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Airline Diabetic catering

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desertbear42

Member
I am on a mission to convert British Airways to do something about their poor catering for Diabetics.

I can catalogue a whole range of awful and inappropriate meals served to me as a Diabetic but it is rather pointless. Let me simply highlight one flight last week on 13th November LHR to Muscat . The starter course was a prawn cocktail which is fine and was on the general menu anyway. The main diabetic course was chicken and rice ! – so the excellent Cabin Crew lass brought me some Chicken curry and vegetables from First Class instead. For afternoon tea there was nothing offered specific to for diabetics and at the sight of a scone, strawberry jam and clotted cream I almost fainted... I left the flight after 9 hours starving. Flying long haul and particularly long overnight flights crossing many time zones sends my BG levels all over the place and always takes 3 or 4 days to settle back down again, so any help from airlines to cater for us properly would be really welcome.

Last night flying back, the snacks offered were standard – only one of which I could eat. The diabetic breakfast was some awful boiled chicken with potatoes so again I declined and instead had the fresh fruit and English breakfast which is a perfectly good option for any diabetic.

I don’t know why their dietician advisors cannot be more imaginative and produce food that is appetising and nourishing. A spinach salad with perhaps stilton cheese; poached salmon with salad and vegetables and for snacks perhaps some fruit or crudités. Doesnt seem to me that difficult. Currently they seem to put the Low Card, Bland, Diabetic meals into one.

Thanks for reading..

Desertbear42
 
The airlines may not have a nutrition advisers - as a Dietitian I do keep an eye on the jobs market and have never seen one advertised.

Ally
 
I doubt if there would be more than 1 in 10 diabetics who could agree on a diet so what chance does an airline have, the chicken and rice would have done me, I doubt that there was much rice anyway and the cabin staff dont make you 'eat it all up' do they?

Have to agree that boiled chicken and potatoes seems a very strange choice for breakfast, but I bet you there is a diabetic somewhere who would think, "Umm great".

A diabetic diet does not exist that is OK for everyone so if you have a specific diet requirement ie low carb you should ask for that in advance, you cant expect an airline to second guess your particular diet IMHO.
 
I agree with Sid. There is no one diet suitable for a Diabetic......

I have a Diabetic friend who frequently travels all over the World. She just contacts the Airline in advance of travel, gives a list of requirements and gets exactly what she wants on every flight. She has never had any problems. I think it just needs some forward planning ......
 
Whenever I have traveled by air (holidays only) I always make a point of informing the travel agent about my type 1 diabetes, more often they will ask do I require a special diet as most airlines do cater for people with specific dietary needs, but as I inject inject insulin and can adjust my dose accordingly to the food I eat I don't normally bother the airline involved.

So what I would do in future is notify the airline and request a meal according to your own dietary needs and when boarding notify the crew in advance to save a lot of hassle. Good luck!

Nigel
 
It is a joke, on my way to Canada last year with Thomas Cook, for my tea I was given two oranges and a banana, that was it, how sugary was that! Even better, Air Canada a year or so ago did not provide me with any thing even though I had prebooked, the male flight attendant was really snotty, saying it was not on his list as booked and he could not help, a female flight attendant took compassion on me and rustled me a kids gluten free meal! I may not expect from a charter flight, but a big organisation like Air Canada should have given better service, don't they know that diabetics need to eat :?
 
My daughter has a wheat intolerance, so is great fun when we eat out together - and what is it lately that local petrol stations keep trying to sell me Galaxy Chocolate bars for £1! This is becoming quite a norm around here - never did like Galaxy even when not diabetic LOL
 
I'm not too concerned on a short haul flight because I can last a few hours without inflight catering, have a decent meal before flying and/or take some mixed nuts e.g.
Bit more tricky on a long haul. I usually do eat most of whats offered but leave biscuits, cakes and other obvious sweet things alone. Purely for medicinal reasons I'll have a small bottle of red with the meal too + plenty of water. Must admit I've never tested during a flight. Would be interesting to do that next time.
Worth trying what Cugila suggested but as I always fly cattle class I'm not sure if the airline would respond to my requests!
 
