In fact, the possibility that snacks might contain traces of peanut products (even though not mentio

Air carriers serve meals, and where there s food, there can t be a restaurant critic too far behind. Just in time for the buys travel holiday season, DietDetective.com has released its annual airline food investigation. Continental florence italy hotels Airlines florence italy hotels topped this year s rankings, winning accolades for its free, low-calorie, high-impact meals, while Southwest Airlines rated the lowest for offering not much in terms of nutritional value.
The survey of the major airlines and their snack and onboard food offerings was conducted by health advocate, florence italy hotels Charles Stuart Platkin. It provides the calorie information of snacks and onboard menu choices and gives each airline a health rating.
Best Bet : For flights of two to three hours, both the Petite Cold Sandwiches florence italy hotels are good options, and Continental even offers light mayo. For breakfast, florence italy hotels skip the calorie-laden muffin and have cereal with low-fat milk and a banana. On flights of more than three hours you get one of the hot sandwiches listed below, a salad (and a Lite Ranch dressing florence italy hotels is offered), as well as a fun-size candy bar.
Health Score : (*** 3/4) American is actually improving slowly, but improving. They got rid of the calorie-heavy oversized 3 Musketeers bar, revamped their Breakfast florence italy hotels Café by taking away the high-calorie muffin and replacing it with oatmeal (OK, it has brown sugar; florence italy hotels but it s still better than a muffin), and the Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bar is now a box of healthy raisins. Good job AA.
Best Bet : Your best bet is the Cheese Cracker Snack Tray. Just skip the cracker packages. The Premium Nut Blend is a strong nutrition choice, but make sure to split it with at least two other people. If you re traveling alone and don't have a lot of willpower, take a third of the nuts and give the rest back to the flight florence italy hotels attendant. Nuts are very high in calories, but the remaining florence italy hotels choices don't offer much in terms of nutrition, and they're just too high in calories. If you re on a longer flight, the Boston Market Chicken Caesar Salad with SunChips and dressing is a pretty good meal choice. Also, it s nice that the dressing is on the side (use it sparingly). If you're flying for three hours or more during breakfast, your only choice florence italy hotels (other than the snacks) is the Breakfast Cafe, which is not too bad.
Health Score : (*** 1/2) United still has the best variety, but their healthful offerings have been reduced. Their individual snacks are very high in calories. If you're traveling more than five hours, they offer snack boxes, florence italy hotels fresh salads and sandwiches, florence italy hotels but the sandwiches and salads are much less health-oriented than the snack boxes.
Best Bet : For flights longer than two hours, go for the Active snack box. Even though it has more calories than the Organic, the Active has better food choices, and if you want to save calories florence italy hotels eat only half the chips. For flights longer than three hours, United has a plethora of choices but not very many that are healthy. For breakfast, your best bet is the low-fat yogurt and fruit. Or you can have the ham and Swiss croissant. At least you ll be getting a good supply of protein, and it s not high in calories. florence italy hotels For lunch and dinner, you'd think the turkey sandwich would be a good choice, but it s the highest in calories. The roast beef sandwich isn't bad in terms of calories, and the salads are both fair choices for a full meal. They're served with dressing on the side, so try to use only half. As far as the individual snacks are concerned, wow, those are some pretty high-calorie items! Stick to the energy bars: At least they re portion controlled. Clearly these snacks are meant to share, but typically we eat whatever we're given, especially florence italy hotels on a long flight.
Health Score : (*** 1/2) The individually packaged snacks are portion-controlled; however, you can ask for as many as you want, and many people do. JetBlue is improving slowly. All their snacks are under 140 calories, which isn't bad. I like the fact that they ve lowered the overall calorie count of their snacks and added a Stella D Oro Breakfast Treat for 100 calories as well as the Fiber Gourmet Cheese Snacks, which are only 50 calories. But JetBlue could be more creative and come up with a few healthier, more innovative snacks. How about a Larabar florence italy hotels energy bar?
Best Bet : If you're really hungry, try the nuts: They have protein and good fat and will satisfy you. Eat them one at a time. The animal crackers are OK but not very nutritious. Try to stick with no more than one snack. Just because they offer more doesn't mean you have to take them, especially if you're not hungry.
