Airport food. Yuk. Everytime I go to the airport, I seem to have the same conversation with myself.. why oh why does it appear to be impossible for the retailers to provide good quality, healthy food? Its a nutritionist’s nightmare. I mean, its not as if they are in the middle of nowhere far from any glimmer of civilisation is it? OK, so there is a Pret in some of them, and I found a Yo Sushi in one of Heathrow’s Terminal in December 2007, but why is it that the majority of other places (dare I call them restaurants) serve up food that is so diabolical its crazy.
This time, flummoxed with choice, I ordered a tuna nicoise salad, and got a dish of soaking wet salad leaves (with nice brown bits), lumps of nasty tinned tuna, olives that were so tasteless I wondered whether they were olives at all and a grey boiled egg whose origin I really didn’t want to think about. All for the bargain price of £9. Daylight robbery.
Tuna Nicoise - How it should look!
Coming back was worse. The ‘restaurant area’/canteen was devoid of any custom and all the food was so congealed it was food poisoning in waiting, so I decided to go to the coffee shop/pub/sandwich bar option, and had a ham, cheese and tomato panini, which was only just edible – amazing how toasting something can make it passable, when you’re desperate to eat. Luckily they stocked Innocent’s juicy water so at least I got some vitamins out of that meal.
Looks marginally better than my one!
It just upsets me that in this day and age when there is so much coverage from the government on healthy eating and its not that difficult to cater with better ingredients, that there are still companies who obviously don’t care about anything except the bottom line. We are sitting ducks in airports, there is so little choice and when hungry, you are forced to eat the least worst thing in order to quell that hunger. The thing is in preparation for going on a trip I’m usually in a rush and forget to eat substantially, and all the waiting around makes me peckish… and that’s if the flight isn’t at a strange time. And to top it off they always charge ridiculous prices for this non-food. Grrr.
The food you get is generally sandwich or starch-based, often high saturated fat & high sugar; so it will make blood sugar levels go out of kilter. Because you’re off on holiday, or excited you may not drink enough fluid; and if you have have kids then tempers are more likely to be frayed and the trip gets started off on the wrong foot. Or you become lethargic, tired and generally grumpy until you reach your destination and can relax – or if you’re away with work as I can be, its hard to get your brain focused because of the poor nutrition that you are subjected to in the airports.
I don’t know the answer, its a tough one. Would lobbying the companies make the food more healthy? I don’t know, as there are such massive economics at play. But I’m not asking them to change the wheel, only to provide their customers with food that is worthy of the highly inflated costs that they charge. I would like to see the larger restaurants and brands to use quality ingredients, and consider the level of saturated fats, sugar and starch that they have in their food offerings at the very least. Surely its not too much to ask?!
If Jamie Oliver can challenge the catering system with regards to schools, why should other areas not be challenged too? Airports, motorway service stations, train stations are all culprits… its only fair that when we are paying through the nose for food we have to buy because we have no other choice, that we actually get something which will provide a little something towards our health rather than paying for food that is detrimental to it.
Eating Well in a World of Temptation 