How do you make healthy food choices at an unfamiliar restaurant?

IF you can't get it right, perhaps more units would work, although once you hit the "crossover point," it can get exciting very quickly. I usually err on the side of too much at restaurants, make sure I have enough to cover it and cut basal or have another snack/ something carby afterwards to cover it. For a long time, I'd use 90G as a "restaurant carb count" but, when I started counting, I discovered some of the things were more like 65-75G so I sort of work to count the chunks not precisely (I don't bring my scale...) but in the ballpark. I think that with a lot of this ballpark is good enough to get decent results and doesn't stress me out.

Hey Daisy Mae:

I refuse to let Diabetes force me into a diet of bland food and restaurant anxiety. With a little bit of perseverance you can ensure you have a better dinner than those non-diabetics around you at the table. Quite frankly, I don't miss any of the starchy crap and sugary sauces served up on so many menus. I find the healthy low-carb items that I can and like to eat on the menu and then mix and match accordingly. I have yet to find a restaurant that refuses my substitutions, and I often find that many of the people I have dinner with who are non-diabetics will ask for the same because it looks and tastes better.

Christopher

Yes, I enjoy eating. No I don't enjoy most restaurants. I was a professional chef as a young man and have been involved in the restaurant business for more than 35 years but I don't feel that most restaurant meals are worth the effort needed to get good blood sugar results. I'd rather feel good. When we visited Umbria last year, I did eat small orders of pasta including a full plate of pasta with fresh black truffules. I practiced for months on pasta beforehand was able to manage it fairly well. Fresh black truffles are worth the effort; very little else is.

Maurie

hey there Christopher,
i never really think about it anymore, but as i am a purest at heart, i dont like all the saucey things or maranaid crap that restaurants pour all over your food. i love fish. if its not on the menu, i wont go. simple as that. otherwise, i watch everyone else shove food into their mouths with envy...okay, sometimes i will have a roll or slice of bread, but ONLY if its a good-looking piece of starch.

Chris - I do this most of the time when I eat out. Just pick a dish make my best guess at Insulin, then repeat the same thing over and over. Can you explain the bolus you take to compensate for a mis-guess? I'm still new at terminology and just beginning to realize I can work with my insulin. My Doc has controled it for years.

Some restuarant sites have nutrition calculaters--usually places like Moes or CHipoltle. You can build your meal, make choices like no beansk, nor tice, and it will give you all nutrition info.