Best Bet : If you re traveling 1 1/2 hours or more you can have one of two snack boxes, chips and M Ms or trail mix. Your best bet is the Flight Delight snack box. For breakfast options (on flights of 3 ½ hours or more) Delta offers a fruit and cheese plate. The cheese is very high in calories, but it's still a nice option if you skip the crackers at least you re getting some nutritional benefit from what you re eating. Skip the egg salad wrap at all costs: Between the layered cream cheese and the egg salad, you might gain weight right in the middle of your flight. Ditto the blueberry muffin. For lunch/dinner options, Delta again offers a fruit plate, which is not a bad option. The Asian shrimp salad is also a good choice, especially since the dressing is on the side so you can use it sparingly. Another pretty good option would be the roast chicken sandwich with cheese and dressing, but the honey-mustard florence italy hotels dressing can be high in calories, so don't use too much.
Health Score : (** ½) There are some decent florence italy hotels choices in the snack box, but overall the choices could use a health tune-up. On flights under 2 1/2 hours they offer only pretzels. Not much nutrition there, but at least they're not too high in calories.
Best Bet : The fruit and nut mix is very high in calories, so don't eat more than one or two small handfuls and give the rest away. The chicken salad snack box is not a great choice, but if you must have it, skip the cookies. The salami and cheese box is not much better.
Aside from the boxes, there are a few solid offerings in terms of snacks. Your best bets are probably the Quaker Oatmeal Express or the almonds, if you have someone to share them with or enough willpower to save some for another day. Almonds florence italy hotels are healthy, but each one has 7 calories.
For breakfast the choices are not so great. There's a fruit and cheese platter or a turkey deli club. Although it s not really a breakfast choice, you can pick the turkey off the sandwich to make a healthy snack. The sandwich comes with a side of mayo (skip it for sure) and a cup of strawberry yogurt (too bad it s not low fat). The cheese and fruit plate is not too bad, either, as long as you toss the crackers. For lunch and dinner, go with the Caesar salad, but skip the dressing and use that lemon wedge they give you instead. It s the dressing and to some extent florence italy hotels the cheese that cause the calorie overload. Skip the pastrami sandwich. Not only is it very high in calories on its own, but it's topped off with Thousand Island dressing and a cookie … please.
Ok, the peanuts may not be much, but you can generally rely on Southwest to hand them out even on very short flight. In contrast, I had a 2 hour flight on United today and they only came by once for beverages (no offer of refills and the plane was only half full) and no peanuts, pretzaes, etc.
I don t get the focus on low calories with respect to plane food. When I m travelling I want something that will fill me up and give me energy to last, as you can t always florence italy hotels count on your next meal coming in a timely fashion. florence italy hotels The LAST thing I would want to eat on a long haul flight florence italy hotels is a salad with customs, baggage and airport transfers I often have to go 6 hours between eating on the plane and getting to my home. I ll have the rich chicken pasta and take a mini chocolate bar to nibble on later when the airport bus is late.
Bags of peanuts or any snacks containing peanut products don t provide any nutrition at all for me. Zero, nada. I can t eat them. If I do, I start to die. This is the case for 2% of the rest of the country.
In fact, the possibility that snacks might contain traces of peanut products (even though not mentioned on the label) makes me suspicious of any snacks. I usually can not bring myself to eat ANY airline snacks.
I agree with Anne. Also I fail to see why a turkey sandwitch would be more fattening then aroast beef. Unless of course more calorie laden products were in it. Also for many pssengers peanuts are a serious health issue. If you are careful most of the time you can cheat sometimes.
I always bring my own snacks. Why would I want to pay for unhealthy, unappetizing food served on an airplane. I usually bring a tiny foldable lunch sack with a small blue ice pack in my travel tote if something needs to be cold. With the price of carrying luggage these days, I certainly don t want to pay extra for awful airline food. By the way, if you get those travel zip loc bags for your clothes, where you pack the bag, and sit on it to get the air out, you can get enough for a 2 week trip to Europe in a carry on (unless it s the middle of winter). You can certainly pack enough for a beach vacation without florence italy hotels having to pay the airlines extra for checked luggage.
Personally, I fail to see why the airlines food is even being discussed in this matter. Long gone are the days when you could expect to get a real snack, much less a meal, on the flights. It s pathetic that airlines doll out peanuts and crackers these days, expecting you to pay $5 for a stack of potato chips or a bad of dried fruit. When the airlines return to actually feeding their customers, then I ll worry about the food they re serving me. Until then, I ll nibble on my peanuts in addition to the food that I brought, and refuse to pay exorbitant prices for meager meals .
Was this list prepared by Anorexics United or something? Splitting a bag of airline nuts three ways?  Good Lor