There is nothing I love more than travelling and exploring different cultures and their food experiences. There’s an incredible variety of foods out there and so many different eating patterns and customs to discover.
With a strong link between diet and health now well established, it is also interesting to ask as you travel the world: Is one country’s approach to eating better than any others? And could exploring cultural influences on diets and global eating habits be the key to designing an onboard catering offer that it both nutritious for passengers and showcases the cultural flavours of the airline and its destinations?
Guide the way
Food guidelines worldwide are designed to promote nutritious eating habits but that guidance also has to be country-specific and relevant to the local diet. There are many underlying similarities in the guidelines, yet each has its own cultural lens regarding the types of foods being recommended to reflect the availability of produce and the established favourites of the poopulation. You can view these dietary guidelines of a specific country via the Food and Agriculture Organisation within the UN.
In addition to country-specific dietary advice there is also data on the eating patterns associated with specific locations, and this data has helped highlight some particularly healthy populations and shone a spotlight on their food choices: the Mediterranean diet and Nordic diet, for example.
The Mediterranean diet is extensively researched and clearly associated with health benefits. The focus is on consuming mostly fruits and vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, nuts, seeds and beans, with some dairy, eggs, fish and chicken and occasionally red meat.
Meanwhile, the Nordic diet is similar but with some cultural differences in the types of foods chosen, so more emphasis on berries, oily fish (such as salmon, mackerel and herring), wholegrain cereals (such as rye), cabbages, root vegetables and low-fat dairy products.
Into the blue
Garnering much attention in recent years is the Blue Zone diet, highlighting the eating principles followed by those in the most long-living populations. The Blue Zones include Okinawa in Japan, Icaria in Greece, Sardinia in Italy, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, and in some lists, Loma Linda in California. These locations were identified from research in 2004 by a National Geographic Expedition into longevity and identified places with a high number of people living to 100 years old, and with lower levels of chronic health conditions.
Dietary good practice
The Blue Zone diet considers the traditional eating patterns of those living in these locations and while not all those living in Blue Zone eat exactly the same, there are similarities. Differing cultural dietary practices persist but broadly all include a focus on consuming wholefoods and eating mostly plant-based foods, with minimal to no animal-based products. The Blue Zone populations also all eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, beans and pulses, nuts and seeds and wholegrains.
It is true there has been some debate, and criticism raised, regarding the zones, and some have questioned the original research, and the influence of commercial interests. But regardless of this, it is interesting that the principles of Blue Zone diets do align with the principles of dietary guidelines and healthy eating patterns worldwide. Again the emphasis is on fruits, vegetable and wholegrain consumption for good health.
Bring it onboard
While the Blue Zone, Mediterranean and Nordic diets are not the only way to eat for health, they do help highlight some baseline principles for eating well. And drawing inspiration from such principles can offer a way to deliver both nourishment and unique cultural experiences for airline passengers. Healthy eating principles can be applied across cultures no matter the route network and types of food available in each country.
Incorporating cultural influences into onboard meals is not a new idea, but going a step further and considering nutritious eating patterns could certainly help better support passenger health and wellbeing as well as providing memorable cultural experiences onboard.
