Expert Tips for Nutrition-Smart Holiday Travel

If you’re planning to join the holiday travel crush – or already looking ahead to 2016 vacations – there’s good news about your eating options en route. “I actually think that airport choices are beginning to improve a bit, both in terms of take-out and sit-down options,” says Jeanne Goldberg, PhD, professor at Tufts’ Friedman School and director of the Nutrition Communication Program. “The onus is to choose among the better options.”

Chains such as Starbucks and Au Bon Pain, found in most major airports, have added menu choices that won’t make you feel like you’ve ingested a 767. Local gourmet eateries have also focused on nutrition at the airport: At the nation’s busiest airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield International, for example, kiosks from popular caterer Proof of the Pudding offer “gourmet fresh” sandwiches. Saladworks at O’Hare in Chicago serves customizable collections of fresh produce, all under 500 calories. CIBO Express at New York’s LaGuardia serves roasted root-vegetable salads. Beyond grab and go food, at Boston’s Logan Airport, you can dine on grilled fish at local favorite Legal Sea Foods. Fish is also on the menu at the LAX outpost of gourmet seafood restaurant Gladstone’s, or you can opt for chicken chili at Lemonade.

“There has been a marked improvement from times past,” says Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, director of Tufts’ HNRCA Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory. “There are always fruit, fruit cups and fruit and yogurt cups available in the airports. Some places, such as the ubiquitous Starbucks, have veggie cups as well. Salads now tend to be mixed greens or romaine lettuce, and widely available. Healthier wraps are usually options.”

PLANNING PAYS: Wherever you’re flying, if you’re unfamiliar with an airport and its offerings, it pays to plan ahead and check the airport map online to view your eating options during a layover. Also look at the online menus and nutrition facts of restaurants near your gates. Even among franchise restaurants, not all post nutrition info on site, so some web research is your best bet. Travel websites like Independent Traveler <www.independenttraveler.com> and Trip Advisor <www.tripadvisor.com> also serve up useful advice about eating on the go. Keep in mind, you usually have to do this only once; offerings don’t change so often that this approach would become a regular chore.

Informed ordering can make a big difference. For breakfast, you might pick Starbucks’ Classic Whole-Grain Oatmeal, Wheat Spinach Savory Foldover or Multigrain Bagel – all lower in calories and saturated fat and higher in fiber than the deceptively healthy-sounding Pumpkin Scone. Instead of an eponymous doughnut at Dunkin’ Donuts, you might discover the Multigrain Bagel (8 grams of fiber, 15 grams of protein) or Eggwhite Flatbread (280 calories, 15 grams protein). Remember, however, that even the best of these chain offerings tend to be high in sodium.

Think strategically when choosing, advises Diane L. McKay, PhD, an assistant professor at Tufts’ Friedman School. “When faced with foods you would not normally eat – either at restaurants or airport cafes, etc. – I try to load up on more of what I would normally eat, like fruit” she says. “Sometimes you can find some healthier options where you would not normally look. For example, see if they offer toppings for hot/cold cereals; you might find nuts or dried fruit there. That, or even a little granola sprinkled on top of some fruit with milk will hold me until lunch.”

For lunch or dinner, seek out sandwiches on whole-grain bread with lean fillings such as turkey, chicken or roasted veggies; go light on the condiments with mustard instead of mayo. “Or choose a salad and ask for the salad dressing on the side,” suggests Nicola McKeown, PhD, associate professor and director of the Friedman School’s Nutritional Epidemiology Program. “Include some protein; it will help you feel fuller for longer.” McDonald’s Premium Asian Salad with Grilled Chicken, for example, has 5 grams of fiber and 32 grams of protein, with only 270 calories.

Don’t overlook soup as an option. Au Bon Pain’s large Garden Vegetable Soup, for example, has just 110 calories, no saturated fat and a better than 5:1 carb/fiber ratio. (Again, however, like many of these choices, it’s high in sodium.)

Hummus is available at an increasing number of airports, too, usually paired with vegetables. Because of the protein and healthy fats in the chickpeas from which it’s made, hummus can help keep you from feeling hungry on a long flight.

