How to eat healthy while travelling
I remember how, when I was young, we used to pack up all our meals and sufficient water when we travelled, be it by rail or road. Those days are mostly gone. These days look around in the train bogey and you see most people buying food and beverages on the train, or bringing packed take away foods.
Some things have changed for the better. Bottled water being made available anywhere now reduces the burden of having to carry one’s own boiled water from home.
But dependency on hotels and restaurants, and fast food while travelling can make your dieting schedule go on a roller coaster ride and create some unhealthy events.
So what should one eat while travelling?
Keeping in mind the ease of both carrying and eating, and hygiene, these are the tips I have come up with. Take a look.
Quantity: Firstly plan ahead for how many meals you need to pack your food. For journeys longer than a day it may not be possible to carry all your food so some dependency on what is available at station food booths is required.
Quality: Choose simple foods easily carried and eaten. Eat light as you don’t have physical activity while travelling. It also helps not to over eat spicy or greasy foods especially if you are prone to travelling sickness or gas due to prolonged sitting or tummy upsets.
Beverages: Use bottled water or packet juices and milk. These are easily available at all bus or train stations. When the train or bus makes a stop, stock drinks for the next leg of the journey. What to avoid are ice, ice pops, Ice creams, fresh juices, any beverage that is not packed or bottled
Fruits: Since the hygiene of your hands are questionable while travelling in trains or long distance buses, it is best to take fruits like banana or loose jacket oranges that are peeled and eaten. Unless you are carrying your own grapes, or apples, it is best to avoid these from stations. Always bananas are the best and most available throughout India.
Snacks: Carry nuts, packets of biscuits, toffee or energy bars as snacks.
Main meals: Rather than eat a full meal like thaali or a heavy meal like biriryani it is best to choose breakfast items like idis or sandwiches. Having said that, my personal favourite for an overnight journey is curds rice carried from home. I find it light on my tummy and I eat it with a disposable spoon. Pack it thickly made so that it does not ooze out.
For longer journeys, the traditional flatbread khakhra is a nutritious food to carry. For children a loaf of regular bread made into jam, cheese or chutney sandwiches is great. But eat them in the order of spoilage. This means chutneys first, then cheese and then jam. Sandwiches are good as both breakfast and dinner foods. Again jam, butter and bread are easily available. Please check the date of expiry on the loaf though.
Non vegetarians: If you are a staunch non vegetarian, then I suggest hard boiled eggs, deep fried anchovies or dried fish. I am not sure if your co travellers would object to the smell of fish in the compartment, but surprisingly, anchovies that are fried crisp to the bone, do not emit much smell and they last a couple of days. They may be eaten with any kind of bread.
Surprise tip: Interesting fact about aval or poha – For those with mild urinary incontinence, a handful of poha or aval eaten dry will help you a great deal when travelling overnight by road where toilet facilities may not be easily reached.
Parvathy R Krishnan
The author is a trained Nutrition & Dietetics expert with over 20 years’ of experience in hospitals like Vijaya Hospital in Chennai and the Armed Forces Hospital and New Mowasat Hospitals in Kuwait. She is presently a member of the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India. Parvathy blogs at http://premadiet.blogspot.in/
More by this author:
How to reduce cholesterol in the Indian diet
Dieting tips for those at work
Image: Flickr mccun934
Tags: healthy eating tips for travellers, nutrition, Parvathy Radhakrishnan, Sify Health, travel food
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how to avoid curd rice getting soar (pulithu pogamal irukka) , for long travels. how to prepare. request a tip…thnks…
Ram, Follow the tips in the same order. ( I travel thousands of kilometers from East to South often by train).
1. Cook rice with litttle less water than usual ( Saadham loose, udhri udhriya irrukanum)
2. After cooking, make it cool by spreading it in a wider plate (Don’t keep food below a fan for cooling)
3. After rice is cooled to room temperature, add MILK (Not curd) and mix to get a solid milk rice. (Not Loose. Gettiya irukanum)
4. Add half teaspoon of curd to this rice and again mix it well. (Don’t use hand preferably, for mixing. Use a hard sppon , karandi, instead)
5. pack in a Press-Seal Polythene bag.
