Okay, my rant for the day! There are times I absolutely hate asking for carb menus. Last night I got that “oh, darling, you don’t have to worry about the calories, look at you!” Nope, it wasn’t the calories I was worried about. It’s the same thing with ordering diet cokes for my daughter - which I’ve been doing since she was 6 years old - and there been more than enough times I know someone is thinking, “sad, she’s making her daughter diet at such a young age”.
I know it’s frustrating when people think that counting what you eat is equivalent to being on a diet-- whereas for us, it’s just a way of life!!
I usually give too much information to prevent these comments, I tell them that I have diabetes and I need to know the exact carbohydrate count of what I eat, can I please have the nutrition info?
Annoying, but it usually prevents the reactions. About the diet coke, I guess we just have to accept the stares!
Since my husband became a Type 1 I have been looking at the whole world differently. I never again will wonder at what people eat… Okay, I may wonder, but it will be enlightened wonderment.
And I’ll still likely be upset at the mother I saw in the store the other day denying her child an apple - but offering a box of cookies instead from the trolly full of chips and sweets. Can’t think of a reason for that one… (I overheard her saying that they had lots of snacks and didn’t need apples, too)
Katie, fortunately for you and your husband, you have been enlightened about the benefits of making healthier food choices. Unfortunately, the majority of the American populace HAS NOT received the information in a manner where they could perceive it as “enlightenment”, nor as necessary for themselves or for their loved ones. All we can do is kindly show by example, I guess. Part of the Modern Health-care dilemma, I assume…When is needed information TOO Much Information? Hmmmm
Candice, I do not worry about the " looks" or the comments. I just ask, like Kristin, saying “I am diabetic and I need to know to make my food choices”. Most people will not give me a hassle. I do not wonder what they are thinking in their minds: They probably have their OWN concerns/lives and are not giving me any extra thought after our brief conversational exchange…
God Bless
Brunetta
What I have done to solve this problem is expensive, but works… I got an iphone for 99.00 signed up for the most BASIC service, I got an app from www.livestrong.com it has a huge carb counting database. So any restaurant I go to I just pull out my phone, look up the carbs, also save them so I know what I ate when. Then when I go to my doc she has a full list of what I ate when and the complete nutritional info. that can be printed out.
I can totally relate. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I find that sometimes when I ask for the nutritional info, and it’s a new or young worker who now has to go “out of their way” to go ask or find it, they give me a dirty look. During those times, my motherly instinct kicks in and I go into “Mother Defender Auto-Pilot” mode and firmly say “My son is diabetic and we NEED to know the carb counts!” I can just feel my insides turning bitter as I say the words because it’s none of their business & they don’t have the right to know! I am working on trying to ask without telling them why. Who CARES why? I need them, and it’s YOUR job to get them. Period.
As a teen, I worked in a smoothie shop in the New Orleans downtown area, and ocassionally customers would ask for the nutritional info, and I remember thinking how awesome it was that they paid such close attention to what they were putting in their bodies, even though everything we sold was healthy. I felt important to be the one to give them the info. Seems like a lot of people today do not want to go one step beyond the norm to help another person. People who do are becoming the exception to the rule.
Don’t even get me started on the whole diet soda thing. Grrr! Thanks for letting me vent. I feel ya!
On a good note, one thing we recently discovered is the restaurant nutrition app for iphone/itouch. If you happen to have either one of those, it’s a free app and has all the carb counts for the everyday items. Hope that helps. : )
I wish I could get the iphone but ATT has no coverage where I am (or most of the places I go to). On the diet coke subject I’ve gotten plenty similar comments (“but you aren’t fat,” “you’re too skinny for a diet coke,”) but my favorite one was “diet coke is for women.” In fact, whenever my wife and I eat out I always order a diet and she a regular Sprite, but when the drinks arrive they always put the diet in front of my wife and give me the regular assuming that I ordered it for her to save her the embarrassment.
The worst, however, was when we ate out and I asked if the have diet lemonade. The waiter said yes and gave it to me. When I asked for a refill (feeling suddenly very thirsty) from another waiter I made sure I told him I wanted a diet not regular. He informed that they didn’t carry diet lemonade. I mentioned that the other waiter assured me they did and he insisted they didn’t and said the waiter shouldn’t have told me that, but I wasn’t fat anyway so what’s the big deal? I asked for the manager who when came accused me of making a big fuss to get a free meal (though I denied his offer to comp my meal several times before he accused me of that).
The following day I talked to the owner about this (it was a small local restaurant so no corporate hassles were needed) and he assured that the manager’s job was “under review” and the waiter would be retrained to know their menu better.
If I had ordered diet coke I’d know the difference in taste immediately, but with lemonade I couldn’t.
But it is definitely paying off asking for it! Cate just switched to the Omnipod two months ago and she has been finally serious about really knowing what the carb count is and asking for it and finally using her Carb King book. Two months ago her AC1 was 10.3 - today it was 6.7! I think it even shocked her doctor. Part of it I’m sure was all the lows when she first switched over but I definitely think it was paying closer attention to carbs too.
Thanks for the comments! I do relate to a lot of it and makes me feel better that it’s just not me! We are going to start programming some favorites into her meter too - bacon breakfast sandwich at Starbucks!