Virgin America's inflight offerings aren't bad for you, study finds. (iStock)
Air travel and healthy eating don’t have to be mutually exclusive — especially on Virgin America.
Charles Platkin, the director of the NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter College, recently developed a ranking system for airplane food that assesses it using 10 criteria, including calorie levels, nutrients, overall improvement of healthy offerings and cost, and found that Virgin America’s foods are the healthiest, with an average of 337 calories per food item.
Runners-up include Delta Air Lines, which provides vegan, gluten-free and kosher snacks, followed by Air Canada, which has meals that have fewer than 342 calories.
At the bottom of the list are budget airlines such as Spirit, which has an average of 383 calories per food item, and Frontier (380 calories).
Also, Platkin advises flyers to avoid small snacks such as nuts, which are high in calories and might not leave you full.
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