Food is the fuel for our bodies and can be used as medicine to promote wellness, avoiding travel-associated illnesses by having diet-specific orders that match the specific health condition and thus will have an important impact on overall client/guest wellness. A well-balanced diet provides the energy needed to stay active throughout the day. Nutrition is needed to help to stay healthy and help prevent diet related illnesses. This is becoming increasingly relevant to the client/guest experience which has a direct effect on (the bottom-line) results in addition to name brand, location, and pricing.

The majority of travelers with an extra discretionary fund to spend with advanced age and high prevalence of chronic diseases would thus explain the importance of providing the appropriate nutrition services.

Such as diabetes, heart disease, bone disease, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, obesity, and weakened immunity. Additionally, poor nutrition could be a reason for adversely affecting mental well-being causing low mood or depression.

Research has shown adherence to healthy or Mediterranean dietary patterns with high consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, and moderate intake of poultry and dairy products is associated with a reduced risk of depression. Food with a high glycemic index is associated with symptoms of depression. The inflammatory effects of high trans-fat and refined carbohydrates have been proposed to be a mechanism through which the Western diet could have detrimental effects on brain health including cognitive decline and mood disorders. Thus, decreasing the consumption of highly processed and refined (junk) food will provide benefits to both physical health and psychological well-being.

On the contrary, the consumption of the Mediterranean diet has anti-inflammatory effects. especially with olive oil use as it has protective properties against heart disease, and cancer through its anti-inflammatory properties, anti-cancer properties and antioxidant properties promoting cardiovascular Health and Wellness. Thus, combining healthy nutrition for travelers and technology to facilitate clients/guests' diet-specific nutrition for wellness as follows:

  1. Guests with high blood pressure would be served a low-salt diet or better with a salt Substitute).
  2. Guests with heart disease and elevated cholesterol will be served a low-cholesterol diet.
  3. Guests with kidney dysfunction would be served a low protein, low salt, low potassium diet.
  4. Guests with type 2 diabetes would be served a low-carbohydrate diet.
  5. Avoid using (Artificial sweeteners) in diabetic patients given the recent World Health Organization (WHO) warning as Aspartame is linked to cancer.
  6. Guests with gout, would avoid serving food with high Uric acid content to avoid acute gout attacks.
  7. The Mediterranean diet / Halal diet has been proven to promote overall health, and longevity and decrease inflammation in the body thus lower heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke risk, cancer, and osteoporosis especially in women!

Avoid serving ultra-processed foods and removing them from the travelers’ nutritional menus.

Dementia is not a specific disease but rather a general term for the impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions, interfering with everyday activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for those at least 65 years of age, there was an estimated 5 million adults with dementia in 2014. That number is projected to be nearly 14 million by 2060.

Researchers determined that those who consumed 28% or more of their calories from ultra-processed foods had a higher risk of dementia. An average diet of 2000 calories equate to only 400 calories each day coming from ultra-processed foods. These foods lead to cancer, premature death, and heart disease as published in many studies.

Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations of food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain little or no whole foods and typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives, below are just a few examples of ultra-processed foods such as sweetened drinks, packaged cookies, breakfast cereal made from refined grains, snack chips or pretzels made from refined grains, processed red meats like bacon and hot dogs. Regular intake of the previously listed ultra-processed food items can cause increased inflammation in the brain leading to dementia, heart disease, cancer, and connective tissue disease. Olive oil intake leads to reduced inflammation in the entire body thus leading to improved survival, and decreased mortality due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cognitive dysfunction (dementia).

Avoid Artificial Sweeteners:

Artificial Sweeteners are classified as sugar alcohol, it can be used to sweeten coffee and tea and are found in sweets, chewing gum, fizzy drinks, and oral care products containing 40% fewer calories than actual sugar. The same goes for erythritol, another sugar alcohol used as an artificial sweetener, and which has hardly any calories at all. Erythritol, another sugar alcohol used as an artificial sweetener, has hardly any calories at all. There are potential health hazards including Risk of flatulence and diarrhea, and increased risk of blood clots a recent study by Cleveland Clinic in the US state of Ohio, published in the European Heart Journal, found xylitol consumption to be associated with a higher risk of thrombosis and "major adverse cardiovascular events" such as a heart attack and stroke.

