“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” – Helen Keller
Who does not find travel enchanting? Who can imagine a life without travel, when as the quote above goes, life itself is an adventure. Traveling is the most important and wonderful thing that can happen to someone. By the word travel, people usually mean wandering off to places far, far away or some foreign country. But travel may not necessarily involve traveling to distant places and foreign locations. Travel has nothing to do with it. A person may go hiking for a weekend and call it to travel. Or visit some caves of ancient times and call it an adventure. Traveling, therefore, can be an adventure within your state, without traveling afar and abroad.
The effect and benefits of traveling aren’t just physical, but also psychological because sometimes, instead of going about your old, cyclical life fit into a routine, you can escape all the workload, difficult kids, the way how your parents want you to live a life according to them. Yes, an individual does need a holiday from all such things and take things off his mind.
Besides, every single place, irrespective of its propinquity from each other, inevitably has different cultures of their own. Something, certain people travel for. When you travel to places, you come in contact with some new cultures and traditions that are sometimes different and fundamentally unique altogether and coming in contact with such new cultures can be the most adventurous thing that can ever happen to you.
Speaking of cultures, when you come across various cultures, you also come across various food items. One of the best things about travel is that you get to try all kinds of food items you ever never tasted in life. Hence, traveling is a treat for foodies. Finally, traveling increases your social network, which today is, as important as anything. People from all nooks and corners of the world travel to exquisite places and when you meet such people, you increase your social circle and network where people are unlike the ones in your daily life, have nothing to do with it.
Now that’s all about travel and its merits. When you travel, you have to be careful about some important stuff. Stuff related to your health and wellness because bad times can kick in uncalled and unexpectedly, making arrangements for a travel medical insurance necessary and not just a normal travel medical insurance but travel insurance abroad.
One needs to start thinking about avoiding health issues, right from the packing stage because travel can also affect your immune system. Yes, juxtaposing its nature, traveling can cause stress mostly because of the attempt by most people to cover a lot of things as soon as possible and as much as possible. This stress can affect the immune system and make you susceptible to sickness. Following this, is a list of things to do, to avoid getting sick during travel and food safety tips or travel safety tips as one may call it.
- Since traveling involves mostly eating from outside, to stay healthy throughout the trip is a must and for this purpose, one should plan the whole diet well in advance, just to remain well-nourished while traveling. What this will do is slash the chances of making impulsive and last moment eating decisions that are often poor choices and the reason behind your health problems.
- Similarly, problems related to eating, while at the destination, can be tackled by starting with a salad or broth-based soup. Looking for proteins and vegetables to eat for food safety and hygiene.
- Eating grilled food, instead of fried is always the way to go. Steering clear of Buffet’s and ask for tomatoes, onions, and lettuce.
- Drinking water with lemon or ice is always suggested for a healthy journey.
- Staying hydrated
When you travel, you are mostly exposed to the sun, which therefore becomes the primary rule, to stay hydrated. Drinking lots of water is key to good hygiene during travel. Alcohol, soda or other drinkables cannot replace water, so carrying water bottles of your own is another important thing because dehydration can result in a drop in major energy levels. Thus, 16 ounces with each meal are suggested to remaining completely hydrated while traveling.
2. Lessening The Number of Meals
Eating a balanced diet every time you eat outside is always the right choice. Vegetables, lettuce, healthy carbs and proteins are advised because this keeps your body energized unless you are at a restaurant that is popular for a particular dish. Therefore, having all kinds of nutritional food while traveling is important. Having fruits can also help maintain the nutrients in the body. Fruits can be eaten instead of complete meals to avoid getting sick during travel- it is a great step towards food hygiene.
- Shopping at a local grocery store
Preparing food with your own hands is always healthy. So you can look for local grocery stores while looking for booking a place. One should always look for grocery stores and a chain of restaurants near to the booking place. Looking for a hospital or at least a clinic in the vicinity can also help at desperate times. Buying avocados, onions, eggs, pepper, spinach, and preparing food on your own for lunch is a great idea to avert sickening situations while traveling
- Having small meals
Having small meals, every two to three hours is also very helpful. But these meals should not consist of junk, but nuts, yogurt or veggies. This is just to keep the hunger at bay because when you have food after long periods, you are most likely to pick up something unhealthy.
- Diet on the plane
Most flights do not offer a lot of healthy products, therefore you can plan the diet to stay on track with a balanced diet and instead of spending unnecessarily on salty, expensive food items at the airport and shops nearby, which is junk. Carrying proteins, nuts, and healthy carbs along with you can help you a long way and you can avoid so many diseases. Thus, when on a plane, you can go with rice cakes with almond butter, hummus, whole fruit or protein bars.
