Long Car Ride

So my family and I are taking a fairly long (8-10 hour) road trip this weekend. Plans for food involve carbs, carbs, and more carbs. Meals involve even more carbs (probably ice cream), since there's about zero Kosher food on the road.

I'd bring cheese and yogurt and other low-carb, high-protein goodies, but there's a catch--I get carsick.

I know it's ridiculous that I'm taking a car trip when I get carsick, but for the most part I can control it. Ironically, the best tools I have are mint gum, carbs, and keeping by BG under control. (The meds all either don't work for me or will put me to sleep for several days.) The three of us are splitting the drive because it's so long, but I get carsick even when I drive, so that isn't a good solution, either. To make matters worse, my BG is pretty volatile right now, because it's allergy season. And it'll probably be even crazier during the drive because we'll be sitting for so many hours.

Does anyone have any ideas for fairly BG-friendly foods that have carbs and can be transported during a long drive, preferably without a cooler (lack of space)? I know I'm asking something more or less impossible, but I wonder if anyone has any ideas.

Fruit and veggies?

Veggies have no carbs (mostly), and I don't particularly like fruit. (I can deal with it, but eating something you already don't like it's too fun when you're already nauseous.

Hmmm, I dunno. Carbs plus BG-friendly is contradictory! LOL.

I'm a lo-carber and cheese and nuts are my best snack, so I can't help with that. BUT--have you tried coming at it from countering the nausea in other ways:

1) Products made with Ginger---ginger ale (they make it sugar free), ginger candies, ginger snaps (I'm not insulin dependent yet, so I can't counteract the sugar/carbs), Ginger Tea--my favorite. You can make it up in advance and chill it. Even docs will recommend ginger products for folks who get motion sickness.

2) When I couldn't keep anything down after surgery 2 years ago, my doc prescribed an anti-nausea drug called Reglan, I think---as well as lots of ginger.

Could luck---feeling nauseous truly sucks!...Judith in Portland

Every Yogurt ive tried spikes me off the charts unfortunately, so for me that’s not a good option. A pretty substantial lunch can be packed into a little 6-pack cooler that doesn’t take up much room. Carl’s Junior “low carb 6 dollar burgers” are amazing. Just because people around you are eating ice cream doesn’t mean you have to. Sorry I can’t be more help but traveling is just something you figure out with time and experience. I spend about 20 days/ month traveling with work. In general just exercise good judgement, restraint when necessary, and enjoy yourself!

Ok, I'm confused. You are looking for foods with more carbs??

I generally suggest stopping for good meals when driving rather than munching snacks in the car, but it sounds like needing kosher foods gets in the way of that? Can you eat in restaurants at all?

On yeah and like she said snacking on peanuts makes me feel quite full, has plenty of calories, and has no notable effect on my blood sugar whatsoever

*sigh* Oh how I miss nuts. (Yeah, forgot to mention I'm severely allergic.) They were an awesome snack, but I have no idea how they impact my BG because I gave them up long before I had any BG issues.

Yeah, I figured as much. There's no such thing as carb-free carbs.

The problem with restaurants is that unless they're certified Kosher, they aren't. That means that nothing at a roadside anything will be Kosher. There are only Kosher places within Jewish communities.

Maybe I'll just eat the yogurt and deal with the fallout. Carsickness feels less awful than high BG, anyway.

That makes it harder. My suggestion? Fly!! Yeah, I know, not too helpful. Salads? Fortunately 8-10 hours if you can eat before leaving, then eat at arrival, maybe only leaves one meal you need to cart food for.

So general life knowledge question here… What exactly is meant by kosher and what requirements have to be met for a food to be kosher? I feel fairly ignorant for not knowing but basically my understanding is limited to the basic idea that Jewish people prefer, or limit themselves (somehow, sometimes, all the time?) to foods that are “kosher”

I really should know this, but I don't. Isn't it just meat that needs to be kosher? What about other restaurant food like vegetarian dishes? Can you eat that?

I'll let guitarnut reply with the specifics, because I don't know either, but just want to contribute that not all people who are Jewish "keep kosher". I was raised Jewish and my parents didn't, nor did most other Jewish people we knew. Just like with any religion where some people practice all the tenets of that religion strictly and others do the equivalent of going to church on Sunday (or when someone gets married or dies!).

Meal beforehand, meal afterwords, and a meal in the middle and no snacking? For mid trip meal a sandwich and a banana. Otherwise you could use it for data gathering? skip the mid journey meal and use it for fasting basal tweaking.

This will probably seem like an odd suggestion, but have you tried dill pickles for the car sickness? That is my goto food for nausea & has been since I was a child. Anytime my husband & I go on a road trip, we always pack a small jar (or the snack packs) just incase.

The ones that work best for me are the Mt. Olive Kosher Dills (they do have the circle U on the label), maybe give it a try? My mom always thought I was crazy until she tried it a few years ago. She was surprised when it worked so well.

Good luck!

You're allergic to nuts, but are you allergic to seeds also? Perhaps sunflower seeds (or a trail mix by adding dried fruit) could work.
During Passover, I roasted some beans with a hint of oil and spicing until they were crunchy. It's kinda like a snack food but a good protein/carb mix, and they don't need to be refrigerated once they're fully dried out. That was my on-the-road best snack. And being both non-meat and non-dairy keeps your meal options a bit more open. (But the bean snacks, although tasty, can be dry, so keep a bottle of water on hand….)

I wanted to fly. My father thought driving was a better idea because then we wouldn't need to rent a car or worry about delays. We used to do this drive every couple of months or so for a few years when I was a kid, so I think he just assumes it's the same now.

Yes and no. All products need to be certified, because random foods can be problematic. For example, marshmallows have gelatin added, and they usually get the gelatin from either pork or beef. Kosher marshmallows have gelatin from fish.

The problem with foods that don't have any animal products in them is that they often do without the average consumer's knowledge. Fruit punch is often colored with beetle blood (gross, I know). That isn't kosher.

Vegetarian dishes are made on the same equipment as the non-vegetarian dishes, in the same proximity. And if a piece of chicken falls into a vegetarian soup, they're just going to take it out and not ever tell the customer it happened--because they should they? But that would present issues with whether the soup is kosher (it isn't).

There's a good chance I'm also allergic to sunflower seeds, so they're on mt list until I can get tested after allergy season. The beans idea, however, sounds awesome.