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Insulin and tasting menus

W

Woodyp

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I've recently been diagnosed with type 1, so am new to all this. I have had nice restaurant booked for my birthday since before I got type 1 and would like to go still. Any advice for working out insulin doses for tasting menus?
 
Welcome @Woodyp 🙂 That sounds lovely. Do you have an idea of what’s on the tasting menu? I’d find out, if not. Then I’d bolus as I went along once I’d seen the food. To count the carbs you’re just going to have to estimate, based on your normal carbs. Under-estimate rather than over-estimate as you don’t want to risk a hypo. If you’re having alcohol, remember that can cause lows too, so you might find you don’t even need to bolus for some dishes, eg I always have a few crisps without a bolus when I drink wine before a meal.
 
Inka said:
Welcome @Woodyp 🙂 That sounds lovely. Do you have an idea of what’s on the tasting menu? I’d find out, if not. Then I’d bolus as I went along once I’d seen the food. To count the carbs you’re just going to have to estimate, based on your normal carbs. Under-estimate rather than over-estimate as you don’t want to risk a hypo. If you’re having alcohol, remember that can cause lows too, so you might find you don’t even need to bolus for some dishes, eg I always have a few crisps without a bolus when I drink wine before a meal.
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Hi Inka. Thanks for the response:star:. The menu will be something like this, but seasonal for April. I'm going to ask if they have a carb count before I go, you never know. I'm planning on three 125ml glasses of wine over about 3 hours, but there will be snacks with the meal that aren't on the menu, so I'll wait for them before I have a drink.
 
Or you could do what I did - get all the way to London, sit in restaurant, study menu, reach for insulin - and realise it’s still at home!

Seriously, there was nothing I could do about it except enjoy the meal and correct when I got home, which is my message: don’t stress about it, follow @Inka’s excellent advice and above all, enjoy!
 
Woodyp said:
Hi Inka. Thanks for the response:star:. The menu will be something like this, but seasonal for April. I'm going to ask if they have a carb count before I go, you never know. I'm planning on three 125ml glasses of wine over about 3 hours, but there will be snacks with the meal that aren't on the menu, so I'll wait for them before I have a drink.
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Ooh, Le Manoir! We’ve done that one - it was superb. Lucky you!
 
Woodyp said:
Hi Inka. Thanks for the response:star:. The menu will be something like this, but seasonal for April. I'm going to ask if they have a carb count before I go, you never know. I'm planning on three 125ml glasses of wine over about 3 hours, but there will be snacks with the meal that aren't on the menu, so I'll wait for them before I have a drink.
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That looks amazing - lucky you! A number of those dishes look to have minimal carbs, eg the liver and so on in the earlier part of the menu. That’s what I suspected. Nobody goes to taste potatoes! I’d imagine the focus will be on the proteins. If a course had minimal carbs, I wouldn’t bolus for it at all. The biggest carbs will probably be the dessert but the portion might be smaller than homemade, so bear that in mind.
 
Woodyp said:
Ha. I've left the house without my insulin already, and it's been less than a month since my diagnosis.
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Easily done until you get used to it. Or you’re a serial handbag-swapper like me!
 
I once wrote a whimsical post about how managing diabetes would be much easier if one could eat Michelin star food all the time. That was after a tasting menu lunch at The Three Fishes (Nigel Howarth's place which is heading for a star). As a T2, it had no effect whatsoever on my BG because there was hardly any carbohydrate in the 7 courses put together.

I know it is a bit harder for a T1 and I would only listen to the T1's on the forum but I would doubt you will get any surprises from what will be an amazing meal. Enjoy!
 
Docb said:
I once wrote a whimsical post about how managing diabetes would be much easier if one could eat Michelin star food all the time. That was after a tasting menu lunch at The Three Fishes (Nigel Howarth's place which is heading for a star). As a T2, it had no effect whatsoever on my BG because there was hardly any carbohydrate in the 7 courses put together.

I know it is a bit harder for a T1 and I would only listen to the T1's on the forum but I would doubt you will get any surprises from what will be an amazing meal. Enjoy!
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Sounds like I have nothing to worry about. I appreciate the reassurance
 
It would be lovely if my GP would prescribe Michelin star food. If only.

I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic over a long time, and the way I measure carb intake has varied from the old-fashioned strictly regimented regime coupled with unvaried insulin intake. Now I’m much more relaxed and following a Dafne course a while ago I find things easier to manage.

I have a Freestyle Libre sensor and for a while coupled this with the Carb and Cals app which is very helpful in measuring food intake. But I found both entering my insulin injections into the Freestyle Libre app plus all my food into Carb & Cals app just too much. I have enough “Diabetic Paranoia” (is this a thing?) with out working out every mouthful. Why hasn’t Abbott integrated something like the Carbs & Cals database of food values into their app? One nifty feature was being able to read bar codes on food packaging to know what I was eating! I still use this from time to time.

Nick
 
Tried the app, but found it a pain. I cook everything myself, so barcode scanning doesn’t work. I’ve set up a very dweeby Excel sheet that calculates my carbs and insulin. Just add new ingredients whenever I use them.

Waiting for a first meeting with a local diabetes specialist and hoping they’ll refer me to a Daphne course
 
NickE said:
It would be lovely if my GP would prescribe Michelin star food. If only.

I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic over a long time, and the way I measure carb intake has varied from the old-fashioned strictly regimented regime coupled with unvaried insulin intake. Now I’m much more relaxed and following a Dafne course a while ago I find things easier to manage.

I have a Freestyle Libre sensor and for a while coupled this with the Carb and Cals app which is very helpful in measuring food intake. But I found both entering my insulin injections into the Freestyle Libre app plus all my food into Carb & Cals app just too much. I have enough “Diabetic Paranoia” (is this a thing?) with out working out every mouthful. Why hasn’t Abbott integrated something like the Carbs & Cals database of food values into their app? One nifty feature was being able to read bar codes on food packaging to know what I was eating! I still use this from time to time.

Nick
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Perhaps Diabetes UK can try influencing the Royal College of GPs accordingly :confused:
 
I'm with you, @NickE. I came to positively dislike the C&C app - too demanding before I could get an answer I could use and way too much money, annually. But I still refer to my book! Diabetes paranoia was very much my thing around that time.

But my DAFNE course did wake me up to the idea that carb counting could be simpler, more guesswork and ignore more items. For me that was because I got happier with letting my CGM tell me before (not when!) I was going lower and respond accordingly. At the time (Nov '22) my DAFNE course had very little about CGM in the syllabus and because CGM wasn't in the syllabus the lead DSN was determined that we wouldn't talk about it!

We dined out last night; not Michelin star but should be! I looked at the menu, Italian, decided this had the potential to become too difficult, took 5 units NR as my start of an unknown split bolus and went from there. At one point my graph was pointing down, so had a quick grab at higher carby bits, we walked home and again got lowish, not hypo; went to bed mid range, deliberately ignored the 10 alert during the night and woke around there an hour ago. No doubt too much oil and fat slowing the digestion. But a fine evening and formerly I might have let my BG behaviour bother me - last night I just kept an eye on my phone without over-reacting.
 
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