Eating out

Hello - it is normally fine to eat at various times if you're on multiple daily injections or a pump. Pasta always gives me a problem - I go low initially and then high some 5-6 hours later. With a pump fitted you can delay the release of insulin over a longer period of time - this would solve my issues. If you've had pasta at home and know how much to eat and what to inject, then there will no problem with most of the tomato type sauces. I avoid the creamy ones (due to weight issues and the fat content which affects my BSs). You can of course have gnocchi instead of pasta which is potato. Do you have the carbs and cals book as this tells you the value of carbs in a lot of pasta dishes? Most of all enjoy and when you go out remember it's a treat - my dietician tells me not to be too hard on myself when I go out for a meal. You do however need be aware of what affects you and take insulin accordingly - as you will learn from most posters on this site ........we're all
different - I'm still learning after 13 years - I still get it wrong and sometimes by diabetes reacts differently from day to day Hope you have a lovely night out.

Hi Mary,

Eating one hour later shouldn't be a problem but wait until your food arrives before injecting insulin as portion sizes vary from restaurant to restaurant. Estimating the carb content of pasta dishes is hard and if the meal contains a lot of fat this can slow down the absorption of the food which complicates things further, my advice would be to give a little less insulin if unsure of the carb content as you can always include a small correction dose later if high,.... better this way than going hypo in a restaurant. Speak with your DSN if at all worried or concerned about how best to approach this.

Enjoy the night!

Nigel

Hi,

good advice so far, Do you use the basal/bolus regime? If your using a fast acting insulin, you can inject before a meal but i wouldn't do it more than 20-30 mins before your due to eat. You say it's booked for 7pm, but after looking through a menu and deciding what to choose then time for your meal to arrive you don't want to risk going hypo before your food has arrived.

I sometimes purposely under-estimate carbs if i'm unsure when i'm eating out, then simply have a small correction later as Nigel says.

I find it hard to get the carb content of pasta exact without weighing it, even though it's an italian restuarant i'm sure there will be a wide range of choice if you'd prefer to go with something else though!

Don't worry if you don't get it right first time, do treat it as a learning experience though, with timings of insulin and experimenting with different foods that come with different cultures.

As always test test test and make sure you take some hypo treatment with you

Some good advice already here.. what I usual do is:

* Wait until my meal arrives, portion size can be really different from one restaurant to the next.. and I inject per course.. bit of a pain say to do three injections but ensures I am not massively out on the amount of insulin.

* Take into account the fat content... with Italian the sauces can be quite fatty so you may look at double waving your injecting

* I would normally be conservative on my initial injections and then do a test 1 - 1 1/2 hours post meal... from that reading I would then determine how much to inject as a correction or as a '2nd wave'.

Guesstimating carbs from meals out is something that you will learn as you get more experienced.

I was advised to test round about my usual meal time, depending how much later than usual I'm planning to eat I may have a little snack around that time. Defiantly don't do your injection at the usual time.

I prefer to see the food before injecting, I've ordered things before now and then been told they are not available. In general I tend to inject when my pudding arrives.

A lot of the big chains have a menu online along with carb content which made me much more comfortable the first few times I went out.

marycoleman382 said:

Thanks for all your replies. I`m pleased to report that the meal went very well and my BS before bed was 4.1. I had 4 small grilled chicken wings for a starter and the lighter option pasta with salad and did my injection when the food arrived.

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Pleased your meal went well Mary but please tell me you ate/drank some carbs when you got the 4.1 before bed!

Nigel

marycoleman382 said:

Hi Nigel, Yes I had a couple of slices of toast before I went to bed !! My BS was fine the next morning

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Great...........you had me worried there!

Nigel