Thursday, August 16, 2012

Eating healthy during summer travels.....


When my husband told us he would be working in Prague, Czech Republic part of the summer, the first question I had was what will we eat there ..... Typical Czech food is wiener schnitzel, dumplings, cream laden dishes, meat and lots of beer.............
which is great, but when you're gluten free and dairy free it becomes challenging.
I am all for enjoying the food of different cultures, but when you have food allergies/intolerences you have to look for other options.  Here are some things that helped us on our trip and wanted to pass it along.

 Order a special meal on flight, there're many options now a days....low salt, vegan, gluten free, heart healthy, paleo, low carb and others.  My son and I ordered one vegan meal and one gluten free meal and shared it.  I was impressed that it was loaded with fresh fruit and vegetables.

Bring your own snacks and and water bottles with a filter....you can purchase these at the Container Store.  Stay HYDRATED!!
 Boost your immune system before and during the trip, take Vitamin C packets like Emergen-C, Elderberry, Probiotics (get a high quality brand that doesn't need to be refrigerated), and saline solution for your nose for the extremely dry air on the plane.
Elderberry helps support your immune system


 With so many great apps, it makes it easy to find healthy food when traveling to a new city.  Look for fresh juice bars, vegetarian restaurants, which will usually have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement the delicacies of the culture. Most European cites have fabulous farmer's markets, we took advantage of these almost daily.  I especially loved the Naschmarkt in Vienna, Austria!


I absolutely loved that Prague had so many fresh food options, there were juicers everywhere even at the zoo...of course it was right next to the Pilsner Urquell beer tap, but still they were happy to juice anything you wanted.  There were also fresh fruit stands around the city....fresh juice or blended fruit and nothing added.

You can have any fruit blended into a delicious drink, watermelon juice was our trip favorite!
Enjoying some fresh watermelon while sightseeing.
Fresh squeezed orange juice every morning at Mangaloos Juice Bar.

We found two FABULOUS vegetarian restaurants on our trip.  Even my omnivore husband and son loved both places.  


Soya in Paris

Lehka Hlava (means Clear Head) in Prague



Enjoy the rest of your summer!  

The last couple of photos of one of my favorite summer places, Devil's Thumb Ranch, in Colorado.  Here's their landscape/garden outside one of their incredible restaurants on the ranch.  I was salivating as I was snapping some photos yesterday....would they notice if I put some greens in my bag?? 
Devil's Thumb Ranch


I am no expert, just a Mom who is passionate about learning more about the relationship between food and good health.