A lighter than airline load; in-flight meals trim down and shape up

For the first 45 years of commercial air travel, the food served at 30,000 feet was always good for a laugh—unless you had to eat it. Indescribable, indestructible and tasteless at best, the standard passenger fuel was often unfriendly to the waistline and the coronary arteries as well. As recently as four years ago, big bad beef accounted for almost 70 percent of dinner entrees, usually smothered in salty, fatty sauces to provide the illusion of flavor.