11 Healthy Grab-And-Go Items You Wouldn’t Expect To Find At A Travel Center

With spring break vacations and summer road trips rolling just around the corner, it’s all too easy to throw caution to the wind and grab a bag of potato chips or your favorite candy bar to snack on. But what if there was a way to stay fueled without jeopardizing wellness? What about a guilt-free snack that’ll keep you full and satisfied while road-tripping?

Here are 11 unexpected health & wellness items we offer at Pilot Flying J travel centers:

1.     New Fruit Cup

We just dropped our newest fruit cups, which our team members will be cutting and plucking by hand. These fruit cups will feature fresh blueberries, cubed pineapple and whole, peeled clementines, joining our other current fruit cups: purple grapes.

Top benefits: These fruits contain high antioxidant levels that help reduce inflammation in the body, improve skin health and appearance, fight against aging, improve memory and aid in digestion.

Fun fact: About 10 percent of your daily fiber is in one cup of cubed pineapple!

Pairs well with: Almonds

Suggested serving size: The whole container!

2.     Wonderful Pistachios

Wonderful Pistachios are, well, wonderful! These earthy, slightly creamy nuts are farmed on the world’s largest grower of pistachios across 125,000 acres in California. They’re packed with a variety of proteins to support heart-health.

Top benefits: Pistachios are great “brain food,” packing a real punch of omega-3 fatty acids, lowering cholesterol and keeping blood sugars level.

Fun tip: Purchase the unshelled Wonderful Pistachio packets. Having to shell each nut yourself slows down eating time and contributes to less food intake.

Pairs well with: Our sliced green apple cups!

Suggested serving size: Share with your spouse or friend to stick to serving size

3.     Jack Links Teriyaki Beef Jerky

Jack Links offers a 1-oz teriyaki-flavored jerky that’s full of protein without loads of sugar. Each piece is made from carefully selected lean cuts of 100% premium beef, marinated in a blend of soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic and ginger, then slowly cooked over hardwood smoke.

Top benefits: These jerky pieces have 11 grams of protein with only 80 calories with no added nitrates or MSG. They’re known to stabilize blood sugar and are high in vitamins and minerals like zinc, iron and Vitamin B12.

Fun fact: Jerky was the #1 go-to snack for NASA astronauts in the 1990s.

Pairs well with: Our new fruit cups!

Suggested serving size: 1 ounce, or about 1/3 of the bag

4.     GNC Multivitamins

In 2022, we partnered with global health and wellness brand GNC to offer five convenient, on-the-go GNC essentials at 645 of our locations. These include multivitamin offerings for men and women, as well as GNC’s GNC Men’s Staminol® Daily Male Performance FormulaGNC Melatonin 5 mg, and the GNC Immune Defense Gummy. These multivitamins cover gaps we commonly have in our regular diets, supporting daily health, wellness and immune support through essential supplements. The men’s gummy vitamin offers 14 key ingredients and the women’s includes 16 key ingredients that help aid in energy and metabolism in addition to other benefits.

Top benefits: Adding multivitamins to your daily regime has tons of important benefits, from targeting immune health  to strengthening bone and targeting muscle health to supporting metabolism. Vitamin K, B vitamins and magnesium aid in heart health and vitamins C and biotin help cater to healthy hair and skin.

Fun fact: Women played a critical role in the discover of many vitamins (Marguerite Davis helped in Vitamin A’s discovery of 1913, Katherine Bishop helped in Vitamin E’s discovery in 1922, and Lucy Wills discovered folic acid).

Pairs well with: Core Water

Suggested serving size: Two gummies/capsules per day

5.     Core Water

Water might be an obvious health and wellness item offered at pretty much any stop, but with Core Water, you receive extra electrolytes and minerals that are essential to the body. This water undergoes reverse osmosis, which removes chemicals, pesticides and metals from its contents. The 7-stage purification process works in harmony with the body’s natural pH levels to give it a clean, crisp taste.

Top benefits: Drinking plenty of water helps carry oxygen to the body, regulates body temperature, makes minerals and nutrients accessible to different parts of the body, increases metabolism and helps prevent arthritis by reducing friction in the joints.

Fun fact: 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated

Pairs well with: Anything!

Suggested serving size: Four to six glasses per day, according to Harvard Health

6.     Kind Bars

We offer two different kinds of Kind Bars at our stores – the cranberry almond bar and caramel, almond and sea salt bar. These are made with minimal ingredients, offering a sweet and tangy flavor to the almond’s crunch. The honey offers a splash of sweetness to the spices, which help keep the bar balanced.

