Carb counting in restaurants

[ceejay]

Hello,

I hope it's ok to post this here - I've been on this site for a while but only posted a couple of times and not sure about the etiquette of recommending websites.

I wanted to let everyone know about a new website - http://www.diabeticseatout.com/ - that I and a fellow group of diabetics are working on to try and make life a bit easier for Type 1 (and hopefully Type 2) diabetics when eating out in restaurants/fast food joints.

The site collates nutritional information from restaurants to help those diabetics who use carbohydrate counting to calculate insulin dose adjustments. The website is designed to take the guess work out of calculating insulins dose when eating out by making the figures easily obtainable. The site now has relevant information for numerous chains, everything from Burger King to Pret a Manger, and is growing rapidly.

The website is not even slightly commercial - the team all helps out on a completely voluntary basis as we were frustrated at how difficult it can be to eat out with diabetes sometimes. We're also going to spend some time petitioning restaurant chains that don't currently provide nutritional info (including carbs) to start doing so!

Hope you find the website useful (it's a bit of a work in progress and we're currently working on making it a bit more user friendly) - there's an email address on the website which lets you contact the team with any comments - plus if you know any places that do carb info that we don't know about, please let us know!

Thanks for reading.

CJ

 

[hanadr]

What a good idea!

 

[cugila]

Excellent idea CJ. Very informative.

Ken.

 

[yipster29]

Excellent idea.

Carbs on menus would be sooo useful!

 

[Louise5967]

This is fantastic !!

 

[bonerp]

This is really excellent but please keep pages to a minimum size because then they can easily be downloaded onto most of the latest phones and you can have a look whilst at the restaurent.

Other suggestions if you can get the info (just thinking about places around town):

PIRI PIRI
Hungry Horse
A generic chinese and indian menu would be excellent as these are especially difficult to guess
Beafeater (are these still around?!)

Well done - keep up the good work. You should also add a donate link as I would certainly use this www site a lot and be happy to contribute.

 

[fergus]

Excellent idea, ceejay!
I'm off for a Pret Chicken and Pesto salad for lunch now.........

fergus

 

[deeby]

This is fantastic - have used it twice in the last week and have recommended it to everyone on my DAFNE course! Many thanks ceejay.

Deeby

 

[bonerp]

looking at these - going by what I've been guesstimating its no wonder my BGs are so rubbish!

I have worked out a carvery at toby with all the trimmings is prob about 250g carbs. At least!!! I bolus about 140 or so!!!

 

[shedges]

Don't think I've ever eaten a 250g meal! Let me know how you feel afterwards if you do go for one :mrgreen:

 

[bonerp]

Full, I'd say! :lol:

 

[ceejay]

I'm so chuffed that everyone is finding it useful! Thanks heaps for all the positive feedback.

We'll do our best to convince more restaurants to start providing carb info to make it even MORE useful (yes I was shocked at the amount of carbs in some things too so it's clear this info is much needed!).

CJ

 

[mikey97]

this is fantastic as my 11 year old is off to glasgow for a school trip next week and I no he'l be eating out somewhere and was beginning to wonder how I would work out his insulin for t time.

 

[shedges]

Hi CJ,

Great website 8) - can hearing that get tedious? ... I doubt it.

Have you tried contacting ASK? ... I can't find anything on their website.

Also, the subway link seems to be a dead one

Keep up the good work!
Sam.

 

[ceejay]

Nah, I can't hear it enough and I know the rest of the team will appreciate it too - so cheers Sam!

I'll try and get that link fixed for subway.

And Ask is one of the ones we're petitioning, so we'll do our best. I know that Pizza Express is planning to provide nutritional info later in the year and they SAY they're going to include carbs. Keep fingers crossed!

CJ

 

[bernie.freeman]

Hi Cj,

Thank you so much for this fantastic website, it is really good and oh so easy to use.

you are a star !
Bernie

 

[kate.oshaughnessy]

hello all

I just wanted to add that if any of you are on facebook, we have a group.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51040349481&ref=ts

cheers

Kt

 

[kate.oshaughnessy]

Hey all

Just wanted to update you on the Subway link, they have updated their site and so the new link on our site takes you to the header SUBS and then you have to click through which sub you would like and then its will show you the Info for each one.

The trouble is with Ask and Pizza Express is that they are all owned by one big company, namely Gondola, which is a total pain coz if Gondola doesn't want to give out its nutritional info then that rules out a lot of places. But the FSA are working with a lot of these companies to get their restaurants to have their nutritional info available to the public, so by Summer the ball will be rolling for more places to be on board. woohoo.

If any of you read sweet magazine there is an article about the FSA in there.

Thanks again. Kt, Ceri and Team

PS. please come and visit the facebook group and feel free to comment or suggest, good or bad about the site, its helps with its development, Hopefully the database will be in development soon so it will be an even better tool, not just links but actual data on our site, so no need to be directed to other sites.







http://tiny.cc/9t2TV

 

[bonerp]

I bet DiabetesUK and Diabetes.co.uk wouuld add this to their sites. Why not contact Balance as you may get some publicity through that too? All helps, and if restaurents were to add logos etc it may encourage them to provide the info. Just a thought.
Paul

 

[ceejay]

Thanks Paul - good suggestions all and we're looking at ways to get the message out via diabetes charities and publications.

Katie may be able to give more info on this, but from what I remember the team has already contacted DiabetesUK. Unfortunately, I believe they weren't interested in supporting us or even linking to us, in large part because we refer to diabetics as 'Diabetics' rather than 'people with diabetes'.

Political correctness gone mad, I know. 'PeoplewithdiabetesEatOut.com' doesn't have much of a ring to it...

CJ