Tips for Eating Chinese Food If You Have Diabetes

If you have diabetes and have trouble controlling your blood-glucose levels, you may need to take extra steps of precaution when you dine out at a Chinese restaurant. Some items at Chinese restaurants are loaded with sugars, and these are the types of items you will need to avoid. If you want to prevent a major surge in your sugar levels when you eat Chinese food, you can do so by following these tips.

Foods to Avoid

Diabetes is a condition where a person's body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body maintain the right levels of glucose, which is a sugar. This sugar is used to provide energy to all the cells in your body, but your body relies on insulin to help keep the levels regulated. Because of this, you will have to use caution when eating foods that contain sugar.

Chinese food is made up of a lot of different things, including rice, fresh vegetables, meats, and sauces. Some of these things are fine to eat, but there are certain ones you should avoid. Rice, for example, is a food that appears healthy; however, it contains a lot of sugars. Therefore, when you eat out at a Chinese restaurant, you should avoid eating rice.

Noodles are another common ingredient in Chinese food, but these also contain a lot of sugars, so you should try to avoid eating noodles while you are there.

Foods You Can Eat

While this may seem like every menu item is ruled out, this is not the case. You can order almost any item you would like, but you may need to ask for some changes. First of all, order entrees that are made up primarily of fresh vegetables and lean meats. Ask the server to go "light" on the sauce and ask them to skip the rice. If they have brown rice, you could order that instead because it contains less sugars than white rice.

Some of the common sauces used in Chinese food are sweet and sugary, which is why you should avoid these, and this includes the sauce used in General Tso's chicken. Instead of getting sauce on your meal, you could always order it plain and add some hot mustard sauce to your meal to give it some extra flavor.

Another option you have is to order soup. Most Chinese soups are low in sugar, and you could always ask for a side of plain fresh veggies to add to the soup.

Spending a little time researching a certain type of food is a good idea if you suffer from diabetes. Diabetes may limit what you eat, but you will still be able to enjoy eating out at most types of restaurants, including a Chinese restaurant like Dynasty Garden.


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