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According to Airline Transportation Association, nearly 40 million passengers will be traveling this holiday season. Knowing the ’best’ and ’worst’ choices when it comes to "plane food" is a valuable tool for travelers, so DietDetective.com has rated the best Calorie Bargains and Calorie Rip-offs at 35,000 feet.

DietDetective.com issued the 2009 Airline Food Survey, rating foods served by eight airlines. The survey assigned a Health Score (5 stars = highest rate; 1 star = lowest) based on the snacks and meals (such as they are) served on-board, airline cooperation, comments, ratings, cost, calories, and exercise equivalents.

"This year Continental provided the best choices in the sky, while United Airlines had a fall from grace. American Airlines wins for most improved, and US Airways falls to near the bottom," says Charles Stuart Platkin, PhD, MPH, public health advocate, founder and editor of DietDetective.com

Below are the Health Scores for the surveyed airlines. For full survey results - including full listings of snacks and meals on-board, comments, ratings, cost, calories, exercise equivalents, and tips, go to www.DietDetective.com

DietDetective.com Annual Airline Snacking and Onboard Food Survey with Health Ratings for 2009

Continental Airlines
Health Score: **** 1/2

Continental provides a variety of options and offers free, low-calorie, high-impact meals and snacks to hungry passengers.

Best Bet: For flights of two to three hours, both the Petite Cold Sandwiches are good options, and Continental even offers light mayo. For breakfast, skip the calorie-laden muffin and have cereal with low-fat milk and a banana. On flights of more than three hours you get a, a salad (Lite Ranch dressing is offered) and a fun-size candy bar.

American Airlines
Health Score: *** 3/4

American is actually improving- slowly, but improving. They got rid of the calorie-heavy oversized 3 Musketeers bar, revamped their Breakfast Café by taking away the high-calorie muffin and replacing it with oatmeal (it has brown sugar, but it’s still better than a muffin), and the Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bar has been replaced with a box of healthy raisins.

Best Bet: Your best bet is the Cheese & Cracker Snack Tray. Just skip the cracker packages. The Premium Nut Blend is a strong nutrition choice, but make sure to split it with at least two other people. If you’re traveling alone and don’t have a lot of willpower, take a third of the nuts and give the rest back to the flight attendant. (Nuts are high in calories, but the remaining choices don’t offer much in terms of nutrition, and they’re also high in calories.

If you’re on a longer flight, the Boston Market Chicken Caesar Salad with SunChips and dressing is a pretty good meal choice. Also, it’s nice that the dressing is on the side (use it sparingly). If you’re flying for three hours or more during breakfast, your only choice (other than the snacks) is the Breakfast Cafe, which is not too bad.

United Airlines
Health Score: *** 1/2

United still has the best variety, but their healthful offerings have been reduced and individual snacks are very high in calories. If you’re traveling more than five hours, United offers snack boxes, fresh salads and sandwiches, but the sandwiches and salads are much less health-oriented than the snack boxes.

Best Bet: For flights longer than two hours, go for the Active snack box. Even though it has more calories than the Organic, the Active has better food choices. If you want to save calories, eat only half the chips.

For flights longer than three hours, United has a plethora of choices- but not many that are healthy. For breakfast, your best bet is the low-fat yogurt and fruit. Alternatively, the ham and Swiss croissant isn’t horrible, you’ll be getting some protein, and it’s not high in calories. For lunch and dinner, you’d think the turkey sandwich would be a good choice, but it’s the highest in calories. The roast beef sandwich isn’t bad (in terms of calories), and the salads are both fair choices for a full meal. Both are served with dressing on the side, so try to use only half.

United’s individual snacks are about as far from healthy as you can find, with calories galore. Stick to the energy bars; at least they’re portion controlled. Clearly these snacks are meant to share, but given that the typical American eats whatever he or she is given... (Especially on a long flight.)

