Delta and AA, I have over 4 million miles in 20+ years of work. I passed the excitement of eating and drinking while on a plane. I am very selective in what I eat so I pass on most of that stuff. I simply don’t drink alcohol on a plane for healthy habits. Food, it depends. I shared before on how good the food has been on Delta One flights. They focus on healthier and well made meals so I enjoy some of those depending on the time of the flight. I always pass in the dessert and bread. They are not worth the calories. As for doméstica travel, I only eat if necessary but try to focus on healthier options.
I guess I can’t count on you to share a Feijoada anytime soon!
I definitely eat feijoada when I go to Brazil. I haven’t banned all foods from my diet but have been selective and reduced some that are not so good for you. I have banned soda and don’t add sugar to anything for over 20 years, reduced fatty meats, carbs, etc… but won’t say no to a great feijoada, pasta, pizza, etc… Now, if it is bad pizza or pasta from Olive Garden I will definitely pass on it.
I’ve had a craving for Olive Garden for years now..even though my dad’s side is Italian. Horrible, I know but those breadsticks can be bomb
@AJ: couldn’t agree more. Anything from Olive Garden is a bomb. LOL!!! One day some crazy Italian politician will try to sue them for calling what they serve “Italian food”.
Olive Garden is one of my go-tos when I’m on the road and one’s available. I know that the chicken gnocchi soup, fettucine alfredo, a side of alfredo sauce for dipping, and those fantastic breadsticks will not kill me. Oh, yes, they will eventually kill me, but at least I’ll have eaten some good food on the way out.
You right. It’s processed and fake AF. But the matrix does come up with some tasty concoctions.
@O’Hare, see, they do have some tasty things lol
Don’t destroy your health for the sake of your readers, but to me your culinary reviews are a highlight of the blog. For most of us who don’t fly up front internationally on a regular basis, the meal(s) are an essential part of the upgraded flying experience.
I started losing weight the minute AA stopped serving Turkey Pastrami sandwiches and UA stopped serving a muffin with a cheeseburger.
Seriously though, everything in moderation. You are obsessing over a healthy lifestyle when, in fact, you are living one. It’s ok to have bad days. Just have (mostly) good days as well. Be rational and eat what you like within reason. The biggest issue is not as much what you eat – but how much of it. Grab those chips, just make it less a habit and more of a ceremony. Which is exactly what you are doing.
X2, everything in moderation, no overkill!!
As long as you are not unhealthily overweight (compared to cosmetically overweight) you shouldn’t stress over this, the stress will be more deleterious to your health. Some people like junk or comfort or sweet foods, some don’t. A (basically healthy) tiger can’t and shouldn’t change its stripes. Almost every diet allows “cheat meals” or “cheat days”, airline meals and lounges can be a cheat day. Maybe just cut down on lounge and flight offerings, 1 sundae instead of 2, 1 entrée instead of 2, just a tapas lounge meal (in addition to the flight meals) prior to a long haul lay-flat flight.
You don’t have to eat everything put in front of you. I will have a taste and eat what tastes good. Even on the best international F, I won’t finish everything.
Since I saw Bill Gate’s explanation of how flying private is justified by all the good things he spends his money on, I feel justified in wasting a little food by all the Microsoft products I’ve bought.
He is something else. Fascinating that we have this massive climate/ecological/humanitarian disaster in Ohio yet the climate heads like him and many others have not uttered a sound. The never ending hypocrisy really is an inconvenient truth.
Check out the work he’s done in third world countries…places doing even worse than the s***hole that is Ohio. The world doesn’t revolve around your back door.
There are gross human rights violations and accusations in multiple countries from both his foundation and the Clinton Foundation.
Indians have called for Gates’ arrest over alleged violations of medical ethics and laws by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in the country. #ArrestBillGates trended on Indian Twitter in May, part of a campaign calling Indian authorities to charge the BMGF and Gates for conducting illegal medical trials on vulnerable groups in two Indian states. https://thediplomat.com/2021/06/why-are-indians-so-angry-at-bill-gates/
People don’t know this by now? We have a long way to go.
Why don’t you request one of the options on international flights like a vegan meal or a fruit plate or one of the other healthier options. I would be curious to see what kind of meals you would get in business or first.
Vegan meals don’t necessarily mean healthy; DL has served “impossible” meat alternatives that are surely super-processed.
