Dear DOCTOR Owen:

I fly once or twice a week on my job. I have a real problem with airline food, which is high in fat and tastes like “cardboard.” I have tried ordering special meals, but that is a nightmare. Often the diet I receive is meant for someone else or is simply disgusting. I have high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Any suggestions?

Air Sick

Dear “Air Sick”:

As my wife will attest, I am not a “picky” eater. I will eat almost anything that isn’t rotten (and there have been exceptions) or dangerous. However, I agree that airline food would be a problem if I spent large amounts of time in flight.

Ever hear of the brown bag? How many restaurants do you frequent at the airport? At the larger airports, I see almost every type of food service imaginable. Whenever I fly, I eat very low-calorie or non-fat food. The only negative of this purchase is the price. I imagine that cost would be a consideration if I were to pay for 8–10 or more meals/month.

Unless you are going overseas, most domestic flights take less than four hours. This certainly makes it possible to snack on the flight with meal replacements (pre-mixed drinks, snack bars, or even pre-packaged entrees), or eat fruits and vegetables. This may require that you shop prior to traveling, or purchase meal-replacement products (which are everywhere).

At my clinic, we diet and health counselors urge all of our long-term patients on weight-loss and maintenance diets to have 35 meal replacements/week and at least 35 servings of fruits and vegetables/week (70 products in all). Patients quickly learn that this is not easy to follow because it entails the following, on a weekly basis:

• Planning.
• Keeping the products everywhere—travel bag, workout bag, toiletry kit, purse, car, work site, certainly at home.
• Putting them in strategic places, which takes effort and planning.
• Purchasing.
• Visualizing when and where you may need access to them.

Once the products are in place, though, life becomes much more manageable.

Imagine having apples, oranges, bananas, snack bars, a shake-in-a-can, or a shake mix inside your carry-on luggage. You need only reach inside the overhead compartment to get at them. Take your shake mix to the local airport bar and have the server blend it with water and ice for a small fee.

Consider the planning you do for your business and other trips: itinerary, travel agent, credit card accessibility, hotel arrangements, rental car reservation, clothing packed, toiletry kit, list of phone numbers, cell phone, laptop computer. How hard is it to add fruit, vegetables, snack bars, drinks, and/or powdered meals?

Forget about the airplane meal. Concentrate on the beverage. It isn’t worth your health—or your anxiety—to make airline food work for you. I think that the commercial airlines would find enormous cost savings in eliminating meals altogether. Then we would all be forced to plan our trips, as well as our meals and snacks. One airline has done just that. It has the lowest fares (peanuts) and the best service because it is concentrating on the baggage and flight times—not about loading food onto the carrier. And, those flight attendants can smile because some jerk isn’t complaining about his chicken fricassee!