Study Examines What Pilots Eat

You've seen the t-shirts, right? "Will Fly For Food"?

That's just what Elliot Wilson is doing. Only the food is free and includes the likes of lobster and crab legs.

Wilson is an aviation student at the University of North Dakota. He and 14 of his fellow students are taking part in a study on how food affects pilots' ability to think and act in the cockpit.

"It's way better than what we're used to on the regular dorm assembly line," said Elliot Wilson, a commercial aviation major from Seattle. "My friend was in the study last semester and I got very interested when I found out he was eating lobster while I was eating hamburger."

Four times a year, the students eat a very tightly controlled diet, dining alone at the school, feasting on seafood delicacies. When they leave, they get a bag full of beef jerky and soy nuts.

There are four different diets in the study -- some valid, some placeboes. Students don't know which they're getting.

"We try to make the meals pretty similar and they are always trying to guess what diet they are on," said registered dietician Glenda Lindseth. She's also director of research at the university and is working with her husband, Tom, who's the associate dean for academics in aerospace sciences. "Some of them get a little crankier on certain diets."

But Wilson, who's studying for his ATP and a career in commercial aviation, says you can't fool his stomach. "One week I'm eating a whole bunch of meat but no sugar ... hello. Another week I was eating sugar cookies and was all hopped up. But the worst week was when I had to eat a bowl of cottage cheese every day."

But that's just the gravy part of the experiment... excuse the pun. Wilson and the others go to work each day in a simulator, being tested on their flying skills and mental ability. It may be a free lunch, but it's no free ride. They're put through the ringer in the sim, flying bad-weather approaches, then flying to and maintaining a hold.

"You want to make sure you are stressing them enough to see a difference, so they are pushed pretty hard," said researcher Warren Jensen, the school's director of aeromedical research. "But these are pretty reasonable things that could happen."

A lobster dinner is worth this?

As if that weren't enough, participants then have to take three written tests designed to task their memories, spatial perception and attention span.

The four-year, $621,310 study is funded by a grant from the US Army Biomedical Research Command.

FMI: www.und.edu