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Resolution

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Hi, I am new here - so please forgive me if I’m posting this in the wrong place on the forum. I’ve joined as part of my New Year’s resolution to manage my T2 better. This has also led me to start a petition which I am hoping some of you may wish to sign: https://www.change.org/p/give-diabetic-options-on-restaurant-menus

Basically, it annoys me that when we have to make such a sustained effort to try to stay on track with diet, I can find gluten free vegan and vegetarian options on menus - but next to nothing in the way of diabetes / low carb options. It’s always harder on special occasions, and it gets to you after a while.
 
Hi @Resolution and welcome to the forum.The forum is a good place to swap notes with other T2's and to work out a strategy for you to manage your diabetes.

I am afraid I will not be signing this petition, not because it is not a sensible idea but what you are asking for simply cannot be done. Estimating the carb content of anything - nearly all the carb contents you see are estimated, not measured - needs particular expertise and it is unreasonable to expect all catering establishments to have this expertise in house. It may be possible in chain establishments who serve a standard menu, most of which is prepared out of house, but not in restaurants which have varied menus with prep and cooking in-house.

Personally, I feel I can make a decent guess at the carbs in any meal I might be offered and avoid anything that might be particularly high. I have made the odd error and am quite happy to live with that.
 
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I am not really wanting them to provide net carbs figures, so much as in a dessert menu - to have some less sugar heavy options. So often a dessert menu is along the lines of sticky toffee pudding, icecream and tiramisu. No fruit option, no cheese option, nowt. Honestly, if they can’t be bothered to prepare anything different, a coconut and hammer would at least be different to what I normally eat at home.

Likewise with mains, in some restaurants you can choose your sides - but in many you can’t and you end up wasting food you decide not to eat (like the chips everything comes with), whereas an option to swap out for something else would fine. Or to have veg / main that is not glazed with honey etc etc
 
I'm with @Docb on this. I've been T2 long enough to know what are and aren't good menu choices for me when I eat out. I stick to meat dishes with veg or salad and steer well clear of the dessert menu. On one occasion I fancied a lamb dish that came with garlic mashed potato and I asked if I could have extra veg instead of the mash. They happily obliged.
 
Some chains (restaurants attached to Premier Inns for example, which is the only one I’ve experienced) say on the menu, if you want to swap out the chips for a salad, please ask. And they have a 'mini puddings' served with coffee, option. The carb count of all their dishes is also on line, which helps me as a Type 1, work out my insulin. Most local pubs I’ve been to are happy to swap out stuff, and most have a cheeseboard on the dessert menu . It would be useful if more restaurants could make it clear that it’s an option.
 
I won’t be signing either @Resolution People with diabetes eat a variety of diets. There was a long discussion here recently about this. More than that, indirectly giving people the message that people with diabetes can’t eat sugar, puts people on insulin at risk. There’s already a huge amount of ignorance out there about Type 1 and I certainly don’t want to add to it.

When you order a meal that comes with chips, just ask them to leave them off, or order a child’s meal and bulk up with veg and salad sides. If you don’t want a dessert, just have a nice coffee and/or alcohol as your ‘treat’.

I’d politely ask that you take your petition down actually as I feel it’s damaging.
 
I am another who will not be singing the petition.

I do ask for the carb content when I eat out and it is a pleasant surprise when they are able to give me that information. I also like to inject 20 min before I eat which is difficult when out, but I have a few places where I can rely on this and in one they set an alarm to bring the meal exactly at the time we agree.

We each need to make appropriate choices when eating out to suit our personal needs. My taste for puds has vanished as most in restaurants are so sweet and loaded with carbs. A good cheese board is a very welcome alternative. When there are chips available we often order one portion and a salad for me and then I get to take a portioned number to suit my insulin. ( If I order a portion I find it very difficult not to overeat in spite of knowing my chosen limit!)
 
@Resolution, I hope that you have not got the impression that the forum is a negative place which does not like new ideas to help those with diabetes. It really is not.

If you read around the forum and checkout the stories of members you will find a wide variety of diabetes types.... classic, insulin dependent T1's, thin T2's, not so thin T2's, T2's who control their diabetes by diet, T2's who need insulin, T2's who find things easy and some who do not. There are some generic things that are helpful, for example nutritional labels on prepared food, and there are other things that are unhelpful, for example claims that all sorts of things "can help with diabetes" as marketing ploys.

As @Inka has said, the notion of the behaviour of food outlets and their menus has been discussed before on the forum where the problem of finding a way forward to suit all these varieties of diabetes and the wide variety of food outlets is yet to be found. In reality, just as you cannot dictate the best way any one person with diabetes must behave you cannot dictate how any particular food outlet must behave. If there is a better way forward it is better information generally so that people with diabetes and those heading in that direction can work out what is best for them and what choices they make. If people stopped eating those carb heavy, sweet desserts, then the food outlets would stop trying to sell them and find the alternatives you would like them to offer.

What about yourself? How would you describe your diabetes? How do you control things?
 
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