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Eating out.

SkinnyLizzie

Active Member
Messages
41
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi, I love Italian food but none of the restaurants seem to offer whole wheat pasta which is the best option for diabetics as it has a lower GI than non-whole wheat. These same restaurants do offer gluten free, allergen [of various types] free and vegetarian alternatives though. I am currently contacting some of the chain restaurants to ask them about this. Jamie's Italian has replied saying they don't do whole wheat but do have gluten free if that's any good to me. I was surprised that Jamie's doesn't offer whole wheat as it's the healthiest option even for non diabetics and Jamie is very keen on healthy eating. What do you think?
 
I think there is a massive difference between you wanting low GI and me NEEDING gluten free!

Sorry feel a bit like you are allergy bashing there. you dont mention what type you are, I assume T2?
 
Engineer88 said:
I think there is a massive difference between you wanting low GI and me NEEDING gluten free!

Sorry feel a bit like you are allergy bashing there. you dont mention what type you are, I assume T2?
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Yes, I am type 2 and I'm not 'allergy bashing' at all. I was just pointing out that if restaurants can cater for people who have all those requirements, why can't they offer whole wheat products too? After all it would be simple enough to do so. A great many people, whether for medical reasons or because they just prefer a low GI diet, would go for the whole wheat option. When I was first diagnosed and went on the Desmond course we were told to always take the whole wheat option if there was a choice but, as I've found, in most restaurants there isn't that choice.
 
Ok but to be honest it's very rare that a restaurant can properly cater for a special diet.

I'm sorry if I made a snap judgement about your post, it's very difficult when gluten free is compared to other choice diets - people don't take us seriously. Kind of like all the abuse diabetics get that we'll grow out of it etc etc.


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It's OK. I know how you feel. People hear something that may not even be true and convince themselves it's an actual fact. People like you who need a gluten free diet aren't helped by the fact that loads of people just 'choose' to have a gluten free diet and don't actually need it at all. I've got familial type 2 which isn't caused by being overweight and indeed, I've always been slightly underweight but it doesn't stop people who haven't known me long from presuming I must have been very overweight and have dieted to get to the weight I am. I'm also told that if I eat properly I can reverse it. They often stick to that belief even when I tell them that my dietician said that I had an excellent diet even before I became diabetic and that if you are genetically predisposed towards type 2 as I am, then you can't reverse it. The best you can do, like most of us, is try to keep it in check.
 
I have just checked online a local Italian restaurant (a chain) to see if they have whole wheat pasta. I noticed nearly all the so-called vegetarian options contain Parmesan thus rendering them non-vegetarian. Hmmm.

Good luck OP, you'll need it!
 
Avocado Sevenfold said:
I have just checked online a local Italian restaurant (a chain) to see if they have whole wheat pasta. I noticed nearly all the so-called vegetarian options contain Parmesan thus rendering them non-vegetarian. Hmmm.

Good luck OP, you'll need it!
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To be fair, you can get veggie parmesan. I wonder if that's what they use though? I wouldn't bet on it. People have strange ideas about what is, or is not vegetarian. A veggie friend of mine was invited to dinner [by someone who knew she was a veggie] and was surprised to find that the meal consisted of a lamb stew. Apparently she was supposed to pick the pieces of meat out of her portion and eat the rest!!!!!!!!
 
You can only get veggie parmesan "style" cheese lol ! true parmesan is not veggie !
 
mo1905 said:
You can only get veggie parmesan "style" cheese lol ! true parmesan is not veggie !
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Cheers Mo. Yes, it is one of those EU protected products so is never veggie by definition.

https://www.vegsoc.org/saycheese

Back to pasta...I saw a TV chef a few years ago saying that Italians, on the whole, don't eat whole wheat pasta. Maybe things have changed now, don't know. But there may be issues of authenticity in restaurateurs' reluctance to put it on the menu.
 
I don't believe anyone could be that dim. Seriously.
 
As a Type 2 if your meter says you can eat wholewheat pasta, then go ahead. Not everything they tell you on a Desmond course is the gospel truth. Many of us on here (Type 2) have given up bread, pasta and rice of any sort because it spikes blood sugar too much.
 
