Whether it is during the winter, spring, summer or fall, someone out there is traveling. Being away from home, whether for business or pleasure, almost always means a change in our typical routines.

All of a sudden we have to account for things like new sleeping arrangements, new currencies, where we shop, how we spend our time and perhaps most importantly what we eat.

If you are health conscious and have ever traveled to a new area, whether by plane or by other means, you know first hand that eating healthy can be quite a challenge. It is not hard to eat, if someone just wants to fill their belly. Pretty much no matter where you travel to today on the planet, fast food is abundant in even the most remote locations. However, if one is looking for high quality, nutrient dense, fresh food, that becomes a whole other story.

I personally love to travel and see new places, but ever since I have embarked on a health conscious journey, the one thing that has started to become a real challenge is just that – what to eat when away from home.

Thus today, I want to share with you some of my tips and ideas of how to eat healthy no matter where or how you travel.

Eating During the Transportation

Before we get to our destination, we have to consider the transportation that is going to take us there and whether we will need to eat on it or not. For short trips, like 1 to 3 hours, most of us may get away without needing to eat anything. However, any longer trip will usually require some sort of food. So let’s examine a few options:

By Air Plane

Air plane food is mediocre at best. A typical “dinner” includes some form of warm dish, a very hard bun, possibly some small portion of vegetables and typical sweet dessert, like a cookie or brownie. Pretty much all of these items are heavily processed. In fact current meals on flights are sponsored by famous food and fast food companies.

When I first changed to being vegetarian, I requested a vegetarian option on a plane. While it was vegetarian, it was one of those microwave bowl meals that is loaded with sodium and additives – clearly not a healthy choice. These days I pass up air plane food and make my own arrangements.

What I do, and recommend to do if you want to eat healthy is to bring your own food. While most countries will not allow any food, especially fruits and vegetables to enter their country, you are allowed to bring these items on the plane to eat. You can cut up some fresh fruits and vegetables to eat on the plane. You can bring some nuts and seeds. You can even bring some kind of a veggie wrap or sandwich. Finally and perhaps one of the easiest things, and ones that you can bring into other countries with you, are closed bars, like the various all natural fruit and nut energy bars.

By Train

I have never travelled long distance on trains, so I cannot comment on the quality of the food. However, my recommendation would be to bring your own again. This way you are accountable for your own food and can enjoy the experience that you are getting proper nourishment while you travel.

By Car

This is perhaps the easiest to take care of as you have several options. You can bring your own food, or stop at a grocery store along the way to pick up food at any time, or you can stop at a “healthy” restaurant. The last option is more rare, but depending on where you are, you may be lucky to find a suitable food establishment.

Eating On Location

How you are going to eat once you get there, depends a lot on where you are and your accommodations. The easiest way to eat healthy while on any kind of vacation is to have a room with some kind of kitchenette. If this is not available, it is still very much possible to eat healthy, as you can go mostly raw very easily.

All-Inclusive Resorts

The upside of all-inclusive resorts is that if you are at a 4 or 5 star resort, there is usually enough choice to pick something healthy and diverse to eat. The downside of these resorts is that if you are very seriously health conscious, and depending on the resort you may still find insufficient healthy choices. This may become even more problematic if you are vegan, as even most vegetarian choices include, some form of dairy or eggs.

For example, last year when I went to a well rated all-inclusive resort, the choice of fresh fruits and vegetables was very poor. Any bread, pasta or rice products available were white.  When beans were available, naturally they were canned, not freshly cooked. These are just some of the things one has to consider.

Naturally on such vacations, one may have to make some choices whether they will sacrifice or gravitate away from typical eating patterns and how much. While some people may be okay with that, for me personally at this time it would not make for a great vacation, if I have to sacrifice most of my food quality.

Hotels or Resorts Without Included Food

When you are responsible for your own food, your choices are much more in your own hands. While it is way too easy for many people on vacations or even business trips to go down to the local fast food joint, whether it be for breakfast, lunch or dinner, other choices can be made. One just has to be conscious and make a commitment to healthy eating.

Depending on what kind of budget you are on, you can choose to buy and prepare your own foods and/or pick some high quality food establishments for meals. The latter option naturally gets very pricey.

