How Can In-Flight Meals Withstand Motion Sickness?

When you’re on an important trip, getting motion sickness is the last thing you’d want on the way there. And when you do get it, it’s the most frustrating thing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go away immediately by the time you reach the ground. More often than not, you’ll be confronted by waves of the sickness before finally settling down—which isn’t ideal when you’re at a critical stage of your business trip.

Fortunately, in this situation, there are a few things that can be done when that time of need arises. Among other things,  what is served in-flight can be of utmost help. To know how it does this, however, one must understand what causes motion sickness in the first place. We take a look into that and how in-flight meals can help alleviate the situation:

What causes motion sickness?

In a nutshell, motion sickness is caused by a confusion of the body. On a primal level, there’s something unnatural about riding in a car or plane, making it hard to process the movements associated with doing so. So when you’re in a moving vehicle, for example, a portion of your body may feel the movement, but your brain believes you’re sitting still. While some people may adapt to this quickly, others might find that processing a conflicting barrage of stimuli can cause some unsightly side effects.

There are two parts, in particular, that deal with this:

• Your eyes. When you are traveling by land, sea, or air, your eyes do not register the movement. It still believes that you are currently in a static position unless you’ve already acclimatized to the ride.
• Your inner ear. The inner ear is what helps you hear and balance. That said, it’s very receptive to movement. While your eyes perceive stasis during, say, a flight, your inner ear feels the small movements that come with the trip, setting a conflict between the two perceptions.

How can in-flight meals withstand motion sickness?

There are some things you can do to counteract the confusion. Physically, you might want to push an acupressure point, find a better seat, or look at a fixed position outside the airplane window. Or perhaps opt to eat the symptoms away. If you’re an in-flight caterer and want to create meals that can help passengers with airsickness, you can take note of the following:

• Ensure you have a lot of water at hand. During the flight, you might encounter flight environments that contain more dry air than others. This dryness can dehydrate you, which can further aggravate a lousy case of airsickness. That said, it’s best to provide your passengers with a lot of water in case the need arises.
• Take it easy on the salt. Aside from dry air, eating food or meals with a high salt content can also lead to dehydration. Go for low-sodium meals on your menus, or forego it altogether.
• Keep it light. A full stomach and motion sickness is perhaps the worst possible combination when you’re on a flight. As much as possible, you want to keep a low impact on the belly for the duration of the flight, so your passengers don’t feel their stomach as much.
• No greasy stuff.  Greasy meals can be liable to upset your stomach during the flight, so when designing your menu, include meals that don’t require copious amounts of oil in cooking.

No nauseous treats here

Airsickness isn’t something to be laughed about, mainly when you’re going through it yourself. Fortunately, Jettly Eats provides you a variety of food choices that are perfect for alleviating that particularly bad run. Order now.