Food glorious food: healthy dining choices at sea

How to have your cake, eat some of it, and enjoy your cruise holiday without totally wrecking your waistline.

Living should be fun. Life should be enjoyable. Holidays should be about pleasure, excitement, rest, discovery and even more fun. And yet, by the time all the pundits, experts, health gurus and downright spoilsports have had their say we are left cowering in the corner, not knowing which way to turn, what to say or do and most particularly what to eat.

One of cruising’s great pleasures is not just visiting new and different places, but also being given the opportunity to taste new and different things. Food is one of life’s great joys and no wonder we love it – for many of us it includes shopping for and cooking as well as eating the stuff.

But nowadays we can’t hit the breakfast table each morning without hearing yet another warning about some other tasty pleasure being bad for us. Sure we all know that eating too much of the wrong types of food is bad for our weight, arteries, heart and mobility. We also know that there is a huge increase in the occurrence of both diabetes and obesity. However we are also aware that most of us know and understand more about our health than any other previous generation and we take note of what we learn. So too do the cruise ships, their kitchens and their chefs.

Food has always been one of the great attractions of cruising – the variety, the frequency, the novelties and the fun, especially as we don’t even have to lift a finger in its preparation. Want a cup of tea? It’s yours in an instant. Fancy an ice-cream? A choice of flavour, colour, topping, or even a low-fat job is just half a deck away. And should you desire a gourmet experience, then that too is available.

Cruise companies know which side their bread is buttered on, and realise their passengers now want not just healthy options in many of the restaurants, but also need their own eating restrictions catered for. Long gone are the days when a vegetarian was offered either a salad or a simple plate of steamed or boiled vegetables. There’s a vegetarian option on every menu, and most offer vegan as well as lactose-free and gluten-free alternatives.

You can read the remainder of Jo Foley’s article in the October/November 2015 edition of World of Cruising magazine. Subscribe today to receive future editions direct to your door.