Healing with Hillary Blog & News
1/18: Flying Food
Posted on: Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Keywords: Nutrition, Food, Organic, Health
As I sit here in my second row window seat a bazzillion feet up in the air, I am wondering what to write about today. Then, as the scent of a freshly opened bag of peanuts hits me... airplane food!
Many of us have experienced it. The tasty crackers laden with enriched flour and partially hydrogenated oils and the bags of peanuts, which wouldn't be so bad if they weren't dry roasted or honey roasted. Why can't they just be: peanuts and sea salt??
So, what can we do to ensure a healthy snack on an airplane? BYOF. Bring Your Own Food.
Today I brought along organic dried mangos. I picked them up at my local health food store. Let me distinguish these from the preservative and sugar coated dried mangos and various other fruits from the everyday grocery store. These pieces of fruit I purchased taste like mangos, just without the juice, and most importantly, the ingredient list is this: organic mangos.
Now, when I took my first bite of my dried organic mango the thought occurred to me that I really didn't enjoy the first bite, and most other people wouldn't either. So that's why I took several more bites. You see, with these, the flavor is cumulative. Once you take a few chewy bites, you don’t want to stop! The flavor just keeps getting better and better. My kids and I can't stop 'til the bag is empty. So, please don't take just one bite and decide if they are for you or not. Take a few bites and get hooked!
By the way, mangos have many health benefits. They contain substances that have antioxidant and anticancer abilities, are high in iron and vitamin A, can relieve clogged skin pores, help with acidity and poor digestion, and also contain vitamin E and selenium, which help protect against heart disease and other health problems.
Next I washed down my mangos with some water, which I had to purchase beyond security. (To my surprise they had one of the brands of water that was recommended by the recent EWG - Environmental Working Group - report on bottled waters.) You should always consume a bottle of water during a flight because air travel is highly dehydrating and we all need to replenish our beneficial body fluids while in flight to help us feel great and boost our mental function for when we get to our destination.
Another yummy snack I brought with me is banana chips. Today I have the sweetened ones, but I like the unsweetened ones too. These I have purchased at the regular grocery store. The ingredient list usually reads: bananas, sugar, coconut oil.
We all know by now that I am a big fan of coconut oil. I am also a big fan of natural occurring sweeteners. This means good ol' fashioned sugar. The body knows what to do with sugar. We know where sugar comes from. The body does not know what to do with HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) or ANY artificial sweeteners.
Sugar comes from the mother of all things, Mother Nature, so let's honor that, just don’t honor it too much. Your ideal amount of sugar intake is 8 grams per serving; however, I find it easier to use 10 grams as a guideline.
What if you are diabetic??? You do have options besides artificial sweeteners. Two of them are agave nectar and stevia. Please check with your treating doc before using them, and if the doc has never heard of these, you can educate her/him.
The third ingredient in my banana chips = bananas. This fruit is on the "don’t worry if it's not organic" list. So don’t worry about spending extra cash for the organic variety and enjoy this tasty treat. You can get a nice size bag for less than 2 dollars!
This brings me to my last food item in my carry on: nuts - BYOF, BYON - and I’m not talking about bringing the kids. I like to bring whole almonds, usually raw, but roasted is good too. Any kind of nut will do, just make sure the ingredients read: nuts; or nuts and sea salt; or nuts, nut oil, and sea salt. Beyond that you start getting into all those additives that won't do you any good.
If you need food tips for riding in the car, see my blog: Put the "Merry" Back in Merry Christmas and the "Happy" Back in Happy Holidays.
Enjoy your week! I know mine will be awesome!
Dr. B
See Dr. Botta's Practitioner Page
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