Carb Counts for Prepared Foods?

The big problem with restaurant foods is that you usually underestimate the
portion size which may be much larger than any portion size you find in a
book or even on a company web site.

I ate at a local Italian restaurant. I had a salad with some balsamic vinegar
and olive oil (not too much BV), a piece of chicken franchaise (the waiter told
me they dip it in flour and egg, not too bad). It was in a light sauce. I ate 5
(yes just 5) 1 inch by 1 inch cubes of roasted potato. I counted it as 20 carb
grams, that should be about right. I just don't want to get caught like that
again.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Thank you for the link!

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Thank you for the link!

Their website is www.fitday.com. You need to register, it's free. I
use this site for daily calorie tracking.


I'll go there now and sign up - I won't make last night's mistake again

Their website is www.fitday.com. You need to register, it's free. I
use this site for daily calorie tracking.


I'll go there now and sign up - I won't make last night's mistake again

Acertaingirl,

FWIW, I have found that foods with breading on them raise my blood sugar far
higher than I'd expect for the amount of carb that they appear to contain.
My Sweetie who is not diabetic but has started to test his blood sugar has
discovered the exact same effect. He has spiked up to abnormal blood sugar
levels after eating only a few onion rings, for example.

My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with
breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb counts.

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/...0Diagnosed.htm



"Acertaingirl" wrote in message
...
The big problem with restaurant foods is that you usually underestimate
the
portion size which may be much larger than any portion size you find in a
book or even on a company web site.

I ate at a local Italian restaurant. I had a salad with some balsamic
vinegar
and olive oil (not too much BV), a piece of chicken franchaise (the waiter
told
me they dip it in flour and egg, not too bad). It was in a light sauce. I
ate 5
(yes just 5) 1 inch by 1 inch cubes of roasted potato. I counted it as 20
carb
grams, that should be about right. I just don't want to get caught like
that
again.

Acertaingirl,

FWIW, I have found that foods with breading on them raise my blood sugar far
higher than I'd expect for the amount of carb that they appear to contain.
My Sweetie who is not diabetic but has started to test his blood sugar has
discovered the exact same effect. He has spiked up to abnormal blood sugar
levels after eating only a few onion rings, for example.

My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with
breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb counts.

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/...0Diagnosed.htm



"Acertaingirl" wrote in message
...
The big problem with restaurant foods is that you usually underestimate
the
portion size which may be much larger than any portion size you find in a
book or even on a company web site.

I ate at a local Italian restaurant. I had a salad with some balsamic
vinegar
and olive oil (not too much BV), a piece of chicken franchaise (the waiter
told
me they dip it in flour and egg, not too bad). It was in a light sauce. I
ate 5
(yes just 5) 1 inch by 1 inch cubes of roasted potato. I counted it as 20
carb
grams, that should be about right. I just don't want to get caught like
that
again.

My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with
breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb counts.

Does that include flour? I guess so, since bread is made of flour huh?? It was
my first "real dinner" out in 11 weeks with a friend I haven't seen in awhile,
so I splurged. Meanwhile, she was eating "mozzarella in carozza" (mozzarella
sandwiches dipped in batter and deep fried). It looked delish, but I honestly
wasn't even tempted (yeaah for me!)

My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with
breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb counts.

Does that include flour? I guess so, since bread is made of flour huh?? It was
my first "real dinner" out in 11 weeks with a friend I haven't seen in awhile,
so I splurged. Meanwhile, she was eating "mozzarella in carozza" (mozzarella
sandwiches dipped in batter and deep fried). It looked delish, but I honestly
wasn't even tempted (yeaah for me!)

Acertaingirl,

If you read my various articles on long-term low carbing, you'll see that I
believe very strongly that there is a place for eating everything in a low
carb way of life that can be sustained for many years.

The real issue for me is not to say, "I won't ever eat X, Y or Z in a
restaurant," but rather to know what it is I'm eating. I will occasionally
eat something with 40 grams of carbs in it, on purpose, enjoy it, and move
on. The problem for me is when I think I'm eating something with 10 grams
of carbs and it turns out to have 40!

So my advice about being careful about the restaurant food was more to warn
you that you may be eating a bunch more than you expected if you are trying
to maintain your carb intake at some set level. But I, personally, could
not stay on a low carb regimen for year after year if I didn't have
occasional days when I could eat anything I want or have a treat at a
special restaurant meal.

I tried it the other way years ago when I started low carbing, with
everything high carb off limits all the time, and it worked for a year or
two, but by year 3 I was having serious deprivation issues that got worse
and worse and resulted in a lot of "rebound" eating of things I really did
not need to eat.

So I make room for off-plan foods now. I just try to make sure that I don't
get blindsided with hidden carbs when I think I am eating on-plan. My blood
sugar meter told me in no uncertain terms that very small portions of
breaded fried stuff had a whole lot more carbs in them than I thought, so
while I might still eat them, I know that a few bites of those onion rings
is going to be my high carb treat for the day!

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/...0Diagnosed.htm



"Acertaingirl" wrote in message
...
My advice would be to avoid any fried foods or restaurant foods with
breading on them because it is so hard to estimate the actual carb
counts.

Does that include flour? I guess so, since bread is made of flour huh??
It was
my first "real dinner" out in 11 weeks with a friend I haven't seen in
awhile,
so I splurged. Meanwhile, she was eating "mozzarella in carozza"
(mozzarella
sandwiches dipped in batter and deep fried). It looked delish, but I
honestly
wasn't even tempted (yeaah for me!)