# Chinese takeaway?



## Annemarie (Nov 19, 2020)

Another food related cry for help. My husband wants a Chinese take away this weekend as we haven’t had one for at least 2 years. So far I’ve looked through the menu but it’s difficult to know what, if anything, has lower carbs content. They do offer a stir fry so I might ask if they can do that, anyone got another suggestion please?


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## rebrascora (Nov 19, 2020)

@Annemarie 
My partner gets us chicken and sweet corn soup with prawn crackers and ginger and spring onion char sui or duck, fried rice and a portion of stir fried Chinese vegetables. I have maybe a third or just less of the soup with about 10 prawn crackers followed by the whole portion of stir fried veg with a bit of his pork or duck dish and 2 dessert spoons of his rice to soak up the juice from my veggies. 3 units of bolus insulin is easily enough to cover this food for me and I really enjoy it... so only about 30g carbs max for my portion of it. He usually has enough rice and main dish to have leftovers for lunch the next day, so we get 3 meals out of it between us.


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## rebrascora (Nov 19, 2020)

Added to the above. If I pass on the soup and crackers and just have the stir fried veggies and a bit of pork and ginger with the 2 dessert spoons of rice, then 2 units works fine for me.


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## Annemarie (Nov 19, 2020)

Thanks for that it sounds really yummy, I was thinking of having my Cauli rice but hadn’t considered prawn crackers which I love. You say 3 units of Bolus insulin, is that 3 extra units in addition to the usual or a total of 3? I have 4 and a half of Novarapid before most meals.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 19, 2020)

I’ve split your takeaway question into a thread of it’s own @Annemarie


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## rebrascora (Nov 19, 2020)

Are you on fixed doses Annemarie? If so there may not be enough carbs in my suggestion to cover 4.5, but it depends on your ratios. What would you normally have to eat on an evening with 4.5 units of insulin?
3 units total would be the amount of NovoRapid I would inject to cover that meal including the soup and a few crackers but it depends how sensitive you are to insulin.


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## trophywench (Nov 20, 2020)

Used to like chicken and sweetcorn soup BUT I find it a bit too high carb and would rather have a couple of lettuce leaves worth of Yuk Sung, thanks.  Then I can have a bit more special rice (ie steamed rice with bits of meat fish and veg mixed up in it) with my part of two different mains (Oh heck, we haven't had a Chinese for a few years either, but as we used to go to Chung Ying either in the Chinese quarter in Birmingham or their 'buffet' restaurant in Coventry we are a bit spoiled, cos more local ones tend to not have the same finesse and variety of dishes)


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## Annemarie (Nov 20, 2020)

@rebrascora last night was fairly typical of our evening meals, home made beef casserole, 1 small potato, carrots, broccoli and sprouts followed by blueberries, walnuts and Greek yoghurt. All that plus black tea and I stayed below 9 on 4and a half of Novarapid. I was told by hospital to keep to the set amount unless I check with them but lateIy I do some wiggling depending on what we’re eating. Last Hba1c was 51. I’m disappointed that it seems so high but either I’m getting it wrong or that’s what I need or both. I’m not very mobile so a 10 minute walk on a good day is all I can manage


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## pm133 (Nov 20, 2020)

Annemarie said:


> Another food related cry for help. My husband wants a Chinese take away this weekend as we haven’t had one for at least 2 years. So far I’ve looked through the menu but it’s difficult to know what, if anything, has lower carbs content. They do offer a stir fry so I might ask if they can do that, anyone got another suggestion please?


I am a bit confused here. You are Type 1. Is there a particular reason you are looking for low carb food from a Chinese Takeaway? Just bolus for it? Of course, you'd need a way of knowing the carbs count anyway.


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## helli (Nov 20, 2020)

@Annemarie, if you are wanting Chinese and low carb, have you thought about egg fu yung?


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## Annemarie (Nov 20, 2020)

Good point but I’m still early days and following the hospital guidelines (which are hardly available since COVID) until joining the group I didn’t know anyone else I could talk to. I had a clear understanding to keep my insulin as low as possible through my diet so avoid carbs when I can. What do you do? My insulin already seems high


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## pm133 (Nov 20, 2020)

Actually, that is a good point. If anyone does eat from a Chinese Takeaway, how do you calculate the carbs for bolussing? Personally, I would estimate perhaps 30g for the sauce, nothing for the chicken and maybe 60g for the rice, round up to 100g and bolus for that in perhaps 2 doses, 3 hours apart using blood testing to check. Anyone know of a better method?


