Reagan Airport Still Sucks for Healthy Food
Reagan National landed at the very bottom of this year’s Airport Food Review, the annual survey in which the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine scours the nation’s busiest airports, looking for the ones that serve the healthiest cuisine. The best airports for keeping your cholesterol grounded are Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, which tied for first in the PCRM’s survey. Ninety-five percent of the restaurants at both airports serve at least one “low-fat, high-fiber, cholesterol-free breakfast, lunch, or dinner option,” which is the criteria for being labeled a “healthy” eatery.
You have to admit, that’s a pretty damn low threshold—I mean, just one dish all day long—and still only 60 percent of Reagan National’s restaurants make the grade. PCRM tried to throw Reagan National, that last-place dog, a bone for not being a complete sniveling mess:
While National Airport remained in last place for a second year, the airport was also the most improved. National had the largest increase in percentage of restaurants offering healthful options—from 42 percent in 2007 to 60 percent this year.
The whole survey got me to thinking about why National doesn’t rate better, particularly when measured against the two main airports in Texas (DFW and Bush Intercontinental, which were first and third on PCRM’s list), where folks measure their success by the size of their ranches, their belt buckles, and their bellies. So I decided to check Men’s Fitness magazine’s latest survey on America’s fittest and fattest cities.
Sure enough, Dallas, Fort Worth, Chicago, and Houston all placed on the magazine’s list of the fattest cities. Fort Worth is No. 4, Dallas No. 6, Houston No. 10, and Chicago No. 20.
So what conclusion can you draw from this thin data? Well, that maybe chubby cities are trying to control their citizens’ widening waistbands by mandating healthier eats at their airports? Yes? Possibly? I mean, don’t these towns get embarrassed by these annual surveys labeling them the fattest asses in America?
Well, it sounds like a logical theory until you look at Las Vegas. Men’s Fitness calls it the fattest city in America. Its airport is also one of the poorest performers on PCRM’s list, coming in at No. 10.
So much for that theory.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Thombo2.
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11:29 am
Man, I don’t agree with that. Just because every place has a healthy “option” doesn’t mean squat to me. Quality and freshness of these alternatives is very important and I think having one or two places per terminal that serve decent healthy food is better than everyone having one crappy option that meets some criteria for “healthy”.
I actually prefer DCA compared to IAD or BWI for food. You could do much worse in the main concourse than Matsutake for sushi. Inside security is a little different. I fly mostly on AA (some will note the irony) and Terminal B has some decent options for healthy eats. Low carb sandwiches from Potbelly, and reasonably fresh sandwiches/salads from Cosi are fair options.
We just flew out of the newly revamped Terminal D in DFW and while it has many more options, the quality is generally poor. We struggled to find decent eats there. The best choice ended up being in the “Travel Mart” where the sandwiches looked reasonably fresh and affordable. Again, quanity doesn’t equate to quality and DFW proves the point.
Then again, what do I know? I spend all my time at the bar.