My personal favorite today when traveling, is making sure that I have a local grocery store or food market near by and preparing my own food. This way I know what I am choosing, what it has and how it was prepared. I have a better control over things like types and amounts of fats, amount of sodium and amounts of proper nutrients. This also makes me stray away from typical eating patterns the least.

On my most recent vacation for example, I had no kitchenette available, but this still did not hinder me in any way from eating as high quality food as possible for each breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the photo below, you can see the types of food that can easily be chosen as healthy choices, and ones that do not require refrigeration or any type of time hindering or special preparation. This type of eating plan is ideal for vegans, vegetarians and those who are interested in eating highly raw.

On this type of eating plan, sacrifices and deviations from my normal eating were minimal and ones I was comfortable enough with. While I could not have my daily green smoothies, I was still able to eat greens. Instead of freshly cooked or sprouted beans, I opted for canned beans and rinsed them before eating to reduce the sodium levels.  My vacation food as seen in the photo revolved around various fresh fruits and vegetables, canned beans, whole grain pita breads, unsalted nuts, all-natural salsa, dates and Lara Bars (brought from home). There was even some hummus, as well as the odd portion of organic almond and soy milks. In terms of drinks – there was really only and always just one – water. In this case it was bottled, which I normally would never do back home, but chose to resort to under these circumstances, despite that the tap water was chlorinated. I just don’t “enjoy” tap water without any personal filtering.

I cannot tell you how easy it was to eat this way! Not only was it great for one’s budget, but the best part of this type of eating is that I felt amazing after every meal. I didn’t have to cringe after meals of hold any guilt or unpleasant feelings that I was putting really any junk in my body. It made for such a great vacation, as food was always and easily available and food that I trust to nourish my body well.

On a side note too, my latest vacation was in fact to an island in the Caribbean, hence I want to dispel a certain myth. It seems that most people carry around this “idea” not to eat any fruits or vegetables when traveling to the Caribbean. Funny that they don’t think to hold back on animal flesh or alcohol, but on fresh fruits and vegetables. While I am well aware that in some places water quality may not be fit for drinking, I think that it is a huge disservice to omit all fruits and vegetables. I have personally eaten fruits and vegetables freely in many so called “questionable” places and have never once gotten sick. If really in doubt, one can always wash their produce with bottled water.

One last thing I want to share with you, here is what one of my typical breakfasts looked like:

Pictured in the photo are: coconut (healthy fats), plain peanuts (protein), dates (protein/carbs), banana (carbs), tomatoes (carbs), carrots (carbs), lettuce (carbs) and of course all fully loaded with various vitamins and minerals. (In brackets are the main macro-nutrients.)

Camping

A typical myth that surrounds camping trips is that food is mostly canned and revolves around meat cooked on the fire. As with other types of trips, it is all about the choices one chooses to make.

Even without a fridge it is very possible to eat fresh and healthy, even while on camping trips. Fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and minimal canned food can be a very easy thing to achieve on camping trips. If you eat meat, the quality of the meat should also be considered. Avoid hot dogs and sausages, and pick items like organic, free-range chicken or beef if meat eating is a must.

On long term hiking trips, the food situation gets a bit more tricky, but even than some fruits and vegetables that don’t spoil quickly can be chosen. Another great thing to always have on hand are the all natural fruit and nut bars.

Conclusion

While traveling, whether for business or pleasure, many people find that this is a time when it is okay for proper eating to go out the window. Many of us even say things like, “this is a time to treat myself“.

However, what always gets lost in this translation is that abusing your body with fast food, over-eating, drinking alcohol, unhealthy fats, unhealthy carbs and ample amounts of protein and sweets is no treat for your body. This in fact is the perfect breeding ground for feeling ill or getting sick with something, especially if in places where risks for new diseases are present.

Hence, my advice is definitely to go out there, explore and enjoy the world, but don’t diminsh the importance of healthy eating at these times. By nature, traveling usually takes a toll on the body, and this is perhaps one of the most important times when the body should be supported with high-quality nourishment.

Ultimately eating can be made as easy and healthy as you choose to make it.

Wishing you Happy and Healthy Travels!

*Photograph 1 provided by elward-photography

About the author:
Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN - is a certified holistic nutritionist, biologist, educator, writer, researcher and speaker in the areas of health, science and holistic wellness. She is a nutritional science expert and her teaching and writing focus on natural, wholesome, plant-based and organic nutrition to achieve optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.