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## pm133 (Nov 20, 2020)

Annemarie said:


> Good point but I’m still early days and following the hospital guidelines (which are hardly available since COVID) until joining the group I didn’t know anyone else I could talk to. I had a clear understanding to keep my insulin as low as possible through my diet so avoid carbs when I can. What do you do? My insulin already seems high


What are your daily bolus and basal amounts?
Mine are about 30 and 22 units per day although recently, I've been eating a bit less than normal.

There are Type 1s who do the low carb thing like @rebrascora but I am not aware of any advice that this is an approach Type 1s should be following. As far as I can tell, the latest peer reviewed science says there's no proven benefits to being low carb for Type 1s.

ETA: Ah. Are you on fixed bolus amounts?


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## Kaylz (Nov 20, 2020)

@Annemarie ask your team if they would allow you to try carb counting, its by far better than having set units, you don't need a course or anything, I'm completely self taught and did so less than a month after I was diagnosed xx


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## Annemarie (Nov 20, 2020)

I’ve learnt that from here but tried to link to the course in the Learning zone which had a questionnaire start. I didn’t get far then had to break off. Having done that 3 times I didn’t get any further and I can’t sit still for however long it takes. I just gave up. I asked the hospital but they said carb course not available until after COVID which we all know is ?!?!??


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## Annemarie (Nov 20, 2020)

@Kaylz How did you do it


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## Kaylz (Nov 20, 2020)

Annemarie said:


> @Kaylz How did you do it


It's just a case of finding your insulin to carb ratio, most are started at 1 unit for 10g carbs but it can also vary throughout the day and then a case of weighing your portions of food and using the nutrition information to work out how many carbs are in your portion xx


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## helli (Nov 20, 2020)

I started like @Kaylz - I weighed the ingredients for my meals, looked up the number of carbohydrates per 100g on the packet (or internet) did a bit of calculation to work out the total number of carbs in my food.
Then I injected 1 unit of insulin for every 10g of carbs.
I tested a couple of hours later t check my blood sugars were going in the right direction 

Over time I learnt that I was a little more insulin resistant in the morning so increased the insulin dose then.
I made various other tweaks depending on the type of food, time of day, stress levels. exercise, ... but that took time. To start, it is a simple case of calculating how many carbs are in what you are going to eat and then dividing my 10. 

This gave me much more flexibility in what I ate. Allowed me to snack between meals and made me feel in control rather than the diabetes. 
I also got used to "eyeballing" a dish to guesstimate carbs. 
I also have a spreadsheet I built up over time for quick checks


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## Annemarie (Nov 20, 2020)

That’s all very helpful thank you, I’ll tighten up my assessing/measuring, I also find being in pain raises levels and taking tablets can be even worse. Today is a bad day and it’s raining but I know I need to get out for my 10 minute walk which can help. After that it’s a light mixed fish and vegetable dinner tonight so that will be enjoyable
I’m very interested in your spread sheets @helli you really are organised I just can think how to start


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## helli (Nov 20, 2020)

Annemarie said:


> I’m very interested in your spread sheets @helli you really are organised I just can think how to start


I cannot attach a spreadsheet so have taken a screenshot of the top of mine, to give you an idea.

As a huge caveat, I would say, this was created for me and not to share.
Second caveat: I am happy to approximate so the numbers may not be 100% accurate.

Column A is the list of different fruit and veg (I am a veggie), column B is the amount of carbs per 100g for each which I have found by Googling "carbs in ...". Column C is the only part that I enter anything into - this is the total weight of the almonds, apples, etc. Then column C will work out the number of carbs in that item. Finally, cell D1 calculates the values in the table below.
For example, if I was putting together a small fruit salad with a bit of ginger to spice it up, I would fill in the numbers in column C.

I would need to bolus for 21g of carbs.
If my ratio was 1 unit of insulin for 10g carbs, I would take 2 units.
(I could add a calculation to the spreadsheet for the insulin dose.)

If you have some standard meals, you could use this to calculate the insulin dose for those meals and save that. My meals change each time so I have not done this.

I hope that all makes a bit of sense.


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## nonethewiser (Nov 20, 2020)

Try to avoid sweet dishes like sweet n sour, apart from that eat most chinese dishes, usually pork chow mein curried chicken n fried rice.

Takes bit of experimenting at first to get dose right but well worth it for enjoyable meal, once you get it right take note of dosage & meal size for future reference.


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