Food for thought at 35,000 feet

Pune, India, August 14 — I love traveling and while most of my journeys within India and abroad have been smooth and largely memorable, dealing with food arrangements during journeys has always been a nerve-racking exercise, especially meals on flights. This is because I suffer from Type 1 diabetes -- a severe condition that requires strict dietary controls and avoiding food that contains large quantities of saturated fat, carbohydrates and sugar. Besides, as a strict vegetarian, my food choices are automatically reduced.

The food logistics, when traveling in India, have been relatively easy to deal, as it is convenient to carry home cooked meals on short journeys or request restaurant chefs and hotels management staff for special diabetic Indian vegetarian meals, which in all cases has been complied with. What has proved difficult however, is getting the right food on flights.

On my first Air India flight from Mumbai to Hong Kong, a couple of years ago, despite requesting a strict vegetarian diabetic meal in advance, what I ultimately got at 35,000 feet, was the general vegetarian meal served to other passengers, which I could barely eat. Only after I complained was I offered better service and the appropriate diabetic meal on my return journey. This proved that airlines could tailor meals to suit the chronic diabetic condition like mine.

Unfortunately, I experienced the same meal issues with other airlines during my travel to Europe, Asia and Australia. Some vegetables like corn, peas, mushroom and potatoes, not suitable for diabetics with my condition routinely landed in my special diabetic meal tray while certain fruits like pineapple, kiwi fruit, dragon fruit and grapes that diabetics cannot eat due to their high sugar content were included in fruit bowls.

Considering the growing number of diabetics worldwide and the high number of such people resorting to commercial flights, I would imagine airlines to be more sensitive to the dietary requirements of people like me. Instead, when requesting a diabetic vegetarian meal on a recent flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane, reservation staff at Cathay Pacific Airways told me that they could not guarantee my diabetic meal to be vegetarian.

It is my observation and understanding that top quality airlines like Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore Airlines etc. offer different kinds of special vegetarian meals like western, oriental and Indian vegetarian. Besides, such airlines also offer special meals like halal and kosher for people who have religious restrictions on diet. Midnight snacks on long haul flights and an array of food choices in business and first class are also offered to attract and woo customers with different taste buds. If these airlines who take pride in their quality service and whose fares are generally higher than budget airlines, have the resources to cater to a wide range of food conscious travelers, then, they can and must make more concerted efforts by consulting doctors and dieticians to offer appropriate meals for people with severe health conditions like mine.

Like many other diabetics, I have to self-inject insulin twice a day at a set time to stabilize my condition. During certain air journeys I have done this procedure on the flight due to the schedule of the airline. On such occasions the simple and safe way for an illness-free flight and where doctors may not be available on the flight, is to eat a good and appropriate diabetic meal after the insulin dose has been administered.

Diabetics like me lead perfectly healthy lives that require lots of adjustments from our side and support from others. Nothing would make me happier than to fly many more miles around the world and all I hope and look for is the right meal at 35,000 feet.