Why you should never eat food on a plane

At superhigh altitude the digestive system shuts down, so that when it restarts it has much more work to do which makes people feel more tired. Picture / Getty Images

The key to beating jet lag could be as simple as flying on an empty stomach, apparently.

Melissa Biggs Bradley, who founded luxury travel firm Indagare, recently shared her travel hacks with Bloomberg.

Among her top tips was the "stewardess secret" of never eating while on-board a flight.

According to Biggs Bradley, eating while flying can be a sure-fire way to get hit by the dreaded jet lag.

She said she learnt the simple but effective tip from a hostie a decade ago while on-board a 17-hour Singapore Airlines flight to New York.

"I eat nothing on flights. I've talked to a lot of stewardesses about it, and it's a stewardess secret," she said.

"Basically, at superhigh altitude, your digestive system shuts down completely. Someone said to me it's like being under anaesthesia.

"So when you get off the plane, everything restarts and [your digestive system] has so much more work to do and so it makes you more tired."

Biggs Bradley said even the tastiest plane food was usually "oversalted and preserved" and that passengers shouldn't eat simply to pass the time.

She recommended eating a few hours before catching a flight, and then consuming nothing but "lots and lots" of water.

"Really and truly, I live by it and I feel so much better," she said.

The frequent flyer, who lives in New York with her husband and two kids, also said it was important to get local recommendations whenever possible.

"A friend of mine told me one of his tips is always to go and seek out a restaurant with a communal table in any place he's going where he doesn't have the name of somebody to look up. It's an instant way to interact with local people," she said.

Biggs Bradley said she takes daily probiotic pills while travelling to protect herself from food poisoning.

She said she was also a fan of mobile hotspot Skyroam, which gives travellers unlimited data for A$10 a day.

She also had a great hack for travelling as a family.

"If you're on a multigenerational family trip, announce there are three roles: instructor, documenter, and note taker," she said.

"Every day, someone has to document everything — they're the cameraperson. Someone else is taking notes, and someone else is in the position of trip leader, so they have to brush up and give a few minutes' talk on what you're seeing today.

"Every day, rotate those roles, and then at the end of the trip, you have a wonderful record."