Features

Fit to fly: Appetite for living

25 Apr 2007 by business traveller
Most of us know the basic principles of a healthy diet, but to say that we find them hard to stick to is an understatement as large as our growing waistlines. More than half of adults in the UK are overweight or obese and, at the rate we're all eating, 2.3 billion adults worldwide will join them by 2015. This collective lack of willpower is bad news for our health: obesity is linked with a heightened risk of Type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease. In March, while launching a programme trying to reduce saturated fats in our diet, the Food Standards Agency announced that a third of deaths from cardiovascular disease – the biggest killer in the UK – are thought to result from poor diet. For business travellers, eating well is not just about staying a healthy weight; what you eat also makes a crucial difference to how you perform while you're away, according to Annie McRae, nutritionist at the Allergy and Nutrition Centre. "Food is your fuel for functioning. You could liken it to a car – you need to put in the right fuel for the car to function at its optimum. If you put in low-grade fuel or you put diesel in a petrol tank it's not going to work. That's what it's like on a poor diet." It seems that most of us are filling up on diesel. In a survey on businesstraveller.com, 75 per cent of business travellers admitted to eating less healthily than usual when travelling (15 per cent claim to eat more healthily, while 10 per cent say there's no difference). Perhaps it's not surprising that 50 per cent of travellers experience digestive problems while abroad, according to the World Health Organisation. That figure includes those who contract food poisoning from contaminated or unhygienic food, but business travellers staying at good hotels in major cities can also suffer digestive upsets for rather more mundane reasons. Claire Williamson, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, says: "It could be a change in diet: some people are more sensitive to it than others. Spicy foods and stress can also bring on an upset stomach." In addition, jet lag has been associated with stomach upsets in long-haul travellers. It's easy to understand why business travellers let healthy eating fall by the wayside. Sticking to the five-portions-of-fruit-and-veg rule can be difficult enough at home, but it's even harder when your daily routine is thrown into chaos along with your body clock and your willpower. There's nothing like stepping off a long-haul flight with the contents of a tasteless in-flight tray in your stomach and work stress in your head for stimulating an appetite for a cheeseburger. It's understandable to crave comfort food when you're lonely and far from home, but if you're away on business several times a month you'll end up on more of a diet sabbatical than a diet holiday. So is it possible to eat a balanced and varied diet on the move, with minimum inconvenience? Business Traveller asked the experts.

Start as you mean to go on

The hardest thing about eating well when you're away is the restriction of choice. Williamson says: "It is difficult when you're relying on airlines or restaurants to provide you with your food. You're not going to have the opportunity to buy food at the supermarket so you don't have that aspect of control." But observing some simple rules will help you feel and perform better. The first is to always make time for breakfast, however tight your schedule. It really is the most important meal of the day. Frankie Phillips, dietician at the British Dietetic Association, says: "After fasting overnight your blood sugar is at its lowest, which can affect your mood and concentration." That doesn't mean tucking into a fry-up – make it something light like muesli, cereal, porridge, fruit or wholemeal toast. If you do need a snack at the airport, try to avoid the prominent fast-food, high-fat snacks and caffeinated drinks. Instead, find some fruit or an oat-based cereal bar. Fruit juice or a smoothie is also good, but choose carefully says Phillips. "A smoothie counts as one portion of fruit and veg, but avoid smoothies that contain yoghurt because they include more fat and sugar. Fruit juice is high in natural fruit sugars but it's a concentrated way of getting your fruit and is more calorific than eating a piece of fruit." Better still, take your own snacks. With a little preparation before your trip you can take a small box of unsalted nuts, dried or fresh fruit, or an oat-based cereal bar (if you do take dried fruit, check the label: avoid fruits containing sulphur preservatives, which can give you gas – the last thing you need in-flight) so that if you're delayed you're less likely to munch on salt-filled snacks in the airline lounge. There's no need to give up caffeine entirely (and it's not a realistic hope for most of us), but it's a diuretic and can make you dehydrated before you even step on the plane. Caffeine is also thought to have an adverse effect on blood-sugar levels. Phillips says: "It's fine to have tea or coffee but try to have a weaker tea or a latte rather than an espresso. Or, if you must have your espresso, do what the Italians do and have it with a glass of water."

