Surviving The Return of Airline Food: Put Down That Fork

by Robert McGarvey

The Travel Weekly headline gave me shudders: “It’s trays down once again as U.S. airlines restore meal service.”

The photo of the food made me gag.

Per the story, Delta, American and United are all shoveling gruel at their front of the plane passengers and, increasingly, in the back of the bus food manque is for sale

Put down that fork. And vow with me: I will not eat airline food.

It doesn’t matter what class of carriage. The stuff is not something one should eat.

Say it loud, say it proud, say it until you mean it.

Not even stroopwafel, which can’t possibly be good for you.

I stand with Gordon Ramsey with this (and I never thought I’d write that). Here’s what he told Refinery 29: “There’s no f–king way I eat on planes. I worked for airlines for 10 years, so I know where this food’s been and where it goes, and how long it took before it got on board.”

There’s even a website Airline Meals where passengers document, typically in words and pix, how appalling their food has been.

When Time Magazine ate some airline food, it offered this comment: “Low air pressure and background noises further impact the way we taste, by repressing the ability to taste sweet and salty foods…. For food to taste the same before it is in the air, airline caterers have to add up to 30% more of sugar or salt to a meal.”

I don’t want to put that stuff in my mouth.

Yet a fact is that. just maybe, airline food isn’t as bad as we think – but the environment (low air pressure, often very low humidity, noise) affects our taste buds and, very probably, it would require an explosion of flavors to make any kind of impression.

That’s also why buying take-away food at airport concessions – and there are increasing numbers of good options (at Phoenix Sky Harbor there’s an emphasis on local favorites such as Zinc Brasserie, La Grande Orange, and Matt’s Big Breakfast) – is not such a smart move. It generally won’t taste like much at altitude. Eat it in the airport and enjoy it more. At 30,000 ft. not much will taste good.

That’s why when I believe I will be hungry on a flight I usually buy a bag of nuts and maybe a Starbucks coffee. A 4 oz bag of cashews packs 650 calories and that’s around 100 more than a Big Mac. The nuts will tide you over on a x-country flight. And they also are modestly good for us.

That last bit matters because the research says that frequent flying is bad for our health – and so the smarter we eat at 30,000 feet the better for our health.

As for the research, it’s in a Harvard Business Review article by Columbia University professor Andrew Rundle. The professor had access to mounds of deidentified data from EHE which has data from tens of thousands of US employees including both health and travel info.

Rundle wanted to know if a diet of steady travel – which he sets at 14 or more nights way from home monthly – impacts health.

Wrote Rundle: “We found a strong correlation between the frequency of business travel and a wide range of physical and behavioral health risks.”

What risks? The heavy travelers self-reported “clinical symptoms of anxiety, depression and alcohol dependence; no physical activity or exercise; smoking; and trouble sleeping.”

Really frequent travelers – those away from home 21 or more nights monthly – fared even worse. Wrote Rundle: “The odds of being obese were 92% higher for those who traveled 21 or more nights per month compared to those who traveled only one to six nights per month, and this ultra-traveling group also had higher diastolic blood pressure and lower high density lipoprotein (the good cholesterol).”

Ouch.

Of course, in the last two pandemic years, there have been few of us logging 21 nights away monthly or even 14.

But the growing crowds at airports augur a return of business travel. I remain convinced that business travel will never again reach the levels of 2019 – but I also believe that the heaviest travelers in 2019 will again soon be traveling heavily and maybe already are. Their travel rings the corporate cash register, it brings in new customers and keeps existing customers happy.

For those heavy travelers in particular but for all of us too, a simple step towards slightly better road health is to skip the airline inflight meals, reduce or eliminate inflight alcohol consumption, and be mindful of what we eat and drink in airports and hotels.

That regimen is no cure. But it’s a step. And that’s smarter than falling back into bad old habits like eating inflight food just because it kills time.

But maybe it kills more than that.

Just say no.