You probably don’t need to be told that these are better options for airport eating than cinnamon buns, quarter-pound cheeseburgers or “stuffed-crust” pizzas. But you might be fooled by healthy-seeming items such as Au Bon Pain’s Roasted Vegetarian Harvest Hot Wrap, which despite its lack of meat manages to total 670 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat. Or McDonald’s Bacon, Cheese & Egg Bagel with Egg Whites, which actually has about the same calories and saturated fat as a Big Mac, and more sodium.

DO-IT-YOURSELF MEALS: Despite the improvements in airport cuisine, most of the Tufts experts we surveyed still prefer to pack their own snacks when they travel. “For short trips – under three hours – I just don’t eat,” says Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, director of Tufts’ HNRCA Antioxidants Research Laboratory. “For longer ones, cross-country, I just take a small bag of nuts or a home-made trial mix. Sometime I take fruit, like an apple, and/or vegetables like carrots and celery, because they travel fairly well. Mostly, I just pack light and try to keep the food simple.”

“When leaving from home on trips within the US, I usually pack my meals and think of it as a picnic without the grass, blanket and ants,” says Jeanne Goldberg. “That is, I typically make a sandwich, from sliced chicken or tuna fish salad on whole-grain bread, along with some carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices in a small container.”

Diane McKay says, “When I travel, I always carry some portable but healthy snack food with me because sometimes you never know when your next meal is going to happen. With airport delays, traffic delays, and/or arriving after hours at your hotel, it might be tough to find something to eat when you are hungry. I carry either some unsalted nuts or pretzel thins, a chewy granola bar, and a piece of fruit (usually a crisp apple) in my purse or carry-on. To save room in my purse, I will also buy a bottle of water after I get through security, and then keep refilling it throughout my trip instead of carrying a reusable water bottle (not the most environmentally friendly thing to do, but at least I use the heck out of that plastic bottle before I recycle it).”

IN-FLIGHT OPTIONS: If, despite your best-laid plans, you find yourself at the mercy of in-flight food, going hungry might not be your only option. It’s true that many airline “meals” these days are boxed collections of salty snacks and what are essentially candy bars. But some airlines do a better job of providing healthy food than others, according to the “Diet Detective,” Charles Platkin, PhD, of the Hunter College School of Urban Public Health and the CUNY School of Public Health. Platkin’s website <www.dietdetective.com> annually ranks airlines by the healthy food they offer.

In the most recent rankings, Virgin America scored the highest for offering healthy choices, while Delta was the most improved. At the other end of the rankings was Frontier, with poor scores also given to Spirit, American and Hawaiian Airlines.

In general, sandwiches, salads and other “meal” offerings stack up better than “snack boxes,” even if you’re not all that hungry and save half for later. Typically, snack boxes contain more calories than meals, and tend to be sky-high (literally) in sodium and sugar.

Not all airlines provide nutrition information about their in-flight offerings on their websites, but it’s worth checking before you fly. Even if the airlines list only menus without nutrition data, you can scope out your choices in advance and be prepared when that service cart finally reaches your aisle. Sometimes you can even find nutrition info in material in the seat-back pocket.

For flights with meal service, most airlines offer diabetic as well as kosher meals that can be ordered in advance; these are often healthier choices even if you’re not diabetic or keeping kosher. Delta, for example, offers 16 types of preorder special meals, and United has 9 different dietary and religious options.

Things are looking up for travelers, says Lichtenstein: “As healthier options become more available and more people take advantage of them, we will likely see more to choose from.”

If you travel at all and stay at any leading hotel chains, you’ve encountered the ubiquitous make-your-own Belgian waffle. Pour the packaged mix in, flip the waffle maker and in a few minutes you have a freshly made, hot waffle. So how do hotel breakfast-bar waffles stack up nutritionally?

Numbers vary depending on the chain, but one waffle without syrup contains about 220 calories, 2 grams of saturated fat, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugars, 420 milligrams of sodium and 6 grams of protein. Add 1.5 ounces of syrup and you increase those numbers by 160 calories and 44 grams of carbs (43 of them sugars). A “butter” packet adds another 40 calories and a little saturated fat.

Better choices, if available, include yogurt, fresh fruit and bran or Cheerios-type cereal. Muffins are a gamble: A healthy-sounding “banana nut” muffin, for example, might have double the calories, triple the saturated fat and six times the sugar of the “harvest bran” muffin right beside it.

Says Tufts’ Jeffrey Blumberg, “For breakfasts, I generally leave the hotel and find a place to buy fruit or a yogurt.”