Southwest Airlines may be bringing back their honey-roasted peanuts (allergies be damned!) but longhaul carriers might consider adding cherries to the snack mix. The melatonin in dried cherries apparently makes them a good jetlag-fighting snack.

…when flying east (say from New York to London) travelers should eat a handful of dried cherries (which have even greater levels of melatonin than fresh cherries) 30 minutes before trying to sleep. Once at their destination, they should eat a handful of cherries 30 minutes before going to bed every night for the same number of nights as the time change. (For a five-hour time shift, eat cherries for five consecutive nights.) When heading west, do the same regime, only eat your cherries the night before departure.”

Just be careful if you try to bring your own cherry pie onto the plane, especially if it’s filled with particularly gooey, gelatinous filling. Some overzealous TSA agents have confiscated pies in the past, despite TSA Director Kip Hawley’s public reminder that “pie is not a liquid.”

Now, with this jet lag research, you’ve got a defense. If anyone gives you a hard time, insist that your cherry pie is for medicinal purposes. “It’s a prescription pie!”

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