The research team analyzed blood samples from more than 3,300 cardiovascular patients and observed the patients over three years. High intake can lead to habituation, especially to sweet flavors in children. Artificial sweeteners can also increase the risk of diabetes and cancer.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10822749/

Importance of serving gluten-free diet:

People with celiac disease consume gluten, their immune system attacks and damages the lining of their small intestine which can lead to many health problems such as nutritional deficiencies, anemia, weight loss, osteoporosis, and infertility. Gluten sensitivity can lead to headaches, joint pains, brain fog, and numbness in extremities.

Many foods are naturally gluten-free. These include fresh unsweetened fruits, eggs, fresh meats, fish and poultry, humus, olive oil, cucumber, squash, onion, pepper, broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms, unprocessed beans, seeds, nuts, white rice, and most dairy products. Gluten-free products are mostly labeled to help consumers make healthy choices easy for them. Gluten-free diets are good for Diabetes, as gluten can raise blood sugar levels. Researchers estimate that up to 19.7% of people with type 1 diabetes also have celiac disease.

In summary, using a diet-specific approach could provide an added advantage for enhanced physical and mental health and wellness for travelers through optimal diet-specific nutrition!

References:

  1. Lassale C, Batty GD, Baghdadli A, et al. Healthy dietary indices and risk of depressive outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Mol Psychiatry 2019;24:965-86. 10.1038/s41380-018-0237-8
  2. Lassale C, Batty GD, Baghdadli A, et al. Healthy dietary indices and risk of depressive outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Mol Psychiatry 2019;24:965-86. 10.1038/s41380-018-0237-8
  3. Gangwisch JE, Hale L, Garcia L, et al. High glycemic index diet as a risk factor for depression: analyses from the Women’s Health Initiative. Am J Clin Nutr 2015;102:454-63. 10.3945/ajcn.114.103846
  4. O’Keefe JH, Gheewala NM, O’Keefe JO. Dietary strategies for improving post-prandial glucose, lipids, inflammation, and cardiovascular health. J Am Coll Cardiol 2008;51:249-55. 10.1016/j.jacc.2007.10.016
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  6. Noble EE, Hsu TM, Kanoski SE. Gut to brain dysbiosis: mechanisms linking western diet consumption, the microbiome, and cognitive impairment. Front Behav Neurosci 2017;11:9. 10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00009
  7. Yuan N, Chen Y, Xia Y, Dai J, Liu C. Inflammation-related biomarkers in major psychiatric disorders: a cross-disorder assessment of reproducibility and specificity in 43 meta-analyses. Transl Psychiatry 2019;9:233. 10.1038/s41398-019-0570-y
  8. Firth J, Stubbs B, Teasdale SB, et al. Diet as a hot topic in psychiatry: a population-scale study of nutritional intake and inflammatory potential in severe mental illness. World Psychiatry 2018;17:365-7. 10.1002/wps.20571
  9. Ghosh TS, Rampelli S, Jeffery IB, et al. Mediterranean diet intervention alters the gut microbiome in older people reducing frailty and improving health status: the NU-AGE 1-year dietary intervention across five European countries. Gut 2020;69:1218-28. 10.1136/gutjnl-2019-319654
  10. Parletta N, Zarnowiecki D, Cho J, et al. A Mediterranean-style dietary intervention supplemented with fish oil improves diet quality and mental health in people with depression: A randomized controlled trial (HELFIMED). Nutr Neurosci 2019;22:474-87. 10.1080/1028415X.2017.1411320.
  11. Enhanced Traveler’s Wellness During Flu Season with Nutraceutical Supplements Available at Resorts and Spas with On-Site ProntoCare Clinics.
  12. Halal Cuisine Could Provide a Competitive Advantage in Hotels and Resorts.
  13. Franchised On-Site Hotel Medical Clinics: A New Competitive Advantage for Lodging Operations With Hotels Bridging Healthcare (H2H).
  14. Club Medic – Hotel Onsite Medical Clinic: Franchise Model for a Lodging Market Competitive Advantage.
  15. Onsite Clinics in Hotels Serve Travelers Best: New Innovations for Hospitality Bridging Health(care) [H2H] Can have Competitive Market Advantages.
  16. The Strategic Value for Having an Onsite Medical Clinic at Hotels.
    https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-022-03603-4 - https://positivepsychology.com/mobile-health-apps/
  17. Olive Oil Consumption & Mortality Among US Adults.
  18. Reduced Mortality Linked to Olive Oil Consumption.
  19. Cooking Oil/Fat Consumption & Deaths From Cardiometabolic Disease.
  20. Olive Oil ALLMEDX Search Results.
  21. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10822749/.

Dr. Adel Eldin
ProntoCare