Watch your blood sugar

Although sugary foods are good for energy in the short term you'll experience a "crash" soon afterwards. Poorly controlled blood sugar levels can lead to mood swings, lack of concentration, headaches, weight gain and can eventually put you at higher risk of developing diabetes. Type 2 diabetes, where the body starts failing to regulate blood sugar, most commonly affects people over 40 who are overweight and don't take exercise, but it is also being seen in younger and younger people thanks to our poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. When glucose in the blood reaches a certain limit, the pancreas releases insulin to move the glucose into the body's cells. When sugary foods are eaten, insulin has to move larger amounts of glucose. McRae says: "If the cells become overloaded with glucose it can lead to insulin resistance, which is a prerequisite for Type 2 diabetes. There are a lot of people walking around undiagnosed." Exercise is an important way of regulating blood sugar, but if you know you won't have time during your trip then what you eat is even more important. Above all, try to have small, regular meals to sustain energy. Choose the lightest options such as fish or vegetable dishes, and if you do opt for a dish that comes with a sauce, ask for it to be served on the side so you can decide how much of it to eat. Williamson says: "If you get the chance, opt for 'low-GI' foods, which means that the sugar is broken down slowly into your bloodstream. For example, choose wild rice instead of white rice; wholegrain bread instead of white bread; and pasta, which is low-GI as long as it is not overcooked. Anything with oats, or a jacket potato, is also good." Most fruit and vegetables are also good low-GI choices, while anything high in sugar should be avoided. Even a small amount of exercise will help to offset any weaknesses in willpower you have with food. Williamson recommends 10 minutes of brisk walking, three times day – which is not enough if you are trying to lose weight but will help to stabilise your blood sugar levels.

Vitamins and supplements: the cheat's method?

There are endless supplements and natural remedies aimed at tired, busy people – surely it's much easier to take a pill every day than worry about whether you're getting all the vitamins and minerals you need from food? Phillips doesn't believe vitamins are necessary for most people in good health. "Lots of people who take vitamins don't need them," she says. Williamson agrees that for most people they shouldn't be needed, but recognises that this is not always the case. "It's not an ideal world and if you feel your diet is compromised by travelling then you can take a multivitamin – but not a high-dose supplement of individual nutrients," she advises. It is still not established how much benefit supplements really have. One recent controversial study by Copenhagen University, which was widely reported by the media, suggested that certain vitamins, such as vitamin A, E and beta-carotene, may even shorten your lifespan. But Dr Damien Downing, medical director of the Alliance for Natural Health, believes the research was biased. "[The researchers] cherry-picked the studies in order to get the results they wanted," he says. "They said that more people who take supplements die, but they chucked out all the studies where no one died." Downing argues that vitamin supplements are more useful than ever before, thanks to modern methods of food production, which mean much of the valuable nutritional content of food has disappeared by the time it reaches us. He explains: "As soon as you pluck an orange off the tree the vitamin C level starts going down, so by the time it reaches your plate or glass it's down to a fraction of what it was. That's true for a lot of nutrients." And a disadvantage of travelling is that you can't choose your ingredients. Says Downing: "When you're flying or staying in a hotel you can't guarantee the quality of the food which you're getting." At any rate, taking a supplement when you're not sure if you need it will not do you any harm, insists Downing – the worst that will happen is that you'll end up with "expensive urine". For busy business travellers, he recommends a multivitamin plus extra vitamins C and E and omega-3 fish oils, which, among other benefits, will help to prevent clogged arteries. Another helpful supplement for travellers is ginger, which soothes nausea, upset stomachs and motion sickness, and is described by McRae as "a good all-rounder" as it is also an antioxidant, which means it helps to slow down the oxidative process that damages body cells and eventually leads to cancer and other diseases. Occasionally, rather than turning to pills there is a simpler remedy. For example if you're prone to bowel upsets, taking a probiotic may help but Downing has a more straightforward solution. "If you're having bowel problems it's likely to be because you're lacking exercise," he says. "You need to exercise to massage the bowels and get them functioning." Unfortunately, sometimes there really are no shortcuts to healthy living. For more information visit: nutritionalmedicine.org.uk, bda.uk.com, bdaweightwise.com, nutrition.org.uk, alliance-natural-health.org, food.gov.uk.

