A Traveler's Lament or...Why do I eat so much when am away from home?

For a long time, I thought it was only me. And I thought it was truly a sign of my lack of discipline or fortitude. Why was it that, as soon as I was on the road somewhere, I ate huge amounts at every meal?

Now one might think that, given the amount of international traveling I do, it might simply be explained away as cultural curiosity. Oh, let’s see how they make eggs in this country. An appetizer at both lunch and dinner would afford another tasting opportunity. And the breads – so fresh, worth another slice.

Needless to say, if I were at home, I wouldn’t be having that bread at all. And how many courses is one really hungry for during the course of the day. But that all seems to fade away if I am sitting at some place some miles from home.

The cultural curiosity argument also fades away as soon as I contemplate my eating habits even in the Untied States when one hardly need resolve a cultural quandary. [Perhaps excepting LA which I find largely inscrutable no many how many times I visit.]

In any case, my appetite doesn’t seem to have a preference. If I am away, I eat. And I eat full meals every time. Which brings me back to the question, why.

My next approach was to ask fellow travelers. The literal kind. Others who find themselves in other time zones on a somewhat regular basis. And sure enough, most of them confirmed that their eating habits when traveling veered far from their norm. Many found themselves similarly gorging themselves at meal after meal, when at home a salad would have sufficed. Clearly something going on here.

I finally have come up with a theory. I haven’t seen any research on this phenomenon but I trust someone among our readers will find a paper which either proves, or disproves the theory. Here it is:

What we do when we travel is revert to some primal instinct. At home, our highly evolved selves can regularize our diet because we are confident that we know where our next meal will be. And if necessary, where and how we can cheat between meals. But when we travel, we revert to primal behavior. We eat as much as we can, not because of hunger but because of fear that we don’ t know where our next meal will come from. Unfamiliarity breeds insecurity – and feeding ourselves is how we stave off the fear of the unknown [albeit an unknown restaurant] It is hardly rational. We know full well that our hosts are accommodating, that the conference has provided for 3 full meals, that virtually every city and small town has a pizza place with a universal margarita. Rarely is there really a question of the availability of the next meal, even if its location is not yet certain.

But something in our psyche, our selves, doesn’t trust what we know, so we eat, and eat, and eat. And then we return home, and, we, or at least I, de-tox and go back to my exercise routine, and before you know it all is more or less normal. And I swear to myself that I won’t be so self indulgent the next time.

Until the next time I am at the airport business lounge, or on the plane or at that hotel buffet breakfast, or ….