The Best Fast Food For Diabetes. I Finally Found It!

ever since I was diagnosed with diabetes I've been on a mission to find the perfect fast food meal one that won't Spike my blood sugar through the roof but still tastes amazing unlike this side salad from McDonald's sure it only has 18 calories but it tastes like grass throughout my life I tried hundreds of fast food options and almost gave up because 99% of the fast food meals I tried would send my blood sugar on a roller coaster but 35 years after my diagnosis I finally found what I was looking for this customized Chipotle burrito

bowl is my number one go-to option anytime I'm in the US so in this video I'm going to share with you what exactly I put in this bowl what blood sugar friendly meals I found in the other most popular fast food restaurants and last but not least my three tips on how you can eat pretty much any fast food meal without worrying about your blood sugar spiking too much keep in mind I'm not a doctor I'm not a nutritionist I'm just sharing my own experience let's address the elephant in the room first because I'm sure

some of you might be thinking well the best fast food for diabetes is no fast food right and I agree with you in an Ideal World we would all cook our meals at home from Whole Foods ingredients and our blood sugar would always be in the optimal range between 70 and 140 milligram per deciliter but that's not the world we live in some of us are busy some of us can't cook and some of us like me simply enjoy going out with friends from time to time and not be the only weirdo who doesn't order

a pizza now please don't get me wrong a healthy lifestyle and a balanced blood sugar is my number one priority but I also want to be able to fully enjoy my life and that includes eating out sometimes I don't do it every day but I don't mind doing it because I have a strategy for it starting with tip number one know exactly what you are eating now to better explain this tip I will show you what exactly happened to my blood sugar after consuming the two most popular fast food items in the world Big Mac

from McDonald's and a caramel Mac from Starbucks let's have a look it's really interesting I started my test with caramel macchiato which is a very carbohydrate heavy drink more than half of its calories come from carbs 57% to be exact plus most of these carbs are pure sugar there is some protein and fat as well but no fiber and that's why when you drink caramel macchiato at Starbucks your blood sugar will most likely go up very quickly if you LIF with some form of diabetes you can easily Spike to over 200 or even 300 Mig

per liter within less than an hour now Big Mac is a completely different animal when we look at its nutritional composition we will see that almost half of the calories in a Big Mac come from fats but there are a lot of calories from carbs too now all those fats slow down absorption of glucose from the carbs into the bloodstream and that's why when you eat a Big Mac your blood sugar probably won't go up that fast but it might end up at similarly high levels a few hours after you eat it now let's compare

these results to my burrito bowl from Chipotle as you can see my my custom Bowl includes chicken half portion of brown rice black or pinto beans fresh tomato salsa fajita vegetables and lettuce this all is real food no artificial ingredients and looking at its nutritional composition we can see a clear difference between the burrito bowl caramel macchiato and the Big Mac a lot more calories in this bowl come from protein and fiber which is a good thing after eating this bowl your glucose Spike will most likely be relatively mild and your blood sugar should come

back to normal level in a few hours now it doesn't really matter if you live with type 2 diabetes type one like me or any other form of diabetes a fast food burger or sugary caffeinated drink are not the easiest items on the menu when it comes to managing your blood sugar but before I show you some better options to choose from in McDonald's and Starbucks I really need you to pay attention because I'm about to draw the most important chart in the history of diabetes it shows how and when different components of your meal

impact your blood sugar pure carbs raise blood sugar very fast typically within an hour or two proteins have less impact on the blood sugar than carbs and they do raise blood sugar a bit later typically about 2 to 4 hours after you eat it and fats might impact your blood sugar for up to 6 to 8 hours after you eat them and that's why high carb and high fat meal like the Big Mac like a pizza are the most challenging ones to handle now one component of your meal that's often left out from this chart

is fiber which technically is included it in the carb count but fiber doesn't really Spike blood sugar so fiber rich meals are always a good option now of course that chart is a little bit simplified because pretty much any meal you will get will include a combination of carbs protein fat and fiber but the thing is all fast food chains have the nutritional value of their meals available on their website and in the restaurant so please look these things up because knowing exactly what you are eating will allow you to come up with a strong

blood sugar strategy for pretty much any fast food meal and I will share my strategy plus some other fast food blood sugar hacks in a minute but first I promised you some blood sugar friendly Alternatives in McDonald's and Starbucks so here they are the grilled chicken salad will erase your blood sugar much less than a Big Mac and the rise in your blood sugar will be more manageable it's because more than half of the calories in the salad come from protein and the salot also has a decent amount of fiber in Starbucks you could go

for black coffee with almond milk which should only have a couple grams of carbs and not more than 20 calories which is perfect but keep in mind that although there are no carbs in a coffee there is caffeine caffeine stimulates release of adrenaline and adrenaline can also cause a temporary spike in your blood sugar now moving on to tip number two be intentional when choosing your meal the thing is I don't really eat fast food very often because I know that is not the best fuel for my brain and for my body on the other

hand I will absolutely have a huge slice of pizza or or even a Big Mac menu from time to time and I don't blame myself for it because I do have a strategy for those meals and I can keep my blood sugar below 150 mg per deciliter most of the time but whenever I find myself ordering fast food for lunch it's important for me to pause and think about how I want to feel after I eat this see maybe I have an important work task to get done or an important work meeting to attend maybe