Add into being diabetic also being vegatarian and wheat intolerant and I do not even expect to be catered for any more. I eat the veg or salad and take nuts with me and a bar of green and backs 85% dark chocolate which has 15gm carb and with nuts will substitute for 2 meals.

The one and only time I asked for diabetic food, I was given a yogurt with more sugar in it than a bar of chocolate!! I've never bothered since, realising that the average person's knowledge of nutition is zero and sadly this too often includes the catering proffesionals.

I remeber one special occasion, I was out with a friend who had taken the trouble to speak with the chef and had arranged a suitable meal - and it was lovely until we got to desert. When the chef had decided that the plain merengue with cream requested, was not necesary and had made a fresh fruit salad instead. He didn't see the problem it was fruit in pure fruit juice - not sugar! But fruit spikes my BG very badly,

As has been said as diabetics we are too different in our bodies and ways of dealing with it, to come up with suitable menu for everyone.
 


And not just the petrol station, there is alarge chain of news/stationery/book sellers who try and flog you cheap sweets at the till every time.
 
Again, surely you would just make a good choice regards what you have of a flight menu???? Same as you would if you ate out-surely?
 
Thanks for your comments. The crowning glory was a long haul last week to Singapore and BA offered me a scone with clotted cream and strawberry Jam for afternoon tea. I would like to meet their dietician advisors....I forgot to mention in my original comments that I do register with BA each flight for a diabetic menu and it is simply that with so much good food out there, they serve food to us that is not only unappetising and bland, but with no imagination either. I've got to the stage where I now don't bother registering for a special menu - I pick and choose from whatever is available. My BS after long haul flights - and I do on average about 6 a month - are all over the place and always take a day or two to settle back down. Thanks again for your comments.
 
As a veggie T2 I take my own food now, I have had so many problems.
Last time I flew I checked with the cabin crew as I boarded so they knew where I was seated.

When the lunch came round I was offered the meat and vegs, when I asked what was going on I was
told that they had run out of "some meals". After I made a fuss it turned out that a Jewish gentleman who had not booked any special meal had complained loudly and to shut him up they gave him my meal!

It was suggested that I could eat the vegetables and leave the bits I didn't want. "What about the gravy" I asked, "Oh, you can scrape it off" they said.

Anyway, I now take boiled egg sandwiches (low carb home made bread), and take delight in opening them on board

Geoff
 
I have requested diabetic meals on 2 occasions and on both occasions, I calculated the carbs as higher in the diabetic meals than the standard offerings. If you question the cabin staff as I did there is still a standard understanding that we suffer from "sugar diabetes".

All the best Steve
 
I do a lot of long haul flying too - and I have exactly the same problem. The "diabetic" meal is often carb based, and tends to be cooked worse than the regular meals!

If I am flying club, then it's normally OK as there's always enough variety to pick and choose from, but if I am sitting in the back it's a lottery unless you get a sympathetic cabin crew who will pinch stuff from club or first for you.... I've given up ordering the diabetic menu as it's always rubbish.

I do have one great tip though. If you are flying from LHR Terminal 5, stop off in Gordon Ramsay's "Plane Food" restaurant before you go and buy a "picnic". This is a 3 course menu (choice of three for each course) and is great food, presented well and there's always enough choice that you can put together a good low-carb meal. It comes in a rather snazzy reusable orange cool bag too. Costs £11.95, but is well worth it!

It's also worth it just to see the look on the other passenger's faces when they tuck into their steam heated chicken and rice, and you pull out a rather lovely antipasti selection, followed by cold rare roast beef and salad and washed down with a selection of nice English cheeses!

In fact, I'm off to Budapest tonight and it's only a 2 hour flight, but I think a Ramsay picnic should be on the cards anyway....
 
I always take my own food onto planes. I don't think we should leave it up to enyone else to decide what we eat, and at what point in a flight we do eat.

Problem solved. Job done.
 
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