I am just wondering if anyone else has issues with Chinese food. I have found that every time I eat it I'm SUPER high. I end up taking 3 times my normal dose of insulin and just wondering if I'm the only one.
I tend to not overeat and have even ordered simple things like chicken and rice (nothing with sloppy sugary dips).
I'm ok with thai food and japanese, just seems to be something with Chinese food.
yep, me, too. Especially 5 hr later. I think maybe it's the starch and possibly added sugar? I like to tell people that my diabetes suggests that Chinese food is not as "good for you" as they all seem to think. I'm not talking about tempura, either, which I would expect to cause highs,I'm talking about veggie stir fry types.
Amy = Right! Chinese food is tough and often requires me to get my backup bottle of humalog. I have a few guesses, but am not certain why chinese food is so difficult. It could be the fast digesting carbs hit me all at once like a brick or it could be the unknown sugary ingredients in sauces. The only way I can somewhat manage is to use any rice/noodles very sparingly and go for dishes that hopefully dont have any sugar in them, usually spicy dishes.
Yeah I agree - it's like the Atkins diet - if I can't survive on it then it can't be good for you.
I find it weird that Thai food is ok but Chinese isn't. I had a coworker (who was chinese) tell me that they put self rising flour in the meat so that it plumps up the beef and chicken to make a small piece look bigger. I then thought if there is a whole bunch of flour in something I assume is just meat those extra charbs don't help my sugars.
If we feel like south asian food we tend to get Thai or Japanese instead.
There are a ton of hidden sugars in Chinese food. Sugar water is used to keep veggies crisp, and many of the sauces (even for the chicken fried rice) also have a lot of sugar in them. I always took double or triple what I thought I needed and that worked out ok.
Cora
Chinese food usually has rice.......really high on the glycemic index. It's good, but loaded with carbs. It's tough to limit the amount on your plate. You may want to reconsider your choices. Just a thought.
I heard from a CDE that it's the cornstarch in the sauces that raises our bgs. Even avoiding the sugary sauces (hello sesame chicken!) and the rice/noodles can lead to the highs if we don't cover the cornstarch. The CDE also told me that cornstarch is a s-l-o-w carb release and will probably show up 2 to 4 hours later. I don't know how true the info is, but it does explain a lot! :)
I just don't eat Chinese food. When I was first diagnosed with T1, I would have really bad highs after eating Chinese, and I just figured there was a lot of "hidden" sugar put in the sauces. So I just avoid Chinese food, because I just can't handle it.
Me too. Too many vairables. Cornstarch (not that much) rice is probably enough carbs for a meal even if you are watching it. Then the sugar and sugar and plum sauce and honey and sugar loaded sugar and breaded stuff. Then you load on protein that slows absorbtion of the second kicker and boom. Five hours later when the bolus has ended, it just starts sneaking up.
Pizza is almost as evil because the cheese slows things down.
Wow, I gave up Chinese food because I could never get keep my BG down. This is a very eye-opening conversation. I never could figure out what caused the highs, so I have avoided the food.
I generally do pretty well guesstimating doses for at least some types of take-out type Chinese food. I have it (or something like it) pretty often.
Well, except for dim sum. I can't deal with dim sum. See that's the thing about oversimplifying food choices, "real Chinese food" isn't necessarily either take-out type Chinese food or dim sum or even the type food that you'd find at a "real Chinese restaurant" (I can tell when I'm in one of those because I'm the only guy in the whole restaurant that's not Chinese!).
There are some things at Chinese take out places I don't deal with well... bean sauce is one of them. AFAICT it's the Chinese equivalent of either chocolate or maple syrup.
What I fail utterly at, every single time, is Indian food. Of course I only ever tried once or twice like 20 years ago and haven't tried since.
