Eating on the road: Possible to eat healthy while traveling

Whether you're on vacation or you're a seasoned business traveler living out of a suitcase most of the week, you still need to eat three healthy meals a day.

It is possible to eat healthfully while traveling; it just takes planning. One way to keep from succumbing to whipping through a fast-food drive through because you're time-crunched and starving is to carry healthy snacks with you, either in your briefcase on board a plane, or in a cooler in your vehicle.

Whether you're driving or flying, pack along some fruits and vegetables, string cheese, bottled or boxed juices and nuts. If you're driving, keep a cooler in the back seat and place in it plenty of bottled water, vegetable dips, cartons of milk and juice, and fresh vegetables that have been prepared for travel, according to the web site Associated Content.com. Some other healthy food choices while traveling are energy bars, fig bars, whole fruits, peanut butter crackers, raisins, and trail mix.

Healthy snacks will stave off hunger and take hunger desperation out of the search for a place to eat. It will give you the opportunity to find a buffet or a restaurant where you can order healthful meal choices.

Snacks are also very important when you are traveling, as you may often find yourself in places where no food is available. When packing snacks for your pockets, briefcase or backpack, choose healthy options like pretzels, rice cakes, low fat mozzarella, or nuts.

Water is key to maintaining a nutritious diet, and staying hydrated is very important for your body and mind. Depending on you travel destination, local water may not be safe to drink, so carry safe bottled water with you at all times. You can even keep water chilled while traveling in an airplane by placing a frozen "chill pack" in a plastic lined tote bag along with several bottles of water, according to the Associated Content.

In an earlier issue of Business Today, local dietitians Lea Anne Lambert of Southeast Hospital and Janet Anders of Saint Francis Medical Center offered suggestions for eating on the run that bear repeating.

While eating out, on the road or at home, salads are a good choice only if they're heavier on vegetables than they are on add-ons, such as eggs, meat, croutons and cheese. And go easy on the dressing - no more than a tablespoon or two.

Lambert and Anders both suggest asking for dressing on the side and dipping your fork in it prior to taking a forkful of salad to avoid eating too much dressing.

Salads can also be a good choice when ordering in a fast-food restaurant, as long as you use only half the dressing and keep it as fresh as possible. So can sub sandwiches, as long as they're loaded with lean meat and vegetables instead of cheese and mayonnaise. A six-inch sub sandwich made with ham and vegetables, no cheese and no mayonnaise, has 290 calories, Lambert said, 300 calories less than a Big Mac.

If all you have time for is a quick run through a fast food drive-through and you're going to gobble it down in the car, then choose a small hamburger and have only a few french fries, the dietitians say. A small order of fries has 210 calories, compared to 450 for a medium-sized order. Lambert said by eating smaller orders, you can save quite a few calories and fat grams than if you succumb to the temptation to super size your meal.

When you're sitting down to lunch or dinner, avoid anything fried. Grilled lean meat, such as turkey, chicken or fish, is a healthful choice. Ask for butter and sour cream on the side so you'll put less of them on your baked potato. Grilled vegetables on the side are also a good choice, but some restaurants will spray them with butter or oil after they come off the grill. Ask the waiter to request that the chef avoid that.

Fresh fruit is always a good choice for dessert. Travelers can either pack some with them or stop at a grocery store and buy a couple of apples or pears to munch on as they continue their trip.