When you dine out, please continue to use your common sense. Make reasonable choices for continued success. Take a moment to consider all the foods that will have the most impact on your blood sugar and be moderate with them. Also, think heart health! Here are some suggestions:
Chinese Food
- Shrimp, chicken, pork or beef with vegetables.
- Do not get breaded or fried choices.
- Ask for your food dry, with little sauce or get it steamed with the sauce on the side for dipping.
- The sauce has hundreds of calories, lots of salt, sugar, fat, and cornstarch.
- Get white rice (or brown when available) and don’t eat more than 2/3 cup (cooked).
- Each 1/3 of a cup of cooked rice is about 80 calories and 4 teaspoons of sugar (and that is for steamed rice not fried!)
- Eat the inside of the egg roll and watch all the extra sauces like duck sauce (sweet) and soy sauce (salty) that you add.
- Have the soup, but only have a few fried noodles if you must.
- Eat half the ice cream or a fortune cookie, if necessary.
Think: What is affecting my blood sugar from this meal?
Hint: Rice, sauces, noodles, egg roll wrapper, wonton wrappers and dessert.
Italian Food
- If you have Parmesan veal, chicken or shrimp, do not get the cheese on top! This saves an easy 500 calories (500 calories x 7 days a week is the pound you will lose at the end of the week). Remember that excess weight effects glucose levels.
- The cheese that restaurants use has a lot of sodium, fat and artery-clogging saturated fat.
- You can also choose a dish that is not fried or soaked in butter or cream sauce, like a broiled piece of fish, etc. Heart disease is a common complication of diabetes.
- Have your side dish of pasta and one roll, or forego the pasta and have a double order of vegetables. Have a salad with the vinaigrette on the side.
- The soup has additional carbohydrates, so you need to decide how you want to “spend your carbohydrate budget.”
- If your meal is large then bring some home, and wait until the next day to eat it!
Think: What is affecting my blood sugar from this meal?
Hint: Breading, bread, pasta, sauce, beans and dessert.
Mexican Food
- Forego the nachos or share them with friends.
- Try to limit cheese and/or fried dishes. After all, full-fat cheese is 100 calories per ounce with sodium and saturated fat that clogs your arteries.
- Choose shrimp, vegetable or chicken fajitas.
- Ask them to leave off the sour cream (saturated fat), and provide only one or two tortillas instead of 4 (then there is no temptation to overeat the carbs).
- You may have guacamole, but not the sour cream, which is artery clogging! Instead of refried beans, ask for black beans.
- The cheese, meat, avocado and sour cream have many, many calories.
- The avocado (guacamole) is the healthiest of the choices – enjoy it without all the rest. You want to be heart healthy!
Think: What is affecting my blood sugar from this meal?
Hint: Nachos, tortillas, beans, chips and dessert.
Japanese Food
- Sushi, or even better, sashimi (sushi without rice)
- Steamed dumplings
- Teriyaki dishes (sauce on the side)
- Do not overuse the soy sauce or any sauces – remember that sauces carry the majority of fat, salt and/or sugar. In this case, soy sauce has about 1/2 of your daily sodium allowance in one tablespoon so please use the lower sodium soy sauce and use it sparingly.
- Have a miso soup (salty) or a salad with your entrée
- Japanese food is usually one of the better lower-calorie choices you can make, but watch the salt!
Think: What is affecting my blood sugar from this meal?
Hint: Rice, dumplings, teriyaki sauce, noodles and dessert.
Continental Cuisine
- Always have a salad to fill up on.
- If you have a piece of bread or a roll, do not eat your potato.
- Order your protein with a double order of vegetables, and make sure they are not swimming in butter. Don’t be shy or ashamed to ask for it the way you want (or need) it.
- Do not have dessert just for the sake of having it. After a full meal, you should not be hungry! Therefore, there is no need for dessert! Get out of that habit. Have coffee or a skim-milk latte instead (if you have some carbs left in your dinner budget).
Think: What is affecting my blood sugar from this meal?
Hint: Bread, potato, pasta, rice, corn, peas, beans, soups with beans or rice or noodles and dessert.
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