I have issues with some, probably most, types of Chinese food but, as it so happens, I have issues with some types of Japanese food, some types of Indian food, Mediterranean, etc. For me, it's kinda like eating a tall stack of pancakes topped with fruit and dripping with syrup, washing it down with a glass of orange juice, watching my BG shoot through the stratosphere, then concluding that I have issues with "American" food.
As people have said, Chinese sauces are tough to bolus for which makes large categories of very tasty Chinese food tough to bolus for. Ironically, I seem to manage the noodle soups best because it seems to be a much more straightforward estimate of the carbs right there in the noodles.
American-style Chinese food is terrible for you. Fried, lots of hidden starches.
I lived in China for a couple of years (in total, not at once) and I was able to find plenty of fresh, wonderful food that didn't raise my blood sugar at all - but then again, I was living without a car, it was really cold all the time, and I haven't really found that kind of food here in the US, with the exception of a couple of excellent restaurants in Seattle and the SF Bay Area.
I do think this is more a question of knowing exactly what is in your food, than an issue with 'Chinese' food specifically. Like FHS said, certain types of food are tricky for us. It isn't culture-specific.
I think the real problem is hidden carbs in food. It's the difference between a plain grilled steak with garlic butter sauce, and a chicken-fried steak with gravy. It doesn't make 'American' food tricky, it just means we have to be aware that the chicken-fried steak with gravy is much higher in carbs.
Westernized/Americanized Chinese food has LOTS of hidden carbs in it. Virtually all meat will have been coated in cornstarch and deep fried for that appealing crispiness. Often, there's more coating than meat.
I often cook Chinese-style dishes at home and don't have a problem bolusing because I know how much carb is in the food, so I don't get a nasty shock from hidden carbs. If you're dining out, quiz the server about hidden carbs. And go for the menu options which are less processed and so less likely to have hidden carbs, e.g. you'd be better off with 'steamed shrimp with garlic and ginger' than 'crispy shrimp with fried rice'.
I've heard that too.
i ALWAYS HAVE PROBS WITH CHINEESE FOOD ESPECIALLY THE GENTtSOS CHICKEN,,,WHICH I LOVE,,,,SO I STAY AWAY FROM IT AND MAYBE EAT IT ONCE A YEAR.......I THINK ITS TOO MUCH STARTCHES AND SUGARS IN THE FOOD..
Often, I eat "large" quantities of chinese food, even if I make a low carb choice. A large meal can cause a surge in blood sugar, the so called "Chinese Restaurant Effect." Our bodies often do strange things, and a large meal passing through our gut generates hormones which can cause this effect.
We had Chinese food last night, daughter's choice to celebrate her first day of work babysitting. I was all paranoid after reading this thread so I bolused for like 80G of carbs but the salted pork wasn't battered and the black pepper sauce fish must not have had as much cornstarch and, from cleaning up the "mess" later, I think it was probably only 55-60G of carbs. Thank goodness for cake balls...
Chinese/Oriental/Thai is hard. I usually take a 3 to 4 u bolus at dinner, but when I eat chinese, it is 7 to 8 in a square wave. Why?
Chinese uses a lot of cornstarch that can go unnoticed when figuring carb couts. 1 Tablespoon is 7 to 8 carbs, so it can be a hidden factor. And most dishes have cornstarch in them in one form or another. Also, sugar finds its way into Chinese regularly where you might not expect.
Rice is also a big factor. A cup of cooked white rice is 43 carbs, but I think the Chinese version has a higher count. Plus, if you add rice noodles, wrappers, etc. rice can play a large part. I once checked on Pad Thai (Thai, yes, but comparable) and a regular restaurant serving with 110 carbs--just for the noodles.
And the fat..... I could go on forever, but it is all difficult for Ds. I love oriental food of any type and use my 7u square bolus which seems to work fine.
The later impact of the highs come from the fat, whichis why the square wave, or two shots will handle it better.
Chinese food is loaded with hidden sugar and starch. I gave up on it long ago and miss it – but it’s just a BG nightmare.