Fly Paleo (ish)

Eating out while trying to stay paleo can sometimes be challenging, and while travelling long distance perhaps even more. Of course you can bring your own food, but when you need to fly 15-20+ hours, you might want to enjoy a hot meal as well.

In a previous post we already tried to outline the different types of airline meals, to see which ones would be possibly the best fit for the paleo diet. Conclusion was that the GFML (Gluten Free) would most likely be best, and during recent travels, we put it to the test. Our mail goal was to avoid wheat as much as possible, since wheat causes us to feel bloated and uncomfortable, and you don't want to feel bloated and uncomfortable on long flights. Or short ones.

So for our travel to Asia (which took us 26 hours in total) we were served GFML meals on all flights and where possible, we took pictures and notes. Below, 3 examples:

Meal 1:

Salmon in dill sauce with carrot, broccoli & potato.
Of course you can never be sure what's in the sauce, but since you need to loosen the reins a bit anyway, we weren't too fussed about it. Potato is still in the grey zone, so overall this was a pretty good meal.

Meal 2

Gluten free obviously doesn't mean dairy free, so chances are you might get some of that along the way. This time it was chicken with the carrot, broccoli & potato combo. Additions were a salad topped with ham, piece of Gouda cheese and real butter (not margarine) The crackers were a mistake in this one.

Meal 3

This time it was beef in a mustard sauce, mashed potato & green beans. Again pretty tasty, unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice.











Conclusion?

If you don't have too many issues with dairy (since it might be added to your meal in some way) the GFML is a decent choice. We did however felt that the meals were a bit less creative and a bit stingy, compared to the other passengers there were fewer items on the tray for example.
The starch part of the meals was often potato, but you might get rice on some occasions, so decide for yourself if you are ok-ish with that for the time being or eat around it.
Breakfasts were usually eggs, and we'd just skip the offered bread roll. Either way it's always a good idea to bring some snack along, visit this page for ideas.

Travel details: Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur - Denpasar with Malysia Airlines.
These articles are written based on the personal experiences of the author(s).