Eating Out

Everybody likes to eat out now and then. Sometimes there's no other option. How can you make sure you're not blowing your meal plan when you go to a restaurant or hit the drive-thru? Believe it or not, it can be done. You can stick to your meal plan and eat healthfully at most restaurants. Here are a few tips to get you started.

• Skip the fries and go with a salad for your side dish.
  
• Your best main course bets are going to be roasted, baked, broiled, or grilled poultry, fish, or seafood. Or look for a vegetable dish, like vegetable lasagna or a grilled vegetable sandwich.
  
• Avoid fat-filled condiments like mayonnaise, tartar sauce, and sour cream. Opt for lower-fat versions, if available, or try something else.
  
• Ask for gravy and other sauces on the side.

Take it easy on the breadbasket, and be sure to count it toward your meal plan.
Looking for something sweet for dessert? Scan the sides or kids' menu for something like applesauce or a fruit salad, or opt for a low-fat frozen yogurt. Your doctor or dietitian can usually help you figure out how to work a scoop of ice cream into your meal plan without too many hassles. Stick to just one scoop and avoid the hot fudge sauce and caramel topping!

Look for the "nutritional facts" brochures in fast food restaurants. Many have these now, and they'll usually tell you the carb counts for every item on the menu. If you don't see one out, ask.

The Scoop on Sugar

Someone may have told you that people with diabetes can't eat any sugar. Some people even think that eating too much sugar causes diabetes in the first place. Such ideas make sugar sound like a "bad guy." But sugar is not evil. It's just a type of carbohydrate.

It is true that eating a lot of sugary foods is not a good idea. For one thing, it's bad for your teeth. For another, many sweets have a lot of sugar and fat, and not very many vitamins and minerals. They take up space in your meal plan (and your stomach!) that would be better filled with nutritious foods. Candy, cake, and other treats should just be occasional treats.

Doctors used to tell people with diabetes to stay away from sugar. They thought eating sugar would elevate your blood glucose too quickly. We know that all carbohydrates affect your blood glucose about the same way. A potato and a brownie, if they have the same number of carbohydrates, have about the same affect on your blood glucose. Of course, a potato has more vitamins than a brownie, so it's a better food choice.

If you want to put that brownie (or ice cream, cookies, or whatever) in your meal plan, talk to your parents and your dietitian or doctor about it. You probably can't eat ice cream after every meal. Perhaps you can have it once a week, like after your soccer games on Saturdays. Remember, there are no forbidden foods - and no bad guys - in a healthy meal plan. The key is to plan ahead so your treats affect only your taste buds, not your blood glucose control.

"Sugar-Free"

Some people with diabetes like to use sugar-replacements in their foods and beverages. For some things, it makes a lot of sense. Like soda. There's a lot of carbohydrate and sugar in a can of soda, so if you want to drink one without having to put it in your meal plan, you need to drink the kind with sugar replacements in it, the "diet" version.

But beware of those "free" foods. Lots of people think that "sugar-free" or "fat-free" means "carbohydrate free." That's not necessarily true. When it comes to managing diabetes, it's not about how much sugar (or fat) is in a product. It's all about carbohydrates.

Let's take an example: vanilla ice cream. You can have one ½ cup serving of regular vanilla ice cream and it'll contain about 15 grams of carbohydrate. Or you can have one ½ cup serving of one of the popular healthier brands of vanilla ice cream and it'll contain about 18 carbs. Sure, the calories are lower in the "healthier," lower fat ice cream, and it might have less sugar, fat, or both. That may be important to you. Or it may not. The fact is, when it comes to how many carbs are in the ice cream (and, of course, how much insulin are you going to need to cover your meal), the real, regular ice cream has fewer.

Moral of this story - It pays to read the label. It may seem goofy to stand in the store reading the "Nutritional Facts" label on everything you buy. But boy, can you learn a lot from those labels!