Eating out and Dealing with the Menu

[alyunwin]

I often wonder how people deal with eating out, the experience of that and if they struggle with carb counting more outside of the home, and the meals they have prepared themselves.

What is the worst thing about eating out, and is there anyway a change in the way the menu is written i.e information about ingredients in meals, that could be improved?

 

[DeusXM]

i know it's a cliche but it really depends on where you're eating, and what you eat at home.

I don't know about you but if I'm cooking at home, I'm not necessarily measuing everything by the gram. Sure, I know what's in it, but not to the same level as a ready meal where you can say 'right, that's 47.5g of carbs on my plate here'. So to some extent, my carb counting is guesstimating - it's all about learning to eyeball your food and make quick judgements.

Same principle with restaurant food - you take a look at it, have a rough guess based on the description what's in it, and dose accordingly. I suppose it would be easier to have carb counts on the menu but then that would make me wonder if it's come out of a box rather than being freshly cooked, and would end up making the menu look very dull!

If it's a chain restaurant thoughl, often you can get nutrition information online which can really help.

What I find helps more than anything is experience - and cooking yourself. For instance, a lot of Chinese food tends to raise blood sugar more than people expect and it's not until you actually start cooking it for yourself from scratch that you realise just how much cornflour is used - it's in most sauces and every meat is dusted with it because it helps with moisture retention. You could put it on a menu that cornflour is used, but I think it wouldn't really register with most people until they actually see for themselves what it means.

I'll be honest though, I've never really had a huge problem eating out. I work the principle that whatever bolus I think I need, probably add another 30% and even if it doesn't work out, I only eat out maybe twice a month anyway so it's not as if it has a dramatic effect on my overall control. Plus I tend to make choices that I know are low in carbs anyway - that way you're less likely to over or underestimate the carbs in the meal as you're dealing with smaller numbers. I'm a meat person so generally my order is a massive lump of dead animal with some salad for decoration, so often it's only any sauces/marinades I have to factor in.

 

[Lindarose]

I find the best place to eat out is a carvery where I can at least get a good plateful of low carb food and know what I'm eating. Meat and veg suits me well. Whilst other restaurants have great menus there's not much I can eat as I'm not a fish or salad lover and lots of meals have chips or other high carb elements Without them the plate looks bare. Wetherspoons have tried to help with their carb counter however I've checked some of the numbers and they are way off the mark. Least they try!

 

[bill hopkinson]

What I find helps more than anything is experience - and cooking yourself. For instance, a lot of Chinese food tends to raise blood sugar more than people expect and it's not until you actually start cooking it for yourself from scratch that you realise just how much cornflour is used - it's in most sauces and every meat is dusted with it because it helps with moisture retention. You could put it on a menu that cornflour is used, but I think it wouldn't really register with most people until they actually see..

On the other hand I go for chinese because it can be low sugar. Can be is the thing. Many cantonese takeaways are a carb fest, but a good authentic restaurant has stir fry options which are meat and veg. I always go for no rice, no noodles in a marinated, that is, no sauce, stir fry.
When I am in China or Hong Kong I tend to lose weight because ineat healthy.

 

[Old Holborn]

Low carbs, low fat, low sugar, low protein.......Eat the Menu. 🙂

 

[Bloden]

I really struggle with eating out. If we eat out, it's usually traditional N Spanish food, so lots of beans and pulses which I hardly eat at home...oh, and fat, juicy chiiips (which I don't eat at home either). At the 2-hour mark my BG's fine, but then the pulses start digesting and I'm surfing an enormous glucose wave for the rest of the day! I think I'll try low carb next time!🙂

 

[Sally71]

Carbs and Cals is very useful if you're faced with food that you don't usually eat, although of course when in a restaurant you can't whip your kitchen scales out to weigh the portion so it does get a bit harder to work out the correct value and a bit of guesswork does come into play! Having been carb counting for over 2 yers now though I tend to rely mostly on experience, and when faced with a plate full of chips I can usually have a fairly good guesstimate of the carb count.

It would be helpful if restaurants provided nutritional information though! My daughter loves McDonalds, not the healthiest food in the world and I must add here that we only go there as a very occasional treat, but they do actually put all the nutritional info including carbs on the packets which makes life a lot easier! Some restaurant chains do put this information on line which is good if you've got time to research it before hand and have a good idea of what you are going to eat, but not so good if you visit the place spontaneously or are the sort of person who likes everything on the menu and takes ages to make up their mind!

 

[Amberzak]

I rarely eat out any more, but that's more to do with being coeliac

 

[KookyCat]

I tend to stick to salads in restaurants always have done. I'm slightly peculiar in my food preferences, I hate most traditional English food, and don't like rice or pasta very much so I tend towards restaurants with really nice salads which are easy to deal with insulin wise too so it's a win. I do struggle with puddings since I generally don't do puddings at home but if I'm going to a restaurant I like a pud. There's always way more carb than I think so that's tricky and some indication of carb in those would be good. I don't eat out very often in all honesty I have three restaurants that I'd willingly go to that do amazing food but otherwise it doesn't float my boat. Incidentally if anyone hails from anywhere near the Lowry theatre in Salford their restaurant is my number one, perfect portions and it's always been delicious 🙂

 

[Pinktoes]

I am a bad girl when we go out, I always have a pudding, unless I'm stuffed, and just have more insulin to counteract, some times its just right, sometimes not, but it normally evens out by breakfast, i thinks this is ok as long as I am not doing it all the time...and I keep carbs low as I can.....I love eating out and Im not stopping...we all have to change so much...we still need to have an enjoyable life, and thats means being bad sometimes🙂