Airplane Food
It’s bland, scant, and downright tasteless; airplane food has built for itself quite a reputation since it was first served on October 11, 1919. In one way or another, airplane food would never be fine dining.
Mile-high chefs simply can’t pull off haute cuisine after all. After cooking, airplane food has to go through cooling, storage, transportation and reheating. Unlike in a restaurant, the most airplane passengers could get are braised dishes or something simmered like saucy chicken.
Nutritionists point out that it may have less to do with how the food is prepared than the biological processes undergoing in every passenger. High altitudes and the parched air in the plane compel the intestines to swell and lose water. What’s more, less oxygen is delivered to the intestines. Sensing the loss, the brain spreads oxygen thinly all over the body, depriving organs of it, including the brain, stomach and heart. In these conditions, food cannot be digested easily.
Thirty-thousand feet above the earth therefore, there is room for neither much fats nor carbohydrates. High protein, fatty food in particular would just stagnate inside the body; fats need sizable amounts of water and energy to be digested.
Granted, too much of carbohydrates couldn’t be broken down but moderate amounts of them are readily digestible. In-flight dishes should consist of simple carbohydrates like wheat and vegetables.
It’s good to phone the airline ahead for low-sodium, vegetarian orders. Passengers taking lengthy transcontinental flights should drink a glass of water hourly and move about regularly.
Plane passengers may choose to skip airplane meals altogether, a good move to reduce jet lag. Anyway, most economy-class trips don’t offer anything to eat other than snack items like granolas.
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