6. Keep pickles/ maa vadu separetly. Don’t put it with curd rice.
HAPPY Travelling !!1
Thank you for the input, Subbu.
Hi,
I have had the experience of travelling extensively for more than 40 years. I suggest carry packed biryanis/ chicken curry/ veg (as spicy as you like ) for the first meal on board. Therafter as far as possible have samosas, kachauris etc but ensure they are blistering hot. The food given by the in train caterers is also not bad. I Have always had warm food in trains and railway stations. Never once have I faced any problem. other people who want to make their journey miserable can follow the advice of the author.
Anil
Anil,
Just because U find travelling better with Spicey food , Don’t critise others. It is a very bad manners !!! If some one follows your advice and felt miserable during their journey, they can call u also as NUTS !!!
Thank you Parvathy. Very good information. Nothing like home made food for the travel, if you want to enjoy the destination of the journey. All regions of India has so much variety of food choices and recipes, which raise to every occasion which includes travel.
Really disappointing info.
I am a frequent traveller travelling across india since last 12 years. There are some wrong food suggestions from a professional really makes one skeptical about the basics. Viz- Curd rice for a night meal.
Curd / Butter milk and a Rice a deadly combination for people who are growing grey. Sour taste food should be avoided during night and for Rice at night is a strict NO NO where india is becoming ( or became?) Diebetic capital of world. Rice during night meal should be avoided as it gluten value is high- now i.e. it releases sugar for a longer period of time to your blood. NOT GOOD.
Idli and sandwiches are sold with chutteney / butter. Chutneys to be avoided again for a breeding ground of many bacteria. No one on train/bus stand serves steamed Idlis; Idlis piping hot with Hot sambar, if available should be the first choice though.
Fruits- Peeled of skin fruits should be chosen, but now a days so much of Wax on Apples, Powdered/ Chemical Dipped ripened Bannas are a silent killer for the food lover. Fruit merchant are either neglect or a part of the practice. One can really choose fruits from vendors on board who are bringing the fruits from their own yards or Jungle like Aadivasi.
Fruit Juices are best – packed as well as prepared before you without ICE.
Mineral / Bottled water- Many train catering contractors are selling spurious refilled bottles. One should always choose to buy from Platform authorised contractors for a renowned Brands than to a local brands.
Now What I do ( can be followed as per choice)- Train travel route has some major stations/junctions where organised caterers have been given licenses to operate. They serve hot dishes/Thalis/other Lunch items (free delivery) on board if a seat/berth/bogie no is provided before 1 hr or so reaching the station, This can be checked before starting a journey and if some1 is a regular traveller it is must.
Where these things are not available then near by hotels provide food packets delivered on Train also. Even these are not available then one can observe the regular commuters on “short routes” from whom they buy and what items- Mostly Poha, Upma, Idli (still opt without chutney), Wada (variety).
Otherwise all packed chivadas, Theplas, juices are cool.
SOmetimes its really takes a breaveheart to buy on a running bus/train from unknown source to keep going. But with a caution*. health is wealth.
Be safe than sorry/worry.
Kiran,
From your reply, I gather you have misunderstood the author on some grounds.
1. Its quite clearly written that travelling isn’t limited to train travel – you could even be on a long drive to a remote town in a route unknown to you, when you wouldn’t have the luxury of buying from “authourised caterers”. So you would have to plan ahead and pack your meals yourself.
2. The author merely wishes to get the reader thinking about what to “PACK” while going on a journey and suggestions for foods that can be bought. In my 11 years of travel, I have seen people eat burgers, biscuits, chips, maggi noodles etc. to fill their stomachs while travelling. This article seems to be for the benefit of these people who would want to rethink if they are eating healthy. If the reader is confident that his diet aboard a journey is healthy and suits his digestive system fine, then I’m sure the author has no intention to oppose her views on such readers, such as eating curd rice!