Travel Tip: Healthy Travel Foods Mean Less Jetlag and More Energy

Last Updated on July 13, 2022 by Colleen

Feel Better on Travel Days (and the day after) by Nourishing Well

Food and travel can be a challenge if you want to be your best self as opposed to your “I have a headache, feel bloated, tired, and a little sad” self.

But packing healthy travel food is rough when you are already scrambling to make sure you have all your chargers and sunscreen, not to mention the toothbrushes.

Here’s the Why and How of how healthy travel food will help you get the most out of your trip.

Why Typical Travel Food Makes You Feel Bad

If you don’t pack healthy travel food to bring in the car or on the plane or even to your day at the beach, you will be stuck with overly processed airport or convenience foods. We often dismiss the importance of food and travel because it’s “only one day.” But poor travel food and drink choices zap your energy the next day and can cause mild-to-severe headache and constipation. And that’s no way to start your vacation or business meeting.

We all know the food in airports and convenience markets is packed with salt, sugar, and additives and more likely to result in a stomach ache from food poisoning or ingredients our bodies don’t like. It’s good to remind yourself that those foods will leave you feeling sluggish and bloated, making for an unpleasant reconnection with your bathing suit or business suit.

Travel Water Shortages Make You Feel Even Worse

Add this to the effects of poor food quality — you likely are dehydrated from the trip too. That’s due to a couple of reasons — you may have difficulty in finding a functioning water refill station during Covid and not want to buy single-use plastic water bottles. You also may have had much caffeine or wine. In fact, some suggest drinking two glasses of water on airplanes for every serving of coffee or alcohol.

Even without those indulgences, drinking enough water when on the road is difficult. And planes dehydrate you even more. In fact, it’s recommended you drink a glass of water for every hour you are on the plane IN ADDITION TO your regular intake. Better have an aisle seat!

Feel Better On Your Travel Day + the Next Day with Healthy Travel Food

Okay, we are convinced that healthy travel food and drink can help us feel better both the day of travel and the next day. So, what’s an easy way to pack those foods? After all, you don’t always have time to cut up veggies or may be worried about smushed sandwiches and the disastrous banana in the bottom of the backpack. Great foods for travel are convenient and made from whole foods that are protected by packaging.

Mix-Ins to the Rescue!

We love traveling with ZEGO’s Mix-Ins nut-free trail mix. They are simply seeds and fruit (or chocolate chips) with–and this is important for travel–no added salt. The seeds give you fantastic nourishment and are very filling and the fruit and chocolate (depending on your flavor) bring happiness and joy. Pro tip: bring a bag of two different flavors to give you some variety.

Bars are another good go-to. But we try to limit those to two a day for travel because they do have fruit syrup in them. ZEGO’s Seed+Fruit bars will be the most filling because they have 6g of protein and 4g of fiber. But, the ZEGO Just Fruit and Fruit+Chia bars have a lovely bright fruit flavor that brings a nice boost to the weary traveler.

How our Nut-Free Trail Mix Make a Better Travel Food

Packed with Seeds & Grain-Free

• We all know seeds are incredibly healthy and eco-friendly, but most of us don’t crave a handful of seeds. Our Mix-Ins will change that because they are utterly delicious! We combine pumpkin, sunflower and chia seeds with sweet, chewy dates to give you the crunch and sweetness your taste buds want. Then, we boost the flavor with indulgent either dark chocolate chips, tart cranberries, or cinnamon apples to add even more antioxidants and taste.
• Seeds require significantly less water to grow than nuts, which makes them a more eco-friendly choice.

Superior Nutrition

• Mix-Ins are designed to support your immune system with mother nature’s antioxidants. For example, sunflower, pumpkin, and chia seeds are packed with immune-boosting nutrients like zinc, vitamin E, and magnesium. Dates also pack these vitamins and minerals as well as flavonoids, carotenoids and phenolic acid that help your body fight off viruses and support your immune system. You should aim to get these nutrients from your food rather than supplements because the nutrition in food is more bio-available and not degraded by processing agents.
• Sunflower and pumpkin seeds are packed with immune-boosting nutrients like zinc, vitamin E, and magnesium.

About our Farms

We source our sunflower seeds from farms in the mid-western region of the U.S., and our dates are from Southern California. Our chocolate, pumpkin seeds (pepitas) and chia seeds are imported because they are not grown in the U.S. All the ingredients in Mix-Ins are organic.

Purity

Why do we test for glyphosate and other commercial agricultural chemicals in organic ingredients? We know that toxic chemicals can drift from surrounding fields and waterways to organic fields. We also know that sometimes ingredients are fraudulently labeled organic when they are actually not. This is particularly a problem with imported ingredients. To ensure our ingredients are as clean as possible, we test them for over 400 conventional agricultural chemicals, including glyphosate. You can scan the QR code on any package to see the purity test results for your ZEGO product and the list of the 400 chemicals we test for. You will also find the results in the Food Safety section on our website.

See our Purity Test Results for Mix-Ins.

Allergen Statement

Made in a Top 12 Allergy Free Facility, No Soy, No Peanut, No Tree Nuts, No Sesame, No Dairy, No Egg, No Mustard, No Sea Creatures, No Wheat, No Gluten, No Sulfites, No Corn On Equipment, No Preservatives

About Us

Colleen Kavanagh is the founder and CEO of ZEGO, a company that seeks to inspire changes in the food system so it better nourishes all people and our planet. She spent 20 years working to better nourish low-income children through improved public policies and programs, working for Congressman George Miller in Washington, DC and various anti-hunger nonprofits. She founded the nonprofit www.abettercourse.org. In 2013, she decided the only way to better nourish the most vulnerable is to leverage consumer demand through the marketplace to regenerating the food system and protect the most vulnerable. And that, lead to her starting ZEGO.

At ZEGO, we believe our customers have the power to change the food industry for the better. By giving you a platform and projecting your voice, we aim to change the culture of the food industry —  establishing your right to know what’s in your food — so it better supports you, your community, and our planet.