Healthiest Airport Food in the United States

Caroline Costello's travel accomplishments include surviving a 2 a.m. whitewater rafting excursion in the Canadian wilderness, successfully biking from Dusseldorf to Cologne without a map, and gaining access to a covert pizza speakeasy in New Orleans.

Caroline is an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). Her work has appeared on USA Today, the Boston Globe, AOL.com, MSNBC.com, ABC News, TODAY Travel, and CruiseCritic.com, among other publications.

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The healthiest airport in the country is located in the pizza-stuffed state of New Jersey.

According to a report from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Newark Liberty International Airport has the most diet-friendly cuisine in the country. Newark Liberty really lives up to that Garden State moniker, dishing out falafel sandwiches, seaweed salads, and grilled veggies in abundance. The airport scored 92 percent on the PCRM’s healthy-food scale.

Las Vegas McCarran International Airport came in at second place, and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is the third healthiest. The PCRM found that overall, more than three quarters of airport restaurants in the U.S. have something wholesome to offer hungry travelers.

The committee looked at menu offerings at 18 of the busiest airports in the country, and came up with a numeric score for each hub by dividing the number of restaurants serving at least one healthy option by the overall sum of restaurants.

What kinds of foods qualify as “healthy”? In this case, it’s an entree—for breakfast, lunch, or dinner—that’s low-fat, high in fiber, vegetarian, and cholesterol-free. According to the report, “Healthful entrees at airports covered in this report include the smoked tofu, broccoli, and mushroom burrito at 360 Gourmet in Las Vegas and a Mediterranean platter with pita points, hummus, olive tapenade, fresh asparagus, yellow zucchini, green zucchini, baby carrots, and Kalamata olives at Mediterranean Cafe in Chicago.”

Hungry for veg-friendly some hummus and pita points? You’ll have to bring your own meal at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, which ranked at the bottom of the list with a score of 58 points. The PCRM claims that Hartsfield-Jackson is “clogged with eateries serving hot dogs, fried chicken, and pizza.”

Do you agree with the report?

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