The Challenge of Dining Out with Diabetes - 4 tips we use.
Even though we are pretty new to Type 1 diabetes, we quickly learned a lot of eating meals with diabetes involves the process of counting carbs for the meal.
Most of the meals we eat at home aren’t too challenging because we know all the ingredients, and it isn’t highly processed. We make carb smart and low sugar choices as much as possible. All of this keeps dining at home the safest choice.
However, that can get restricting. When it comes to counting carbs, most fast food and chain restaurants have published and easily accessible nutritional charts online. A lot of them are included in popular apps.
Eating Out with Diabetes
The challenge comes with small mom and pop restaurants and unique places. We love small diners and cafes when traveling. However, there are no carb counts or nutrition guides available. So, we have to use other methods to manage.
Eating fast food with diabetes, while not always the healthiest option, is usually pretty easy. Every chain publishes their nutrition guide online with the carbs, fat, and calories for almost every food on the menu. Occasionally, we can’t find the information for a special season item, but it is usually pretty easy.
The other place we have had challenges with diabetes and eating out is larger but unique places. On our recent trip to Disney Springs, we grabbed dessert at Amorette's Patisserie. We asked one of the head chefs, and they informed us that they don’t know the carbs for any item in the shop. They suggested the strawberries covered with sugar-free chocolate.
Hmm…
Now if you are a teenager and your family is eating delicious looking confections, do you want to be singled out? No!
Thankfully, many places at Disney Springs were much easier. Earl of Sandwich has nutrition guides online. Blaze pizza has their info on their website and offers a keto crust option which was delicious and lower carb. Success!
Eating out with type 1 diabetes can have challenges both to find something healthy and to know the nutritional information. While not perfect, here are 4 tips we use:
Guessing - We try to search or google for something similar and use those carb counts to guess. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we have failed. Glucose way too high; glucose crashing. Its just so hard to know. I wish it was easier to find the information that we needed.
CalorieKing - This website, book, and iOS app was suggested to us by our sons diabetic education team. We know that the information is consistent and verified.
Plan ahead - We try to have a meals or food groups that we know the carb counts for that can be a safe choice.
Know your trouble foods - We quickly learned that rice was one of my sons sensitive foods that would quickly skyrocket his glucose. We try to avoid those foods when eating out.