What are some restaurants/fast food places that have options that are low carb and good for diabetics? What places do you eat at and how many carbs are typically in that meal?
ex. subway, chipotle, panera, etc.
diagnosed last week, i'm trying to see what are some good options and alternatives for eating out
I may be biased but I don't think any fast food places are good for diabetics (or much of anyone actually). But I realize the places you listed are more like chains. I'm not familiar with the second two but I would doubt Subway has anything good for diabetics - all those huge soft rolls...nope. But other chains might and they also might have carb lists if you google them.
What I recommend in general for eating out are eating simple things like salads, meat, fish and vegetables and skipping the high carb foods like bread, pasta, potatoes, breaded foods. Also some sauces and salad dressings have lots of hidden sugar. You might want to get yourself a good carb list whether online, an app or old school paper. That way whatever you eat you can look up and get some carb numbers for. After awhile you will get familiar with places and things you normally eat and their carbs. Bottom line, eating out isn't as easy as eating at home but it is possible with a bit of work and experience.
Oh yeah and it's best to wait until the food comes till you bolus because even if you ask for an eta, food gets delayed and until you see it you might have a wrong idea of what it contains carbwise.
Don't eat much fast food but Subway works for me, I just don't eat the bread part, which leaves me with meat, cheese and veggies. Hardies has a low carb burger which has no bun, instead it's wrapped in romaine leaves, never tried it but sounds like it should work. Also most places have some type of salad with something like grilled chicken on it, be careful about the dressings though they are sometimes loaded with sugar. Ranch or Blue Cheese are usually safe choices but you really have to read the label.
Traditional wings with traditional sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings or most any restaurant that serves wings that are not breaded.
I often bolus a few units when I order (like not many, equivalent to 10-20g depending on what I am eating), and then make up the rest when the food arrives. I always have a granola bar and glucose tablets on me, if the food should take a long time.
As for low carb, a lot of places will offer a "lettuce wrap" for their hamburgers, where they use lettuce instead of buns. It's kind of messy to eat, but it's virtually zero carbs and I actually like it better than a hamburger. I find if you tell a server that you are diabetic and looking for low-carb options, sometimes they even offer to prepare something not on their menu that will meet your needs.
Most chain restaurants have their menus and/or nutritional information online, which is vital for knowing what you are eating and bolusing accurately for it. I always try and have this information on my iPhone/iPad as the restaurants themselves don't always have it available.
I generally avoid Subway, but years ago they used to offer sandwiches on buns sort of like hamburger buns. It's still about 40g carbs but much less than their usual subs which are 60-100+ carbs and (for me, at least) still spike me hugely even when I look up the nutritional information.
Jimmy John's offers all their sandwich's as an unwich. They will wrap the meat and veggies in iceberg lettuce, all the sanwiches than come in at less than 10 grams of carbs.
Another option is Golden Corral, stop laughing:) If you(when you) become disciplened you can go to an all u can eat buffet, they have fantastic salad bars with tons of fresh raw veggies: spinach, cauliflower, brocolli, tomato's, salad, green peppers, jalapeno's, beans, carrot's and so much more. Eat the veggies until you are full keep a rough estimate of carb intake and you maybe able to have an ice cream treat from the dessert bar covered with peanuts and Almonds.
Doesn't barbecue sauce have tons of sugar?
I don't eat out often, but these are my favs when I do.
Five Guys burgers (which I love) have a 'naked' burger. Panera is one of my favorites, they have extensive nutrition info on line, on CalorieKing, and in a binder under the register in every store - most show the carb count for each ingredint. They'll custom make their salads without the croutons, chinese noodles, whatever - just watch the dressings.
Everyone MUST buy or ask your endo if they have the book: Calorie King* Calorie Fat and carbohydrate counter by Allen Borushek. This book goes everywhere I go. I second the protein/lettuce wrapped items. Salads are good, but have oil and vinegar as your dressing, watch out for fruit, dried fruit, candied nuts, crutons etc. in salads.
My endo gave me that book or I should say bible - it is great!
You get some nice salads in vegetarian cafes.
When I work, I usually go to Wendy’s and order a small chili and a side salad. I bolus for 22 carbs and do great.
When I go to McDonald’s and have a double hamburger, my spike is unbelievably high no matter what I bolus. The buns are just toxic.
I eat at Wendy’s almost every day and fortunately I really like the chili.
BBQ sauce high in sugar, Hot sauce not usually.
+1 on the chili, I often eat their half salad and large chili.
Right...typically wing sauce has no carbs. If you cover the wings in sugar, you will have issue
What do I know about chicken wings - I thought it was barbecue sauce. I know barbecue sauce varies from a sweet variety to a hot variety, but I just assumed even the hot variety has some sugar in it. So it's just pure hot sauce?Like tabasco? No ketchup or anything?
There is a lot of sugar in the buns as well as carbs.
Yeah, my husband loves his hot sauces and there are thousands of different options (many of them sitting on my fridge), there's not only BBQ, some are just as simple as a bottle of chilies and vinegar mashed together but there are sooo many different kind of spicy pepppers, chilies, chipotles, cherry bombs, tomatillos, garlic, salty, sweet... lots of choices if you are into torturing your tongue ;)
Oh yes, I'm familiar with many varieties of bottled hot sauce because I do love torturing my own tongue..lol. I just thought what they put on chicken wings was barbecue sauce - either sweet or hot versions. Like I said, what do I know...I'm a vegetarian!
LOL i forgot you were veggietarian :)
Tried hot sauces in Tofu nuggets? mmmm
Yeah, chicken wings and beer are sort of a "guys night out" kind of ritual here. No side dishes allowed only all the wings you can eat with myriad of flavours, min. order of half a pound per flavour. Sweet Thai wings have lots of sugar, Cajun are breaded so they have carbs, Suicide or 911 have 0 carbs, no sugar, and will make u cry.