Type 2 Diabetes Food List
We've listed what to eat when you go out to a restaurant. This is broken down into the types of restaurants.
And if you know that eating too many carbs is unavoidable (a party, social occasion, etc.) here is an article on what to do. How to avoid those insulin spikes and lower blood sugar.
General Restaurant | Barbeque | Chinese | Fast Food Restaurants | French | Indian | Italian | Japanese | Mexican | Pizza Parlour
Restaurant:
Grilled meat, fish or fowl, large green salad with ranch, blue cheese or olive oil vinaigrette dressing, steamed or sauteed vegetables in place of potatoes, pasta or rice - hold the bread and crackers.
Chef's salad or grilled chicken Caesar salad. Hold the croutons.
Quiche and green salad - eat only the filing, scooping it out of the crust.
Chicken, tuna or crab salads. Hold the crackers.
Barbecue
Sliced beef, pork, chicken or dry rub ribs with cole slaw and tossed salad. Deviled eggs are fine. Hold the beans, fries or other potatoes and breads.
Fast Foods/Burgers
Order burgers and sandwiches without bread - Check the carb counts in the "Nutritional Information" ahead of time. Anything breaded and fried, as most fish and many chicken sandwiches are, is going to have a lot of added carbohydrates. Add a "side salad," to the "bunless" sandwich. In some places, you can ask for a separate larger container such as those the meal salads come in. Then dump the side salad into it, and put the protein on top.
Grilled chicken sandwich with cheese and bacon if you like. Remove the bun and eat with a knife and fork.
A Side Salad with dressing. Check the "Nutritional Information" provided by the restaurant. Look for salad dressings with little sugar -- some have packets with over 4 teaspoons of sugar included.
Order Salads with Grilled Chicken (not "crispy fried", or other chicken with breading). Occasionally, you'll see salads with other types of protein. Skip the croutons, tortilla strips, and similar additions. Again, be very careful about the dressing. (This cannot be over-emphasized. You may have to bring your own.) Also, look for salads with a mixture of greens, and a variety of vegetables.
McDonald's has brochures available in its restaurants which provide information about most of the menu items.
Burgers have 0 carbs. Processed cheese, tomato slices, and onion have about a gram of carb each. For ketchup or Big Mac sauce, add 2 grams.
Grilled Chicken at McDonald's has additives with about 2 grams of carbohydrate per patty.
Crispy chicken fillets have 10 grams of carb, and Filet-o-Fish comes in at 9 grams. Tartar sauce or mayo dressing have one gram of carbohydrate. Premium Ranch Sauce has 3 grams of carbohydrate. A Ranch Snack Wrap will have 33 grams of carbohydrate, with 22 of them being in the tortilla.
McDonald's salads are a cut above salads at many other fast food establishments in that they contain a variety of greens, instead of just the standard iceberg or romaine lettuces. This goes for their side salads as well as their meal salads. They also contain small carrots and grape tomatoes.
The best bets are the Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken or Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken, skip the croutons. Any other option adds lots of carbs from breading, glazes, tortilla strips, etc. The carb count is as high as 38 for the Southwest Salad with Crispy Chicken.
Dressings: The entire package of dressing will get anywhere from 4 grams of carbohydrate for the Creamy Caesar Dressing or Low Fat Balsamic Vinaigrette (the only ones even close to being low in carbs) to a 15 grams for the Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing.
Tempted by the Snack Size Fruit and Walnut Salad? Don't be. The sugar in the yogurt and the glaze on the walnuts raise the total grams to 29 for this "snack".
McNuggets, Fries, Desserts, and Most Breakfasts
Just put them out of your mind.
You could get the scrambled eggs all by their lonesome for breakfast, or conceivably skip the muffin on the McMuffin.
Beverages
Obviously water, diet sodas, coffee, and unsweetened iced tea are the zero carb options.
Carbs in Coffee Drinks
You might be tempted by the new coffee drinks, but check them out carefully. All of the flavored ones have a lot of sugar except for the sugar-free vanilla, which contains a syrup sweetened with sucralose (Splenda), acesulfame potassium and erythritol. This syrup is listed as having carbohydrates. Also, cappuccinos and lattes have milk which contains lactose and carbs.