Top benefits: These bars include vitamin D, calcium, iron and potassium and are a great gluten-free option for a long road trip. They have 0 grams of trans fat, are low in sodium, low in glycemic index, and are Kosher!

Fun fact: Kind Bars are in the top 5 selling snack bars, according to Forbes.

Pairs well with: Our bean-to-cup Guatemalan LTO!

Suggested serving size: 1 bar

7.     Perfect Bars

A dash of sweet, a sprinkle of sea salt and plenty of peanut butter make this an ideal bar to grab while you’re on the go. They include fair-trade, dark chocolate chips that are just the right amount of sweet – you can hardly tell there’s over 15 grams of protein and 20 organic superfoods included in the mix!

Top benefits: These offer an abundant source of protein, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and niacin which help improve blood sugar levels, produce energy and support blood vessel function to aid in heart-health. Peanut butter is high in calories, so make sure you eat these in moderation.

Fun fact: This month is National Peanut Month! The average American eats about three pounds of peanut butter every year – that’s enough peanut butter to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon!

Pairs well with: It’s the Perfect Bar! You don’t need anything else with it 😊

Suggested serving size: 1 bar

8.     Egg Cups

Our egg cups include four hard-boiled eggs, which are a great filling option that don’t rack up too many calories. These are an excellent source of lean protein, reduces cholesterol, helps increase mental energy. One hard-boiled egg includes 78 calories, 6 grams protein, only 1 gram sugar. Boiling preserves benefits and nutrients in hard-boiled egg vs. frying the eggs.

Top benefits: These are an excellent source of lean protein, reducing cholesterol and helping increase mental energy. One hard-boiled egg includes 78 calories, 6 grams of protein and only 1 gram of sugar.

Fun fact: By boiling your eggs, you preserve the benefits and nutrients in the yolk vs. when you fry them.

Pairs well with: Our fresh, purple grape cups!

Suggested serving size: One egg

9.     Smoked Turkey & Bacon Wrap

Our smoked turkey & bacon wrap is a crowd favorite! From the hand-sliced turkey to the fresh spinach to the soft tortilla with hints of garlic, this wrap is packed with flavor and sure to fill you up while on the road! To make this wrap extra healthy, feel free to remove the bacon pieces.

Top benefits: Turkey is a rich source of protein, offering niacin, vitamin B6 and amino acids that contain anti-cancer properties. It’s also a lean meat, making it low in fat and high in minerals. Spinach is a great source of iron, boosting hydration and curbing the appetite.

Fun fact: We make 638,857 wraps per year

Pairs well with: Wonderful Pistachios make for a great side option

Suggested serving size: 1 wrap

10.  Coffee

While pumps and flavors certainly make coffee unhealthy, in small doses, black coffee is actually known to have several health benefits such as fighting cell damage and reducing cancer/heart disease. We have X amount of coffee offerings, many of which are organic and rain-forest alliance certified.

Top benefits: Coffee contains high levels of B2, aids in weight loss, reduces inflammation in the body, boosts liver health and cleanses the stomach.

Fun tip: To add flavor to your coffee, try using natural spices like cardamom or cinnamon instead of half and half.

Pairs well with: Jack Link’s Teriyaki Beef Jerky

Suggested serving size: No more than 400 milligrams of caffeine per day.

11.  Chobani

Greek yogurt is a great option for a filling, healthy snack while on the road. It’s lower in sugar than regular yogurt and is a great probiotic that’ll fill you up until your next stop. Chobani makes their yogurt with real fruit, including three different types of probiotics and containing less than 5 percent of lactose. Their yogurt is gluten-free, low in sodium and has no high fructose corn syrup, making each spoonful guilt-free!

Top benefits: Greek yogurt improves gut health with good bacteria, lowers blood pressure, builds muscle mass and boosts metabolism. Chobani offers ample amounts of calcium, iodine and B12 in their yogurt, packing a lot of protein while maintaining an overall sweet taste.

Fun fact: Greek yogurt doesn’t actually have a Greek origin. It comes from the Turkish word yoğurt, which comes from the Old Turkish root yog, meaning “to condense or intensify.”

Pairs well with: Any of our nut, seed or fruit offerings that you can toss into the mix for extra texture and protein!

Suggested serving size: One 5.3 ounce container

These 11 grab-and-go options are great while out on the open road. Enjoy these light, hearty and nutritious options that’ll keep you filled up until you reach your destination!

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