- Meals at the hotel
If there are supermarkets or grocery stores near your hotel, there is nothing like it because preparing food at your hotel room is yet another healthy habit. You can buy stuff like milk, veggies, whole grain cereals, and bread so that you don’t have to go out in the middle of the night to munch junk food that is out there.
- Meals while dining
If your vacation rental provides you with kitchen facilities, it becomes much easier to stay on track. Modern vacation rentals nowadays can make kitchen facilities available for you and in such cases, you can prepare food at your house itself which is again a healthy preference. Therefore, food items that you can dine with are steamed vegetables, brown rice, tofu, egg salad, and whole-grain pasta.
- Not to skip the breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. While on a work trip, People usually tend to skip breakfast which is meant to control the metabolism of the body. This can also lead to dehydration. Besides this, people on business trips should also mind the amount of coffee intake. This is because although coffee from a nearby coffee shop may sound delightful and just what a stressed person requires to resume work, the amount of calorie and sugar intake can shoot up unimaginably.
Now, Here’s What You Call A Healthy Travel Food
1. Banana Chips
Banana chips are easily available in the market and can also be made at home and are just a treat for the taste buds. These chips can be stored well in an air-tight container and can be eaten while traveling. Banana chips are very healthy too. Thus, including these chips in your diet can help you a long way to maintain a healthy diet. Every 100 grams of banana chips consist of 2.3 grams of protein and 400 calories maintaining the food hygiene as well.
2. Muffins and Cookies
Baked items are not unhygienic if baked at home. So if you are fond of baking already, baking cookies or biscuits to carry while traveling is a good option for snacks. Besides, these baked cookies or biscuits can stay edible for weeks together as they are baked at home only.
- Mixed Seeds
Irregular hunger strikes are a problem when food safety and hygiene are concerned. But when you carry fruits and nuts along with you, this problem can be tackled too while traveling. Watermelon seeds, chia seeds, and pumpkin seeds can be eaten along the way and are a huge source of energy. Adding nuts with these seeds can be an incredible source of energy and can also act as antioxidants.
4. Black Pepper Popcorn
Popcorn is one of the best snacks that you can carry and munch while traveling. Instead of buying popcorns from a store, cooking them at home serves the purpose of maintaining your health as well. Popcorns are the best snack for a road trip.
5. Bread Dhoklas
Made out of a batter of Rava and bread crumbs, this Indian snack is another popular and hygienic snack that can be carried with you on any kind of trip or adventure. Since these are of course homemade, the bread dhoklas are light to digest fulfilling the purpose of food health and safety.
- Cheese Crackers
Cheese crackers are an amazing snack for a journey. This snack can be made more nutritious by substituting them with whole-grain crackers and onion powder, season them nicely with grated cheddar. Therefore, these crackers are also an incredible, healthy and hygienic snack for a journey.
- Vegetable Chips
Vegetable chips are better than potato chips. Potato chips are oily and are considered as junk. On the other hand, vegetable chips can be made out of vegetables like carrot, beetroots or parsnips.
- Green Chutney Sandwich
A chutney sandwich is an Indian dish, which is best suited for travel (especially road trips) and can be made easily. This dish is better than the street food which most people prefer as a result of the last moment planning of the trip. It can be stored in an airtight container as well, and can thus remain fresh for three to four hours.
Besides all these snacks, whole wheat almond cookies, Sooji porridge or the Poha porridge is some of the travel food for babies, that can be contained inside an airtight container.
Important Accessories To Take Along
Along with fruits, snacks, nuts, and veggies, carrying accessories such as forks, spoons and knives, and cloths, which are considered to be travel-friendly accessories can help you eat the food you have brought with ease. Apart from this, carrying a soap or a travel hand sanitizer to sanitize yourself is perhaps another hygienic habit. Taking your own airtight containers or coffee mug can save expenses as well as serve as a hygienic habit. Apart from these, a travel food container can help you contain all the food. Airtight containers are usually used for this purpose.
Treating yourself deliberately
Being on a trip, an adventure is something that is meant to act as a stress buster. But if you can’t eat what you want on an adventure trip, the travel can become bland. Therefore, what can be done is that you can have only one meal, not to satiate the hunger, but to quench the thirst of the heart. Having what you crave for can fill the adventure with memories. This will lead to two major things. You will be able to eat what you desire during just that one meal and at the same time, having one meal inconsistent with your balanced diet won’t hamper your whole routine. Thus, treating yourself is necessary to make the travel memorable.
Conclusion
Food and safety are thus two pillars of a healthy body which is to be treated with utter care and with the emergence of new and fatal diseases, precarious actions can serve you a long way.
Explore Traveler wishing you all happy and safe travels!