Diet issues while travelling

[Lilitu]

How do you deal with having to adjust your diet?
Last year I found it so very difficult to adjust to Shanghainese diet when I stayed there for a month, and before that Found it even harder to adjust to the available fast food in Hong Kong since our family were staying by ourselves.

The result was that I wasn't feeling too well the entire month and half I was in Asia, and it didn't ruin but it did detract from the fun family holiday.

How would you deal with such an issue? I'd really like to be able to go overseas in the next few years but I know I'll have the same diet problems as before. It's just that my stupid digestive system is a xenophobic bitch.

[RockerBlocks]

If you can, make sure to take some cash with you! you can trade it in for their cash and maybe buy something that's healthy and that adjusts to your taste buds. It's very hard to keep healthy so make sure to try fruit. Plenty of exercise, and drink water (:

That's the only advice i can give I hope i did help just a little bit as i am not great with advice haha

[fenris]

I take the most Food with me..... I do not diet but what I eat is not easy....
I´m vegetarian ..just drinking Milk from time to time.... I eat nothing when I´m not sure that it is clean... a knife that sliced meat is not clean so I can´t eat in a Restaurant... I do not eat fried things except in my kitchen because I don´t know if something dead swam in the fat....
I eat only low fat ... next problem what make it impossible to eat in a restaurant....
So I mostly eat just fruits.... or vegetarian finished goods....

Next thing is that I travel with a bunch of heavy drugs.... that makes it heavy to travel without a Drug-pass ( I have one for EU countrys ).... and I must be sure that I can buy my stuff at the next drugstore without problems....so many countrys are out of my reach

[Blue]

As a truck driver, that was a daily thing for me, for years. The food in Mississippi is not the food in Michigan, is not the food in Boise, is not the food in Sacramento.

What I did was cook a lot of my own on board the truck, or in the microwaves available at various locations and, when I did choose a registrant meal, I chose food that were things I commonly ate, just prepared in a different way. I avoided local water, always opting to buy bottled water and, I went to chain restaurants as much as possible, if I wasn't cooking.

As a general rule, the more perishable it is, the more likely it is to cause undesired effect if you eat it. That stuff is more local than stuff that tolerates longer shipping distances so, go easy on or, avoid highly perishable items - water, dairy, fresh meats (frozen is okay.) Soft produce that will only keep a couple of days (stick to things that store well, winter squash, apples, potatoes, carrots and such.) Or use canned or frozen produce.

I know it's tempting to try the local foods, and that's fine but TRY is the key, don't live on entirely unfamiliar foods.

[pellaz]

set some rules, make them general so they are easy to follow:
-dont eat meat, eggs
-avoid sugar, carbs
-no alcohol

where all these things have their place and are just fine, in a modern diet you can find substitutes. This might force you to eat less and from a know list of better foods.

[hue]

I don't travel quite so exotically, but even with my short trip I find I need to bring many of my staples and limit my intake of unusual foods. It's a shame because cuisine is such an important part of experiencing the people and their culture, but my body and I are friends and I try to treat it well! Still, don't visit New Orleans without having crawfish. (sucking the juice out of the heads is optional)

[Bowyn Aerrow]

I don't travel. Solves that problem. :biggrin:

When I did travel with the 'kosher diet' I made certain to use the stores and stick with more fruit and veg instead of going to restaurants.

If you diet restrictions are based more on health then you can talk to most restaurants in any location and outline your health needs. Many half alternatives to the regular diet if you have special needs like no salt, no sugar, etc.

In your case I doubt the problem was the food - it was something else - perhaps some bacteria that didn't agree with you. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/27...ites-back/ might be handy.

Unfortunately you are a product of Western Safety Standards when it comes to exposure to germs. As a result your immune system is weaker than other areas where the people's bodies have gotten used to the injections of hostile bacteria and they can fight it off.

I bet mum uses lots of antibacterial soaps and is diligent about washing foods and keeping the counter spotless and no doubt washes her hands before prepping food. Shame on her. :biggrin:

All of that behavior has had a direct result in weakening you against bacterial onslaught. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=118140&page=1
and http://www.fitsugar.com/Overuse-Antibact...m-12308224

When I was a kid my mother didn't care - hell she smoked through the pregnancy, drank and didn't bother to put outlet covers on the outlets. I heard tales that I was allowed to eat the chocolaty treats the local cats left int he sandbox for me.... Ew - yeah I guess. Back then people were not so obsessive about germs.

There is now a vaccine against Cholera vaccine which also helps with 'traveler's sickness'. Next time you see your doctor you might want to ask him/her what is available as inoculation against typical food borne ailments that one would encounter in an exotic land.

[Nick9]

Hi,
to tell the truth I am not sure what the problem is. There is a lot of "western type" restaurants and a huge range of shops in both cities. You don't need to eat Chinese meals or local fast food...

[zeon]

Hello,
Dieting can be a way of emotional change and cutting down on a lot of things can have subsiquental effects on the body. I would recommend if changing diet to wean yourself off gradual foods than starting a new thing altogether give ya body time to adjust

[Lilitu]

My friend did tell me to avoid most fresh food because we're not used to other countries' bacteria and that jazz.

the worst part is I love food xD so not being able to get to know foreign cuisine takes so much fun out

Thanks for the advice though! and yes our household is regularly disinfected >.> not my fault that I love the feeling of hand sanitiser.