Coffee, refined carbs? An airport dilemma.

Seasonal coffee to go...

​       London Gatwick arrivals Hall; not my favourite holiday destination but there I was, at 7:15 a.m., waiting patiently at the North Terminal to greet my cousin Frances who was arriving from Toronto Canada.
Yes the plane was delayed... but only by 25 minutes, so what with baggage clearance and the longer passport procedures which now seem inevitable when entering the UK, I had a little over one hour to wait.
It was still dark outside on this frosty morning and as I went in search of a warming morning beverage, my prime candidates were Costa Coffee with two locations on two levels and Jamie Oliver's Italian coffee venture upstairs in the Departure Hall.

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Lots of sugary cake, muffins and tarts on display

Jamie's Cappuccino
      So I decided to try Jamie's and my cappuccino was… how can I put it?…OK. Prepared as the Brits seem to like it with much too much milk (a latte by any other name…), the hot milky drink was frothed nicely with highly visible Yeo Valley organic milk, but sadly, served in its semi-skimmed variety.
I requested a regular milk option (or as my niece likes to say, a 'full-fat' version) but disappointingly, the helpful ‘barista’ advised me that soy milk was the only other option... but that's another story.
Plainly disappointing is that Jamie's Coffee shop pushes all the usual sweet and starchy cakes and snacks beloved by coffee franchise operations across the UK for their high profitability. Given Jamie Oliver's anti-sugar stance, I was initially surprised but there again, given his lack of acceptance of the role played by refined carbs in Insulin Resistance, I suppose the extensive choice of cakes, crisps, sandwiches and wraps on offer should not have surprised me. As mentioned before, Jamie is in need of better and more up-to-date advice on the role of refined carbs in the blood sugar/insulin cycle… but that’s yet another story.

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If there were a carbolicious Xmas award, Costa would win

​Everyone sells refined carbs
     Speaking of snacks, food-to-go can be found everywhere in the surrounding franchised operations whatever their primary reason for existance may be. The mis-named London News Company extends much more space to soft drinks and packaged carbs in all their forms than to newspapers and magazines and Boots the Chemist has a whole wall dedicated to soft drinks, sandwiches and sugary snacks. I wonder... Do they suspect that people buying their refined carb snacks at a pharmacy will consider them healthier?
Marks and Spencer feature a more up-market choice around their sandwich counter and as for Costa Coffee, they currently feature the most decadent array of sweet Christmassy cakes, buns and mince pies at the front of their store.
At least the pizza, pasta and burger joints are missing - they're all in the Departures Hall.

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A low-carb goal for 2017
​       Should you want a genuine healthier alternative, it would be very, very hard to find any low-carb snacks or meals here, but the good news (for me) was that I didn’t face this dilemma. Did I come prepared? No, I was simply not hungry.
And the bad news? Well this is more of a big-picture comment. This airport experience was a further reminder of just how deeply ingrained our sugary, starchy eating and drinking habits have become, and how much environmental and cultural change will be needed to change things for the better.
The anecdote of how long it takes to slow down an ocean liner before she can gradually change course reminds me that in spite of our heightened awareness on the subject of reducing sugar levels (as demonstrated by Costa Coffee’s new addition to their website http://www.costa.co.uk/nutrition), we have not as yet even begun to put on the sea brakes, let alone genuinely change course.
So; thinking positively about the New Year, let’s make 'increased awareness', aka 'putting on the brakes' our low-carb goal for 2017; and then maybe in 2018, we can slowly begin to turn this very large, high-carb ship around.

Some of the many high carb delights sold at London's Gatwick Airport Arrivals Hall

Cappucinno taste test? Jamie's low fat milk was narrowly defeated.

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​Postscript:
     There was a further flight delay, so I tried a Costa cappuccino for comparison.
​Again, the warm drink was much too milky but because they use regular milk by default, the overall taste was one notch better than at Jamie’s. Both franchises use coffee beans that lack the distinct slightly bitter after-taste that comes with real Italian cappuccino – at least, that’s my opinion.
As for now, my cousin Frances has safely arrived… and guess what, she wants a coffee.