JetBlue Airways
Health Score: *** 1/2

Jet Blue’s individually packaged snacks are portion-controlled, but since you can ask for as many as you want, it’s dangerous territory. JetBlue is improving slowly, and all their snacks are under 140 calories, which isn’t bad. One plus is that they’ve lowered the overall calorie count of their snacks and added a Stella D’Oro Breakfast Treat (at just 100 calories) as well as Fiber Gourmet Cheese Snacks, which are only 50 calories. That said, JetBlue could be more creative and come up with a few healthier, more innovative snacks; how about a Larabar energy bar?

Best Bet: If you’re really hungry, go for the nuts. They have protein and good fat, and will satisfy your hunger. Eat them one at a time. A second option, the animal crackers, aren’t bad, but neither are the very nutritious. Try to stick with no more than one snack; just because they offer more doesn’t mean you have to take them, especially if you’re not actually hungry.

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines
Health Score: *** 1/2

Delta’s individual snack choices are not very good, but their meal choices on longer flights are reasonably healthy. They can do much better.

Best Bet: If you’re traveling 1 1/2 hours or more you can have one of two snack boxes, chips and M&Ms or trail mix. Your best bet is the Flight Delight snack box. For breakfast options (on flights of 3 ½ hours or more) Delta offers a fruit and cheese plate. The cheese is high in calories, but it’s an option if you skip the crackers- at least you’re getting some nutritional benefit from what you’re eating. Skip the egg salad wrap at all costs; between the "layered" cream cheese and the egg salad, you might gain weight right in the middle of your flight. Ditto the blueberry muffin.

For lunch/dinner options, Delta again offers a fruit plate, which is not a bad option. The Asian shrimp salad is also a good choice, especially since the dressing is on the side so you can use it sparingly. Another pretty good option would be the roast chicken sandwich with cheese and dressing (the honey-mustard dressing can be high in calories, so don’t use too much).

US Airways
Health Score: ** ½

There are some decent choices in US Airways’ snack box, but overall the choices could use a health tune-up. On flights under 2 1/2 hours they offer only pretzels. Not much nutrition there, but at least they’re not too high in calories.

Best Bet: The fruit and nut mix is very high in calories, so don’t eat more than one or two small handfuls and give the rest away. The chicken salad snack box is not a great choice, but if you must have it, skip the cookies. The salami and cheese box is not much better.

Aside from the boxes, there are a few solid offerings in terms of snacks. Your best bets are probably the Quaker Oatmeal Express or the almonds, provided you have someone to share them with or enough willpower to save some for another day. Almonds are healthy, but each one has 7 calories.

For breakfast the choices are not so great. There’s a fruit and cheese platter or a turkey deli club. Although it’s not really a breakfast choice, you can pick the turkey off the sandwich to make a healthy snack. The sandwich comes with a side of mayo (skip it for sure) and a cup of strawberry yogurt (too bad it’s not low fat). The cheese and fruit plate is not too bad either, as long as you toss the crackers. For lunch and dinner, go with the Caesar salad, but skip the dressing and use the lemon wedge they give you instead. It’s the dressing - and to some extent the cheese - that cause the calorie overload. Skip the pastrami sandwich; not only is it very high in calories on its own, but it’s topped off with Thousand Island dressing and a cookie.

Southwest Airlines
Health Score: **

Not much variety, and not much in terms of nutritional value.

Best Bet: Go for the nuts and skip the pretzels and other items.

About the Diet Detective

CHARLES STUART PLATKIN, Ph.D., M.P.H., THE DIET DETECTIVE is a nutrition and public health advocate, whose syndicated health, nutrition and fitness column, the Diet Detective, appears in more than 100 daily newspapers nationally, including the Honolulu Advertiser, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and The State. Platkin is also the founder of DietDetective.com, which offers nutrition, food, and fitness information along with a weight-loss program that provides customizable meal plans and fitness regimens that put his wellness principles into action. Platkin is also a health expert and blogger featured on Everydayhealth.com, Active.com, WCBSTV.com, and Fitnessmagazine.com