In-flight Meals!

I suppose we can't really blame the airlines as I imagine they must follow the national guidelines about food for diabetics and at the moment that is not low carb

...and after a quick sojourn to Oslo I am back in the lounge for a pre flight dinner - a remarkably low carb Salmon with rock Samphire and broccoli with a little tomato. Absolutely ideal for me. I am incredibly lucky to have access to the lounge but I find it frustrating that a decent low carb meal can be offered without, I suspect, any intent to actually offer a low carb meal - if that makes sense. I have three hours to my flight so may well try and see what they can cobble together on board as a low carb effort. (Thanks to a series of good luck, astonishing pricing ex EU, and the utter ineptitude behind British Airways' frequent flyer program I am fortunate enough to be at the pointier end of the plane. )

I am going to Mexico end of September via BA. Oddly...I had already decided there was almost no point in declaring my health issue for the purpose of meals, I suspected they would be even worse than normal and I would feel honour bound to have an assertive moment - or two. So I will just put up with the usual **** and weed out the carbs as much as I can. Given the pretty small quantities of food involved, I am not going to get a huge spike from an airline meal.

Dgebuadze2 said:

A couple of years ago, I travelled BA and ordered the diabetic meal. It consisted of a white roll with chickpeas followed by a muffin!
I wrote to BA politely but disappointedly. I received a thank-you response and a 100 GBP voucher for my next flight (greatly appreciated!).
The next time, I tried again -- and got EXACTLY THE SAME MEAL!!!

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Recipes called diabetic are usually based on the obsolete idea that diabetics should avoid sugar and make their meals low-fat, but high in starches. Research finally showed that starches do not break down only at the ends of their chains, but the digestive enzymes are specific the the types of links between the simple sugars. Some types of carbs, such as cellulose, have links with no corresponding human digestive enzyme, and therefore pass through human digestive tracts unchanged. The diets that work well for diabetics are usually called low-carb instead, and these are the ones that are more expensive to prepare.

Dr Snoddy said:

Good luck with that David. I shall be interested to hear if you have better luck with BA than I do. I could suggest 20 meals that should be within airline catering's budget and capabilities but all attempts so far have fallen on deaf ears. I would rather BA took £50 off the fare and let me provide my own luxury picnic hamper. Like that's going to happen.

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The catering budget for an economy meal is about £2-3!

A few years back I was flying with BA to the USA. I am T2 and ordered a 'diabetic meal' , when it came to meal time, I was asked if I wanted checken or beef ?

Ok I pressed the wrong button, as I was saying chicken or beef ? I said I had odered a 'diabetic meal' and was told that they had run out, as someone in first/bussiness class and been given the meal I had ordered, as they have forgotten to order one ! I went with the chicken, it came with veg and a little rice, and a nice piece of cheese cake. Well I thought, need to make a slight adjustment on my insulin, but it will be fine. A few minutes later, one of the cabin crew came through and removed my cheese cake and gave me an apple(this is after I had taken my insulin). Not very happy. Now I order the veggi meal, as it tends to be low carb etc. But guess what ! On another long haul BA flight they ran out of preorderd vegi meals, and guess what chicken or beef ! Again someone higher up the plane had forgotten to pre order a meal. This time I kept the cheese cake ! I try not to fly with BA anymore.

I do not bother to order a diabetic meal on a plane because they almost certainly follow the medical guidelines like the eat well plate . We really can't expect them to serve diabetics the kind of low carb meals that we eat at home that is our personal choice of how to eat and we are just a very small percentage. Not every diabetic wants a low carb meal and will be happy with the one the airline serves. I just go for the normal meals they are so small anyway so not to many carbs

rosco 2 said:

I am going to Mexico end of September via BA.

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Snap! My wife is attending a conference in Cancun (22nd - 29th) and I get to carry the bags, not that I'm complaining. I get to go on the spouse program while she is working. I have to attend several formal functions but a price worth paying seeing as her old firm pay for me to go.