Glad to see consumers are rejecting fake meat: https://www.axios.com/2023/02/04/fake-meat-impossible-beyond-burger-crash — but now we have bugs next on deck.
Thursday, 2 February 2023 — Last week, the European Union ruled that the maggot-like larvae of lesser mealworms — a type of shiny black beetle — and house crickets (in partially defatted powder form) may be used in the production of several foods, including pizza and pasta-based products, bread, crackers and breadsticks, meat preparations and soups, snacks and sauces, biscuits, chocolate confectionery and even beer-like beverages. This means that EU citizens may soon find themselves eating bugs without even knowing it.
These are not the first insects to be approved for human use, in the EU or elsewhere. Yellow mealworms, migratory locusts and house crickets (not in defatted powder form) were already approved in the EU — and these were included in the Brexit transition agreement, which means that they’re approved for use in Britain as well. So chances are you might have already munched on some pulverised crickets without even realising it.
–man, this world has some problems..
What’s the issue with eating bugs?
I imagine for lots of people it’s mainly the idea of it and then the taste/texture. If you can eat it in a product ‘without knowing’ then presumably it doesn’t taste too bad, in that state at least.
So what?
Main risks related to insect consumption
-Allergens
-Bacteria
-Anti-nutrients
-Pesticides
-Toxins
Some humans have allergies to endotoxins from arthropods. Were were supposed to eat exoskeletons? The exoskeleton, or “chitin,” of an insect has been found to have anti-nutrients. Some common anti-nutrients are phytic acid, tannins, and lectins. More importantly, many insects feed on decaying matter: rotting food, animal corpses, and human waste, which are full of bacteria. It has also been found that insects can carry parasites which are harmful, even deadly.
@ jan impossible meat IS GMO. Apparently how it gets it’s “bleed”. Please give me a medium rare five guys burger if it comes to that
Yes (and yes to Five Guys). Impossible makes their “blood” from controversial ‘soy leghemoglobin’. Leghemoglobin is very similar to blood hemoglobin. This in a burger is contentious as it has never been consumed by humans before. And they did very little safety testing before including it in their recipe. The FDA advised them that they have not proven the safety of their leghemoglobin, but allowed them to continue to market the burger–no surprise there.
Also their leghemoglobin is not produced by soybeans. It is produced in fermenters by yeast that have been genetically modified. Soybean genes are inserted into the yeast that allow the yeast to produce leghemoglobin, which is then extracted, concentrated, and included in the burger recipe..yum.
They justify it to their predominantly anti-GMO customer base by saying that “compared to a beef burger, the Impossible Burger uses 96 percent less land, 87 percent less water, and produces 89 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, and 92 percent less aquatic pollutants”. Doubtful..but maybe.
Either way they are making a case for the use of GMOs in our food supply, which are not safe and yet another crime against humanity. The list is long.
@Jan: I well connected to the food space. The likes of Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat are in a desperate mode. They have focused on ESG and trying to convince people that cows are bad. Yes, if you raise cows in a massive and unsustainable way they are bad for the planet but than they created a horrible product that may not kill the planet but may kill the humans living on it. Their products are ultra processed and unhealthy. There are ways to raise cows sustainably and eating meat in moderation is healthy.
Way back when, when ordering a vegetarian special meal, you’d get some rather peculiar vegan food. I mean like oatmeal-stuffed cabbage rolls for breakfast AND dinner. As a starving student, of course I ate them. I found the high-fiber food kept me functional and full for much of the day. When the meals switched to dishes others were eating, just without meat, I ended up feeling sick and hungry a couple hours later. Maybe we all should request the strict vegan option, though I’m sure it’s more appealing and a lot less peculiar than the old days.
Remembering when vegan was a fruit plate & yogurt or a yummy salad. Apparently the wheel was reinvented with the fancy chefs now touting their meals as executive chefs. This waste of money on celebrity chefs was the beginning of the end in edible air meals. (IMHO). Same goes with various food networks. A lot of bad advice & horrible combinations just to stay relevant. Ugh
It’s true. I love to cook and watch cooking videos on YouTube, one of my fav hobbies. I’ve noticed with Food Network especially for such a long time now that most of their videos are very unhealthy and/or have people wasting money and ingredients. I like Michael Pollan’s philospohy: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
philosophy*
It’s almost March. The “no airline meals in 2023” ship has sailed.