Yes, I've been reading about how a lot of you have given up, or at least cut right back, on bread, pasta and rice. My problem is I have always been very skinny. I'm slightly underweight and if I gave up all that stuff I would end up dangerously underweight. That's why I go for the whole wheat stuff - it's better than the the more refined varieties. At the moment I'm not on any meds for diabetes and don't have a meter so I don't really know which foods work for me and which aren't so good. As I seem to be keeping things under control I shall just carry on with my diet as it is currently. I do take statins. High cholesterol was diagnosed at the same time as type 2 - it was 8 but is coming down. It was a surprise [to my doctor as well as me] to be diagnosed with both those things at the same time as I don't fit the general profile at all and have had no symptoms at all. It was also a bit disconcerting for me to be given a booklet with the advice that for both I should lose weight!!!!!! Stop smoking, drink less, eat five a day and exercise. I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do about all that. Obviously I don't have any weight to lose, I've never smoked, only have a glass or maybe two of wine a week - and that's red wine which is good for you in moderation, I have had what was my 'normal' diet approved by a dietician and have since made it even better eg I used to have the occasional slice of cake or a dessert and I don't now, and I have an exercise class once a week, work out on my own at home for 20 minutes every day and walk, garden, run around after the Grandchildren etc. All the advice for diabetes [and probably other conditions too] seems to be of the one size fits all variety. That may be OK in general but doesn't help those of us who don't 'fit'!
 
If you don't have a meter then you will never know what foods spike you. If you can't get a meter from your GP (just ask and give a compelling argument that you need to know how foods affect your blood sugar - it may work), if you can't get one then the Codefree has the cheapest strips (available from Amazon, Ebay and direct from Home Health).

As a diabetic, carbs are the thing that raise your blood sugar the most. that's why many of us limit them. Nuts are a good way of increasing calories. You can bake some lovely low carb cakes with ground almonds.
 
Thanks for the advice re meters. I'll ask about getting one when I go for my next 6 month check. If not, I'll see about getting the Codefree one. I do eat quite a few nuts, they are my snack of choice. I've made cakes with ground almonds before being diagnosed but don't eat any cake now [apart from a thin sliver that you can see the knife through when it comes to things like my Grandchildren's birthday cakes - probably amounts to a whole, normal, slice per year!] The reason I don't have cake of any other sort, or desserts etc now is because they either have sugar or a sweetener in and I don't have sugar for obvious reasons and I'm not at all keen on any of the sweeteners. They all seem to have various side effects. I've now lost what I had in the way of a 'sweet tooth' and never fancy any of those kinds of things now anyway.
 

Have you been checked for coeliac? Before diagnosis I didnt have any pain or bloating but a common symptom is being underweight?
 
Engineer88 said:
Have you been checked for coeliac? Before diagnosis I didnt have any pain or bloating but a common symptom is being underweight?
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No, I haven't been checked for coeliac but I've never had any of the symptoms listed as being probable markers at all [obviously I've been sick etc from time to time but never without an explanation]. I've been slightly underweight ever since since I was born. When I was in my late teens I tried really hard to put weight on as a curvy figure was the thing then - not like the thin, model type figure girls are after now - and my diet for a whole year was cereal followed by a full fry up breakfast. At lunch time, while my work mates were eating yoghurt and salad, I would go to a restaurant and have a full meal plus dessert - always choosing meat pie over ham salad and apple pie and cream over fruit salad - then, on the way back to work I would get a portion [sometimes two!! portions of chips] then at home in the evening my Mum would always serve up a full, two course meal and I would have sandwiches, cake and biscuits later in the evening. Not to mention more or less non stop snacking on choc and biscuits during the day between meals. After all that I didn't put on so much as a single pound so I gave up and went back to eating normally. Probably didn't do my health much good at the time but we weren't aware then of what constituted a good diet like we are now.
 
The thing with Coeliac is that you can be asymptonatic. It has so many symptons from non physical to the opposite end being severerly sick all the time its very hard to pinpoint. Its autoimmune so is strongly linked to diabeties. I would ask for a test the next time your having blood taken if I were you (wouldnt schedule anything specially)
 
Like you I have never been overweight never had a bad diet but still had high cholesterol....I take statins never had any side effects from them and I am diagnosed as prediabetic T2 I have cut out rice pasta and root vegetables all said to raise BS I have one large or two small granary or wholemeal slices of toast with my breakfast but that is the only time I eat bread. I did drop in weight to lower than I like but have now seemed to have reached a plateau and have not lost any more since just before Christmas but I would like to put on a few pounds that is why I do not low carb like many do here I just cut out the starchy ones but I eat plenty of green vegetables salad and most fruit but of course no sugar stuff like cakes biscuits etc
 
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OK. I'll ask about it next time. I've started a list as someone else said I should ask if I can have a meter.
 
SkinnyLizzie said:
OK. I'll ask about it next time. I've started a list as someone else said I should ask if I can have a meter.
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A helpful response from ZIZZI -
While we don't currently do a whole wheat pasta, the decision to bring in
wholemeal dough is quite recent and we are monitoring feedback on this
product very closely as we monitor all feedback. I've shared your comments
with Lisa Parsons, our head of Food and Drink Development for her
consideration.
In the meantime, we do serve excellent GF Dove's Farm pasta. This
award-winning Gluten Free and Organic Brown Rice Fusilli is warmly welcomed
by those avoiding wheat and gluten. Made in Italy from brown rice, this
pasta has the additional benefit of being wholegrain.
 
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