FACT FILE

  • Fruit and vegetables should make up a third of your daily intake. Aim for five daily portions (one portion = 80g), which can be tinned, frozen, fresh, dried or juiced (potatoes don't count because they are a starchy food).
  • Starchy foods (bread, pasta, cereals, rice and potatoes), containing fibre, calcium, iron and B vitamins, should make up a third of your intake. Wholegrain varieties are high in insoluble fibre and good for bowel health.
  • Eat two portions of fish per week; one should be oily fish, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A and D.
  • Meat is a source of protein and one of the main sources of vitamin B12. Cut down saturated fat by choosing lean meat (turkey or chicken), grilled rather than fried. Avoid high-fat meat products such as sausages, paté, burgers and salami.
  • Pulses (beans, lentils, peas) are a low-fat source of protein and a good source of iron but try to have a drink rich in vitamin C (such as fruit juice) with your meal to help you absorb the iron because it is harder to absorb than iron from meat.
  • Nuts are high in fibre and monounsaturated fat, which can help to reduce cholesterol. They are a good alternative to snacks high in saturated fat, but avoid salted nuts.
  • Avoid caffeinated drinks after 6pm and avoid tea or coffee within 30 minutes of a meal as they contain polyphenols, which bind with iron and make it harder for the body to absorb. Drink at least six glasses of water daily.
  • Adults should have no more than 6g of salt a day, but on average we are eating 9g so do not add extra salt to your food. A diet high in salt can lead to high blood pressure.

CURE JET LAG THROUGH YOUR DIET?

The power of diet was taken to a new level by the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, which has devised an anti-jet lag diet that, it says, will speed up your adjustment to a new time zone. The diet requires three days of "feasting" and "fasting" before you fly, favouring certain food types at different times. For example, if you're flying east on a Sunday evening from New York to Paris you'll want to advance your body clock so that when you arrive in Paris at 10am you won't feel as though you are still on New York time (4am). You would start your dietary preparations on Thursday, which is a "feasting" day. You should eat three large meals, making sure that breakfast and lunch are high in protein (eg eggs, meat or beans) and that dinner is high in carbohydrates (eg pasta or a baked potato). Protein, says Argonne, helps the body produce the chemicals it makes when it's time to get up and be active, while carbohydrates will help to stimulate sleep. Friday is then a "fasting" day, when you eat three small, low-calorie meals which are low in carbohydrates. Saturday is a feasting day and Sunday a fasting day (the day of the flight is always a fast day). Once on board you begin adjusting your body clock. Argonne advises drinking two or three cups of coffee between 9pm and 10pm New York time and then getting some sleep. At around 1.30am New York time you begin a third feasting day, but this time based on Paris time, so eat a high-protein breakfast (without coffee) to help you wake up and synchronise with Parisians as they eat breakfast. Do the same at lunchtime in Paris and then follow it with a high-carbohydrate supper. Get an early night and, in theory, you should wake up feeling as fresh as a daisy. Does it work? According to sleep experts, the single most effective way to combat jet lag is through exposure to bright light at certain times, since light is the strongest cue for the body clock. But practical reasons also may make this diet difficult for business travellers. Claire Williamson of the British Nutrition Foundation sums them up: "Who has got time to do that? If you've got a long-haul flight in a few days you've probably got other things to do." However, some experts believe that favouring certain foods at certain times depending on your activities may help. Annie McRae of the Allergy and Nutrition Centre recommends a high-carbohydrate meal such as pasta before you want to sleep, as carbohydrates tend to make you sleepy. Conversely, adding protein to a carbohydrate helps to release the energy more slowly, so a high-protein meal may help you stay awake. Visit antijetlagdiet.com (source: eatwell.gov.uk, Food Standards Agency)  
Loading comments...

Search Flight

See a whole year of Reward Seat Availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Be up-to-date
Magazine Subscription
To see our latest subscription offers for Business Traveller editions worldwide, click on the Subscribe & Save link below
Polls