I actually admire your approach of strict diet at home and cheat days while traveling. That’s the kind of balance that sustains your lifestyle.
The better question is: what is the tangible benefit of cutting down? Do you have more weight to lose? Cholesterol to lower? Don’t be discontent!
Obviously your health needs to come first.
That being said by your own account your are healthy and in good shape. So it seems you can afford to indulge a bit while flying.
My suggestion would be to look for the value add in how your eating while you’re flying. The food coverage is such a great part of the blog it would really be a loss if it went away. That being said there is no point in eating another Cheeseburger on United you’ve reviewed them multiple times. You can also exercise portion control in terms of what you eat. Say you’re flying in a premium cabin you cans till order the food and sample it but not finish it. That enables you to still provide a full review while cutting your intake of food while flying.
Rest in Peace cheeseburger reviews! The food reviews, especially the unhealthy foods alway put a smile on my face. Looking forward to the healthier meal updates! I think sharing ways to eat healthier on flights can benefit everyone!
I think a taste test of the food in front of you is important as it provides important information to your readers. Eating all of the food presented to you while flying is unhealthy, something I have not been good at refusing. Not finishing your meal may be a way to cut down on unneeded calories.
I’m against this change haha. Part of a review is the food and how it tastes (I know it’s not food wasted necessarily on a plame if you order and don’t eat). I do keto largely still on a plane and in the lounge with the odd indulgence. I even eat mostly low carb in Italy for three months! One slice of pizza not 6, lots of fresh veggies, cheese, tomatoes, prosciutto. Yum
Just practice moderation when traveling. If the airline is putting its best foot forward, then try it. Should be possible to enjoy the best while skipping packaged chips and cookies
I’m surprised that you actually like it so much? I (unfortunately) don’t eat very healthy, and I really like processed junk food, but I tend to think that food in the air doesn’t taste especially good. I usually fly about 15-20 round trips in long haul business class per year, but I never eat anything on a redeye and usually just pick at the food during a daytime flight (yes, even on TK).
I love this post. It reflects such a startlingly American outlook on one of the basic realities of life – eating food. The absolutist extremes. The absolute confidence that your approach is demonstratively better than alternatives despite limited data suggesting you are actually right. An absolute lack of prospective on how the rest of the world lives. I say this without malice. There is no place like America. Truly fascinating. I’ll stick to consuming the things that bring me pleasure or meet my needs with a hat tip to moderation. Good luck with the fasting. And welcome to middle age. It’s a trip.
Right? Decadence when stuffing your face in airport lounges and sat up at the pointy end of the plane in the same post as talking about regular fasting.
‘American’ (#notallamericans) attitudes towards food, alcohol and sex amongst other things are an absolute trip.
+1 . The dichotomy doesn’t make any sense to me. Surely the obvious solution is to cut down on prepackaged lounge snacks, minimise consumption of carb-based garnishes (it’s not like the rice served on the side of the chicken thigh you have ordered is anything special), and only take a bite out of the dessert instead of gobbling up a huge sundae.
Do what you feel is best for you and family! Or if you still feel an obligation to review food quality and presentation for your readers and blogging job, maybe eat half or a third of it? But please do not just take pictures and toss the food – I say this because maybe you pick the last of some type of dish available, and someone else would miss out on what they wanted. Again, do what is best for you
If you want to learn about nutrition that improves and maintains good health, check out Dr. Michael Greger’s non-profit info at nutritionfacts DOT org. There’s some fascinating stuff about various individual foods that most of us don’t realize.
This seems extreme. I think we’re about the same age and I actually have been doing something similar at home re: intermittent fasting (I usually only eat during a 4-6 hour window). But, I think it’s unsustainable to do this 24/7, so I usually only stick to it during weekdays and when not traveling.
Unless you truly enjoy depriving yourself like this, this seems unsustainable and, well, likely to cause unhappiness or an eating disorder.
I certainly don’t want an eating disorder!
Bring tupperware and take the lounge food to go. I don’t see anything wrong with this if someone chooses not to eat in the lounge.
I think eliminating gross meals on domestic flights and snacks in the UC is one thing. I think passing on QR dine on demand, or sushi in the JAL F lounge is quite another. Though ultimately it’s your choice. To me, there are certainly shades of gray that fall between “eat to live” and “live to eat.”