If you ask anyone,
they’ll give you a list of reasons why flying is stressful, from tiny seats and
fat people to extra-long delays and demonic flight attendants. So with all this
rushing through your mind, do you really want to make your flight worse by
eating the wrong food? Here’s a few you should never touch before stepping
on-board a plane.
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Fried Chicken
If you’re obsessed
with fried chicken (most of us are) then now is the time to be strong and turn
down the dirty bird. It’s a real oily mess of a meal. Greasy and pungent, the
planes filters can only handle so much. As a matter of fact, it’s not only
fried chicken that should be avoided, but any food that has more fatty oil than
a teen’s forehead. The fact is, once you’ve eaten anything fried, the fat just
sits in your stomach, turns into acid and gives you heartburn.
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Alcohol
A liquid lunch isn’t technically
a food, but it should still be avoided. Alcohol apparently has many medicinal
benefits when it comes to flying. Some say it gets rid of their fear of flying,
others say it helps them sleep on a long flight and teenagers swear it makes
them look really cool! Yes, some of this is true, but it actually disrupts
sleep and teenagers are never cool, plus it’ll be hard to stay hydrated meaning
you’ll get drunker quicker, resulting in an awkward flirting encounter with the
passenger next to you. Apart from that, do you really want to wake up with a
terrible hangover?
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Baked Beans
These little packages
of pure evil will have you losing friends faster than a hostile game of
Monopoly. It’s best to avoid them, even at the best of times, although everyone
loves good ol’ beans on toast! But if you’re going to be stuck in a plane with
anxious flyers and short fuses then you don’t want to turn your flight into a catastrophic
nuclear accident. Soluble fibre is to blame for the beans explosive properties;
broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are also chief culprits, so it’s best to
avoid those too.
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Fish
Leaving fish off a
plane should be a no-brainer and this includes nearly every morsel from under
the sea. And before you start to argue, yes, this includes sushi, mermaids and
the Loch Ness Monster. The smell of fish alone is unpleasant, but it’s also
risky. One bad prawn could leave you in the plane’s toilet for the rest of the
flight!
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Curry
Curry is one of the
greatest foods, but it’s one of the worst foods to eat before your flight.
Spicy foods can cause indigestion and disrupt sleep; and it does this with the
help of a cheeky ingredient called capsaicin, which is found in chili peppers. It
basically works like broken thermometer and messes up your body temperature. It
has also been linked to those horrible trips to the bathroom and the dreaded
ring sting.
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Dairy
Your milkshake may
bring all the boys to the yard, but don’t bring them on the plane. Too much
dairy, like stuffing down a whole wheel of cheese, has the potential to curdle
your stomach and it can also cause problems if you have IBS. Dairy is also one
of the most common causes of food poisoning. So maybe give the jumbo chocolate
milkshake and the ice cream sundae a skip.
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Caffeine
Caffeine has its
health benefits, such as improved memory and the ability to turn half-dead employees
into hyperactive machines. However, one of its benefits is also one of its
pitfalls – you’ll be awake and unable to sleep. This is completely fine on
short flights, but on long hauls, its best to avoid any sort of caffeine. Keep
in mind there is a surprisingly large amount of stuff with caffeine in it, including
some chocolate, ice cream, weight-loss pills and painkillers.
If you want to avoid
being stuck in a giant metallic bird thousands of miles above the earth with an
upset stomach, food poisoning, a hangover or much worse – NEVER eat these foods
and then get onto a plane!
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