Eating Well on the Road: Travel Snacks and Food

As a seasoned traveler, I plan ahead and try to have healthy snacks and meals as much as possible, whether at home or on the road. Still, I occasionally find myself confronting a distressing array of empty calorie food choices, or no decent vegetarian options.

The healthy selection at Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens Tampa

For example, I was at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay last week and the only vegetarian option we could find for lunch was cheese pizza. Not the worst choice. But when you live within spitting distance of Roberta's and Table 87, theme park pizza is not what you craze.

Healthy snacks at Busch Gardens

We did find one place with healthy snacks. There were Clif and Kind bars, dried edamame, Peeled Snacks organic dried fruit and almonds. It's a start. But Busch Gardens should take a page from Disney, which does have appealing vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options at almost every venue in its parks.

New player in the healthy food market: HMSHost

HMSHost, which runs cafes and snack shops in airports and service plazas around the world, just introduced a the "Eat Well. Travel Further' initiative at select airports and travel plazas around the country.

Sampling of HMSHost healthy snacks.

Bento boxes include a vegan and a protein lunch boxes. The vegan box has chickpea salad, roasted red peppers and veggie chipsAll the boxes are under 500 calories (ever look up the calorie count in a smoothie from the airport?) and include nutrient dense food. There is also fresh fruit, hummus with veggies, count water and kombucha.

Flying off the shelves: healthy snacks at airports

HMSHost sent me a sample box of some of its new healthy airport and travel plaza offerings. Some items I was familiar with: protein loaded Rx Bars and Peeled Snacks. But there was also the low calorie, addictive Skinny Pop popcorn, and Bare fruit chips. Skinny Pop and Bare products are also vegan and gluten free.

Other healthy offerings include That's It bars, made with just whole fruit and Rhythm Superfoods kale chips. The kale chips have all the vitamin K you need for a day, plus over half the vitamin A.

Justin's almond butter packets are great to pick up if the only thing you can find is a bagel. And the Biena chickpea snacks give your snacks plenty of protein and fiber (add some to a salad).

Note: I was sent a sample pack from HMSHost. I was not compensated for this post.