Air Travel, Swollen Feet and Bad Food: New Evidence

On a recent visit to Asia I managed to acquire the feet and ankles of an old lady. Not by making some sinister purchase, you understand, but as a result of water retention caused by the plane cabin pressure.

In the comments for the blog post I wrote when I returned, someone with medical knowledge offered an explanation for something I already suspected: that eating bad food and drinking alcohol made the condition worse. As a reminder, here are the photos from the Asia trip:

During the Asia trip

3 days after Asia trip, after detoxing

Today, I am coming to the end of another business trip, this time to Boston. Earlier in the week, when I arrived after an 8-hour transatlantic flight and 90-minute connecting flight, I took this photo of my feet:

Immediately after the transatlantic and connecting flights

No swelling at all. The flight had been almost as long as the ones I had been taking in Asia, yet my feet were fine. The difference? This time I had one coffee, lots of water and no food.

So for this n=1 study, the evidence supports the hypothesis that eating and drinking crap makes flight-induced swollen feet worse.