Fellow food friend, author, and world traveler, Heather Christo, was diagnosed with a handful of allergies a few years ago and has since mastered traveling with food allergies.
We’ve earned major respect because, instead of dragging her down, it’s only made her more creative in the kitchen and on the road. We asked her to share her hard-earned tips on traveling with food allergies and still eating well.
Heather Christo On Traveling With Food Allergies
Traveling has always been an important part of my life. My husband and I travel a lot for work, and we make it a priority to take our girls along with and travel as a family whenever possible.
When my daughters and I were diagnosed with a slew of food allergies a couple of years ago, I actually stayed up at night worrying about how we’d see the world without putting our health at risk.
In the last few years, I’ve learned how to overcome the challenges of traveling—both domestically and internationally—while still keeping our diet on track.
5 Tips For Traveling With Food Allergies
Here are my top tips for traveling with food allergies:
Traveling On A Plane
I fly a handful of times a month, so staying allergy-free at the airport is always on my mind. I have an extensive list of allergies, as in there is almost nothing I can eat on an airplane (except, ironically, the peanuts). I also fly often with my children; there is nothing like being trapped on a plane for hours with low blood sugar!
The good news is that there are many more allergy-friendly choices at the airport today. At my home airport of Seattle, I go with sushi (there is a reputable place!). In other cities, I’ll opt for pre-packaged salads (less chance of cross-contamination), and, at the very least, I can usually find hummus and fresh veggies. Even so, you must be careful because cross-contamination happens, so the airport is always a bit of a gamble. Which leads me to….
Packing Allergy-Free Snacks
Packaging allergy-free snacks is SO essential, whether just for the flight or for the duration of your trip! I feel you can’t go wrong with whole fruit. You can’t always bring fruit on international flights, but you can eat it in the airport, and it’s always available.
If you aren’t allergic to nuts, the same applies. Dried fruit is great—no refrigeration is needed, and it doesn’t take up much space.
But most of all, I lean on protein bars. As in, I take a stash of them everywhere. Seriously, everywhere. They are in my car, all of my purses, my kids backpacks—where we go, the protein bars go. They’re total snack insurance when you can’t find otherwise safe food.
Potato chips are another thing I can lean on for my kids (though, tbh, I never thought I would be saying that!) since you can find these pretty much all over the world and they are almost always available. We have eaten a lot of Pringles in the past few years!
Allergies And Hotel
Because we travel so often, I have made it a practice to inform our hotel of our allergies before we arrive. They can, in turn, let room service know, and they tend to be really diligent about helping us navigate menus when we call.
I also often request an additional mini-fridge in the empty room so that we can fill it with our allergy-free snacks and foods. It makes breakfast and in-between meals far more convenient.
Navigating Food Allergies At A Restaurant
If you are making restaurant reservations ahead of time, check the menu too—it just takes a few minutes and allows you to make choices without making the waiter wait around.
Having said that, tell your waiter about your allergies, and let him or her know that even though you think you know what you can have, their help would be greatly appreciated. Remember, they WANT to help you since the last thing they want is a diner getting sick on their watch.
Food Allergies And International Travel
Traveling internationally with food allergies can be more complicated due to language barriers and differing customs. After our diagnosis, we spent a summer in Europe and found that some countries were easier to navigate than others.
Nearly 50% of the UK is now gluten-free, and food allergies are regularly discussed, so their awareness is better than in the United States. Eating gluten-free is also becoming more common in France and Italy. If you are planning to travel to Italy soon, you’ll want to check out our tips for eating gluten-free in Italy.
Greece, on the other hand, was more difficult. The good news about most Mediterranean countries is that most everything is cooked in olive oil instead of butter, so as long as you eat clean, grilled meats, fresh salads, and potatoes, you can get by.
Last Thoughts About Traveling With Food Allergies
The bottom line is that food allergies shouldn’t keep you from traveling or from experiencing new things (and new foods!). You just have to be prepared and strategic about where you’re headed and what you’re eating.
Find what works well and continue to refine and improve on it—we are always discovering new tactics, products, and recipes that make things easier. We try to look at it like it is just another part of the adventure!
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