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Fish and Chips

jinstone

Well-Known Member
Messages
51
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Not being able to eat deserts :)
Can any one explain why Fish and Chips would mess up my sugar levels so much? Had a feeling they were having an effect so last night tested before (6.4) and two and half hours later (15.9)...so no more fish and chips but don't really understand why they hit me so hard.
On metformin and gliclazide

Any ideas.

Regards
Jeremy
 
The obvious thing would be to mention the chips. Some potatoes affect sugar levels more than others. New potatoes are safer than old ones and if you bought your fish and chips in a chippy then you certainly got old ones and you don't know which type.

The quantity of chips that are served in some chippies is also a problem since they definitely do not ration them. You should only eat a quite small quantity of chips. This is not a measure that will apply to you but if I eat one "small" fries from a KFC I am fine but if I eat two my blood sugar goes way over the limit.

In your case the fish and in my case the chicken should not be a problem providing they are not ultra processed but the batter or breading should be thought about. The breading of KFC does not affect me but batter from a chippy might not be the same day to day.
 
Indy51 said:
Could also be the flour in the batter. Flour can affect BG levels in some people.
Click to expand...

Quite right and I am one of the people that can't eat flour and get away with it. I discussed this with my nurse and she thought the breading on the KFC would be a problem since it is not only bread but flour is used to stick it on. It has no effect on me happily.

I agree that the flour in the batter could be a problem but the chips will probably swamp any effect the batter will have. I suggest just eating the fish on one occasion to see what the difference is when you leave out the chips. You can go back to eating some chips in the future but if they are the problem then cut down on them.
 
Depending on portion size a typical fish 'n' chip supper could have 150-200g of carbs per serving.
 
Have to come to Whitby for decent fish and chips, the batter is thin and crispy and fish fried in dripping, whereas down south fish seems to be coated in thick, chewy batter, YUK I am sure if I ate that it would raise my bg into double figures.
I save carbs at breakfast, make sure my bg is in the 4s, have a huge fish (haddock) and allow myself exactly 6 chunky chips. A perfect compromise for me.
 
I leave the batter (can't eat wheat) and have a few of someone else's chips. I still feel like I have had fish and chips though. The fat on the chips can slow down the carbs in them.
 
Not only the chips, but do you eat batter? it can have a significant amount of carb. Here again portion size is critical. I occasionally eat fish and chips, but only a small part of a portion. I share with someone else, I eat some fish, a taste of batter and about 5 chips. the Chippie shop portions are humungous!
Last evening, I had a piece of home cooked steamed fish with 5 oven chips and a portion of spinach; carbs about 15. there are ways round anything!
Hana
 
Thank you for all the feed back, old style southern fish and chips with as you say quite thick batter. Ate about half the fish and half the chips....sounds like I need to move on to KFC (grin).

Thanks again, some testing to be done by the looks of it fish only, chips only in small numbers to see what works.

Curry and eating only half the rice seems to be OK, so may be more curry.

ttfn
Jeremy
 
Hi All.
Here - in the northwest [preston area]
We have an award winning fish n chip shop .
Folk will queue till get served !

I always play safe and choose a small ale based lightly battered fish with
a small portion of peas -absolutely - [NO CHIPS]
This will raise my levels by 3.5 to 4.5 took me a while to see
this is the certain rise and pattern with this meal.

Only have this about 3 times a year 'if' that :thumbup:
Its knowing what does in foods spike a little or too much ...

Hope this helps .

Anna.
 
WhitbyJet said:
Have to come to Whitby for decent fish and chips, the batter is thin and crispy and fish fried in dripping, whereas down south fish seems to be coated in thick, chewy batter, YUK
Click to expand...

How very dare you cast aspersions on our 'Suvern' chippies :wink:

I would say it all depends on how fresh the fish is and the quality of the batter and the oil and how good the person frying is, It all depends on the fish shop...

I drive down to Hastings several times a year just to have fish and chips for lunch, probably the best fish n chips I have ever eaten and well worth the 120 or so mile round trip.

I tend to eat all the fish but leave at least half of the batter (despite it being light, crispy and very tatsy) and only eat about 10 or so chips but its still worth the drive :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Okay, WhitbyJet, us Yorkshire lasses must stick together! Yorkshire forever!

My brother, who now lives near Reading, always works out his visits to me to include a Wednesday evening 'cos that's when the chippie van comes to the village. He can't stand the ones they have local to him - thick, orange, undercooked batter!

Also we have amazing fish 'n chips in Hawes and Leyburn. I know at least 5 good ones in the Leeds area - not too impressed with Harry Ramsden's any more - and there's a great one in Hunmanby, south of Scarorough. As well as Whitby.

Lovely light crisp batter from all of them, and you can always get cod - with all the skin removed. They leave the skin on the bottom of haddock, which to me is a waste of good batter! :lol:

The chippie van parks outside my house every Wednesday evening, and I've only had them 4 times in 3 years! (not counting the few occasions when my brother is here). Which I think is amazing self-control 8) . I have cod and mushy peas with a small chips, and my BG is always back below 6, 2 hours later.

I think the moral is, fish and chips is/are a treat, not a regular meal. If I ate them every week my BGs would creep up over time.

Viv 8)
 
Sorry Sid, no offence meant, you will have to come and pay us a visit up here.
Thing is that all too often tourists from Southern England can be heard complaining about fish and chips up north, just goes to show how tastes differ.

Viv, my brother lives in Wimbledon, cant stand fish and chips down south, reminds us of '....en croute' :lol:
 
I'm with Whitbyjet on this one, the fish 'n' chips from the Magpie Cafe in Whitby are the best and Rick Stein says much the same, equally as good and only 2 mile down the coast is the chippy in Robin Hoods Bay :thumbup:
 
I find chips to be really toxic to my blood sugar, I can't eat them at all. I had a burger without the bread and about 6 - 8 chunky chips while out a few weeks ago and my BGs shot up to 8.5 at +2 hours of eating. I'm not happy with these numbers so I now avoid ...
 

I have to agree there we visit whitby regular and never miss a chance for fish and chips at the "magpie" ill be there in april and will be in our favourite watering hole "the elsinore" and by the way kfc doesnt affect me
 
regarding the thin chips you buy from mcdonalds,burger king and KFC theve got more fat contents than the thick chips you make .
 
Darrens, bridge st Ramsbottom, a.k.a the wayward tyke.
Whitby is tempting, Dracula and all that:smile:
 
There is quite a lot of carbohydrate in a chippie bought fish and chips, about 70 to 110 grams dependent upon size of portion. Thos of us with Type 1 who carb count can adjust our insulin dose to cope with the carbs , but I would advise that you have smaller portions if you are type 2 otherwise you will be high for a long time. The carbs are from the chips and batter so there is no avoiding them, plus, f you have them, mushy peas or other things like this.
All I can advise is to be careful, don't have them too often.

Dale Williams.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Fish&chips its a worst combination you can imagine for diabetics. Lots of carbs+lots of fat=disaster. The same about pizza. Normally i take 3 or 4 units for my normal meal. For fish and chips 11 wasnt enough :shock:
 
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