So, while no one will pretend that fast food delivers the ultimate in nutrition, with careful choices you can hit the McDonald's drive-through occasionally without wrecking your diet.
Salads at Burger King
The only low-carb meal salad option is the Tendergrill Chicken Garden Salad, at 8 grams. The Tendercrisp Chicken Salad has more than 24 grams. The dressings, as always, contain a wide range of carbohydrates. The best one is the Ranch Dressing at 2 grams of carbohydrate per packet. (Do NOT get the Fat Free Ranch Dressing, as it contains 15 grams) The Creamy Caesar and Light Italian dressings could also reasonable choices, at 4 and 5 grams, respectively.
If you just want a Chicken Tender or two, they are a little over 2 grams of carb a piece. Choose the Ranch dipping sauce at 1 gram per container.
Breakfast
Subway used to be a place to get a variety of low-carb offerings, notably low-carb wraps. At one point, Subway worked with Atkins Nutritionals to develop these sandwiches, which proved to be popular with low-carb eaters. However, in spring 2007, Subway suddenly (and without announcement) substituted high-carb wraps for the low-carb items they had been selling. The white flour they are made of offers very little nutrition, and each wrap has about 38 grams of carbohydrate -- the equivalent of over three tablespoons of sugar. The sandwiches are worse.
Grams of carbs for the 6" subs are mostly in the 40s, with the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich having 54 grams. And yes, count on doubling those numbers for a foot-long sandwich.
Salads
Choose your salad dressing wisely. Your best bet is the oil and vinegar they put on the subs, which has zero carbs. The ranch dressing is next best pick, at 3 grams for a 2-ounce packet. A packet of fat-free Italian dressing has 7 grams of carb, and the red wine vinaigrette is loaded - 17 grams of carb.
How About Nutrition?
Bottom Line
Chinese Restaurant Soups: Egg drop or hot and sour soup .Appetizers: skewered beef or chicken Beef, chicken, pork, shrimp with broccoli or assorted mixed chinese vegetables Avoid: egg rolls, noodles, mu shu pancakes, and rice. Read your fortune but give away your cookie. French Restaurant Clear soups, and fresh green salads, Medallions of beef or pork finished with buttersauce, green peppercorn cause or choron sauce Roasted lamb, duck, quail, game hen, Grilled or poached fish, Sauteed vegetables Avoid: breads, potatoes and rice and heavy cream sauces which may contain significant carbohydrates from flour. Indian Restaurant
Tandoori chicken or lamb; chicken, beef, or lamb curry, chicken rikka or chicken masala, tossed green salad, tomato and cucumber salad, pickled onion, zukeni bhaghi (stewed zucchini and yellow squash), saag panir (creamy spinach) Avoid: the breads, breaded and fried vegetables, potato dishes and rice. Italian Restaurant
Sautéed (not breaded) calamari or antipasto appetizers. Chicken or veal piccata, grilled fish or pork cutlet, or rotisserie or grilled chicken with tossed salad and any sauteed or steamed vegetables available to substitute for pasta. Avoid: pasta dishes and bread. Japanese Sushi/Terriyaki Restaurant Sushi or sashimi (without rice) Miso soup (seaweed, broth and bean curd) Terriyaki chicken, beef or fish with salad Avoid: Tempura which is breaded and fried Mexican Restaurant:
Chicken or beef fajitas, minus the tortilla wrappers. East the garnishes, lettuce, chopped tomato, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo. Grilled chicken, fish, beef, beef or port medallions, or shredded beef, port or chicken with insalata mista (tossed salad)Avoid: rice, beans, tortilla wrappers or chips Pizza Parlor
Pizza and a tossed salad with ranch, blue cheese, or italian dressing. Load up on toppings and eat only the toppings, and leave the crust. Avoid: breadsticks, garlic toast, spaghetti or other pasta dishes.
See also Stuck at a Convenience Store
Carb Counter
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STILL HAVE QUESTIONS? CALL (888) 580-9390 OR EMAIL AND GET YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
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