I get the same thing from the same place whenever I get chinese food and I know exactly how much inulin to take. If I deviate even the slightest my levels take the better part of a day to get under control.
Boy oh boy, I am at my family's for the holidays and Mom suggested Chinese last week when just she and I were out (she's also a Type I and a frequently posts on the forums which I admit I do not). I FORGOT to tell her (it had been a while since either of us had had Chinese) to watch out for highs later, and we both had a hard time with highs up to 13 hours after lunch! She had said that she should post something and I said okay if you want but there's probably a thread already, and today we found this popular thread! :)
I live in NYC and tend to visit friends in another boro on weekends, and they love to order Chinese because 1)it's inexpensive and 2)it fills you for a long time. Tim's post above and the subsequent posts point out several things I was going to type. One of the fastest growing demographics in NYC are the Chinese peoples. But 'typical' Chinese (takeout) is a Westernized food that is not eaten in China proper (try a google search on General Tso's Chicken for example, I am sure you'll find a lot of interesting things about it, including that at least as of 2 years ago it was unheard of in mainland China, though General Tso himself is famous-Anrea Karim's post above made me think of this). See the post above about being the only American in a Chinese restaurant.
I love Chinese as so many have already posted, but I tend to be on the brittle side and it's a chore trying to keep my bs below 3- or even 4-hundred especially hours after eating; I could not even eat this food if I wasn't on an insulin pump. The guys I mentioned in the paragraph above typically order either Chinese or pizza, which I find the 2 toughest 'food groups' for extended basal increases and multiple or square wave boluses (usually both).
I've forgotten sooo many things I had begun typing to say. Look at the ton of emails from the ADA or TuDiabetes about healthy cooking, wok cooking which can be EXTREMELY healthy but if you use peanut oil to cook that then things get so much more complicated. The variable is in takeout or eating out Chinese food. The big unknown is how that place preps its food, how it sweetens the food for our tastes. If you follow the warnings in this thread I think you could be prepared to order now and then, but in general be wary of everything from carbs (complex and simple often in the same dish), the heavy calories (though not Chinese, my best friend from high school married a Korean woman when he was stationed in Seoul; when we talk he exthols rice and I say how hard it is on carbs and he said "You have to get real rice a Chinese or Korean store, not the Americanized stores you find everywhere else). ANYWAYS I'll try to end this long diatribe but suggesting if you are wary, prepare mentally in advance and keep an eye on your blood sugars but DO NOT OVERCORRECT then it should be okay every once in a while.
Sorry for the long post, hope this helps. :)
I'm a low carber here and i eat chinese food quite frequently. my wife is chinese and she cooks chinese food almost every day. our meals are usually heavy on vegetables and have small amounts of protein mixed in. i don't eat the rice. i know there's a lot more control and a lot less mystery to what she makes at our home compared to a chinese restaurant, but we eat at chinese restaurants quite frequently too. it's all a matter of what you order. i don't have an issue with a lot of the vegetable/meat dishes as long as there isn't a sugary sauce. simple things like garlic beef with brocoli or snap peas are good choices. Also, other dishes like mongolian beef use a lot more dry spices, just make sure to get it without the noodles! One of our favorite things to order is shui zhu rou or shui zhu yu. This is thin slices of beef (in the first one) or fish (in the second one) in a spicy broth of chilis with a few vegetables thrown in - low carb and delicious, if you like spicy food. Some restaurants put a little bit of starch on meat or fish to tenderize it, which ups the carb count a little bit, so it's best to try a piece before deciding on your dose. Another great thing to order is eggplant. Chinese cuisine has tons of way to prepare delicious eggplant (something I didn't think was possible growing up). Also, can't go wrong with qing zhen yu - steamed fish with oil and soy sauce.
Dan, I would love to see some of those recipes for the spicy broth with the beef or fish, and also any of your eggplant recipes. We cook a lot of our own Chines food and I'm always looking for some new recipes.
http://www.tudiabetes.org/group/lowcarbrecipeswap
wow, awesome a1c you have there!
When I went out to eat with my son (Sig71, who posted above) I ordered the beef with sugar snap peas, it was served over rice, and I only ate half of the container that it was served in, and brought the rest home. However my blood sugar ran from low 300's to mid-200's the rest of the day, even after multiple boluses and an increased basal for 5 hours. I felt like I was on steroids! I threw the rest away, didn't think it was worth the hassle.
Try to stay away from Chinese as best I can. If I do eat it, I keep the noodles and rice to a minimum. It's generally tough to count carbs for since much of it usually smothered in some sugary sauce. When I do eat it, my rule is to focus on the least carb intensive stuff and add a few extra insulin units to what I'd normally do.
Marie, here is a recipe for the dish which Dan mentioned. The only carb in the dish is the three teaspoons of cornstarch, which isn't a huge amount in the overall scheme of things.
The literal translation of the Chinese name, shui zhu rou, is 'boiled meat' but the actual dish is slices of usually beef, in a volcanic eruption of chillies. It is *seriously* spicy.
thanks! looks great, and I keep chili bean paste and Szchewan peppercorns. nice website too, didn't know about it.
Hi Marie - my wife is like a magician - there are no recipes. my mother has tried to get her to write some things down with no avail. it's always based on what's in the fridge and what's fresh at the grocery store. What i can tell you is most dishes start by sauteing garlic, peppers, and ginger in hot oil for a few minutes until the garlic is golden, then she adds lots of veges (probably 4+ cups of what ever is on the menu) and a splash of soy sauce. the veges cook down in a few minutes and the juices that come out make up the remainder of the sauce.
for eggplant - i never know what's going on either, i just know i pretty much like it no matter how it's made in a chinese kitchen. i lived in china for almost 4 years and eggplant quickly became one of my favorite foods, and this was before i had to change my diet for diabetes. Next time you're in a chinese restaurant i would recommend just asking about some of the eggplant dishes and picking whatever sounds best, or maybe try online. a quick search turns up hot and sour eggplant - only one tablespoon of sugar for 4 servings - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-and-Sour-Chinese-Eggplant/Detail.aspx?k=1. there are a few more on that site that are low carb and highly rated - just type in chinese eggplant. the szechuan eggplant and the eggplant with garlic sauce also look like good options. there's some sugar in them, but pretty low on a per-serving basis. sorry, wish i could be more helpful!
another good tip if you try the shui zhu rou - take home the broth, you can make it yourself usually two times later in the week. we get takeout and wind up getting three dinners out of it. she just slices up a bit more fish or meat and throws it in the broth. another tip - watch out for the small things that look like peppercorns. they make your mouth numb and tingly, some love it, some hate it.
as for the A1Cs - yes, it's possible to have a low A1C and eat lots of chinese food. most nights i can take 2 units of apidra and eat my fill of veges with a little meat or tofu. i go 3 units if there's brocoli, green beans, snap peas, or carrots. usually don't spike over 110 this way at 1 hour, then back to around 90 after 2 hours.
i definitely agree that restaurants can be much more tricky, put possible if you stay away from the sauces and the rice. when i go to a chinese restaurant i might take around 4 units to cover around 25g carbs and try to eat to my dose, then check an hour later. if it's a little higher than i'd like, a short after-dinner stroll gets things back under control.
by the way, about the sugary sauces, very few dishes in china are made that way - it just seems that way here because they cater to the local market. if the option is available, try to find out where chinese people eat and ask for some recommendations, given your dietary needs. i've taken a few friends and family around china and they all say - wow, so this is chinese food? where are the sugary sauces? where's general tso?!?
For me, Chinese food is right up there with bread, rice, and pasta. I just stay away.
Yes, Chinese food does it every time. I usually do a Combo Bolus, and check like mad afterwards. Thai food does not seem to effect me quite so bad.
I actually like a lot of the braised and stewed chinese styles. We often associate chinese food with stir fried over rice or noodle based dishes. And this may well be the vast majority of what is available in the "cheap" chinese places, it hardly reflects the range of chinese or asian food. Chinese food is highly varied and there is a great deal of chinese food which is actually low carb. Many dishes like this which can be prepared or ordered in "real" asian restaurants, but these are often not as available in the US and you may need to take some risks ordering.
When cooking at home, one can substitute konjac powder (also called glucomanan). I always mix it with "cold" water before adding to any sauce, it seems to work more powerfully than cornstarch.
One isse w/ Chinese food is the "serving size". If you go to the Asian wing of a museum, the rice bowls are small. I vaguely recall Marco Polo commenting on the little bowls and chopsticks when he visited China. Perhaps catering to US notions of "serving size", a lot of places here give you like 4-5 servings of rice, in a big mound, and a giant bowl with more for when that runs out. We will eat leftover rice for a week after we go out for Chinese food.
Has anyone ever had the courage to ask their Chinese take away for the information?
I rarely order it, but do order the same dishes every time when I do. I've never actually asked them.
I find it's such a massive number that I chicken out and take a few less units and end up high.
I never mastered eating Chinese foods ...just like dragon boating and having high or low numbers :), which I gave up . I will have to put my mind into : " not being at the effect of BG readings " , so just maybe one day I'll push through and the pump will have to be my buddy with the square wave bolus set up .
Hubby and I decided after discussion , to eat Chinese Food , Jan 6, 2012 !
I thoroughly try to watch consumption of the 3 P's: Pizza, Pasta, Peanut Butter. When I ffirst started pumping about 10 years ago, I avoided them like the plague (oh, another P). Over the years I have learned how each reacts with my D and have found ways to overcome it. A square wave bolus is my favorite pump tool.
Those of you talking about the highs hours after eating should try a square. Depending on the entrees (we tend to eat appetizers and soup only, and I avoid the rice, but I can square wave over a 2-3 hour period and wake up with a BG of 80.
Hi Nel,
Let us know how it went.
Also cooking Chinese at home - or being in China and eating it is very different. I never had a problem with food when I was in Beijing a few years ago. It just seems to be be the "westernized" take out stuff.
The experience : ...I think I was in underwhelm :) except for the BG readings , ha, ha ! ...Hubby choose the buffet ; I choose from the menu , 2 main courses , very heavy on the vegies , prawns and beef , plain rice .....with enough left for Hubby to have lunch ( of vegies ) on Sunday and a bit more today ...1 am BG was 3.7( ate 4 mini mandarins ) and 5 am : 5.0 ...could be due to too much insulin and manually clearing the driveway , because of a dump of snow .
I delivered for 47 grams of carb , 2.9 u square over 2 hours with a correction - 0.15 , because finger poke was 4.0 .( equals 2.75 u)
The fun was eating with chop sticks . The restaurant is run by people from the Orient . Will try again , when dining out in Waikiki end Feb.2012 Neither was I wearing my CGMS .PS The date should have read Jan. 7