I want to stay sharp to be able to focus on this task not feel tired and distracted by having to manage my blood sugar after this carp and fat heavy meal in that case I might want to intentionally decide to go for something healthier and lighter that will fuel me better and that will be more gentle to my blood sugars here are a few real life examples to help you understand what I mean this is what happened with my blood sugar after I ate a fried chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A which is quite high in both

carvs and trans fats and here is what happened after I ate a grilled chicken sandwich as you can see the the Fried Chicken kept my blood sugar elevated for a lot longer and I spent way more time and mental energy keeping my blood sugar under control so when it comes to meat grilled seems to be a better option than fried okay but what about wraps and bowls are they better than sandwiches to find it out I headed to Subway where I ate on three different days I ordered the exact same thing roasted chicken with Swiss

cheese all the vegetables and vinegar sauce once as a sandwich once as a wrap and once as a bowl after eating the sandwich I saw a notable spike in my blood sugar which is exactly what I expected given I did not give myself insulin in advance of that meal after eating the wrap the spike was even bigger so it seems that a wrap is not a better option than a sandwich and it makes sense because looking at the wrap I saw that it does have more carbs than the bread on the last day I ordered

a salad bowl with the exact same ingredients and as you can see my glucose stayed almost flat so a bowl is definitely a winner at least in Subway it's way easier to manage when it comes to my blood sugar but please keep in mind this was a salad bowl not a Rice Bowl if that was a rice bowl then it would probably Spike my blood sugar a lot more but guys and girls I want to make one thing clear if you decide to order a sandwich or a wrap it's totally okay I don't judge you

and one little thing you can do to make those more blood sugar friendly is to go for a whole wheat or whole grain option whenever that kind of thing is available next let's talk about side dishes and the most popular side dish in the world is the french fries from McDonald's so I had it there again because it wouldn't be a complete video without meat testing them after eating a regular portion of french fries which includes 43 carbs and 15 G of fat with a very little protein and fiber of course I saw a notable

spike in my blood sugar although I took insulin with this meal you can see that the blood sugar stayed elevated for several hours before it came back down next I decided to compare the fries to mashed potatoes from from KFC which I have to admit are really tasty these mashed potatoes have only 23 carbs and 5 G of fat so not as much as the french fries from McDonald's and as you can see after taking my insulin and eating the mashed potatoes my blood sugar didn't rise so high it was a bit easier to manage

the main reason why mashed potatoes seem to be better option is that they have more protein and the standard portion seems to be lower in calories than french fries it's it's just a smaller meal smaller portion in General but as a third side dish I decided to try something different my favorite side dish in Chipotle and it's the guacamole I went to the Chipotle website and ordered a big portion which has even more calories than fries but as you can see it's loaded with healthy fat and fiber which makes the calories in avocado very blood

sugar friendly although I didn't take any insulin for that guacamole I didn't see my blood sugar spiking at all it started creeping up slowly after 2 hours but the overall r in my glucose was minimal another two blood sugar friendly side dishes that you can order in many fast food places are side salad or steamed vegetables these barely have any net carbs so they probably won't spike your blood sugar as long as you pick the right dressing for the salad the most popular salad dressing options are Ranch thousand silence and blue cheese but those are

very high and saturated fats and might even include some sugar I usually stay away from those because I noticed that those although they have no carbs still mess up with my postmeal blood sugar quite a bit the dressings I prefer are Italian or balsamic vinegared because they are much more blood sugar friendly but be careful because some of those might include honey or even some added sugar which if you are insulin dependent like me you might need to consider when calculating your premal dose okay but what about sauces do they impact blood sugar as well

of course they do I tried a few of them and what they do to my blood sugar if I don't take any insulin first was ketchup which is indeed a very popular choice but it contains quite a bit of sugar three small packets of ketchup raised my blood sugar by 30 Mig per deciliter in less than an hour and just like ketchup any other sauce that has this sweet taste like barbecue sauce or sweet and sour will Spike my blood sugar quite fast I just know it but next I wanted to show you what mayonnaise

does since it has no sugar but it's loaded with fat Mayo didn't Spike my blood sugar as fast fast as ketchup but after consuming the same amount of mayonnaise my blood sugar stayed elevated for a few hours and I could see a very similar effect with other sauces that are high in fat like the cheese sauce at Taco Bell or zesty sauce in Burger King as you can see high sugar or high saturated fat content in pretty much any sauce is not ideal and that's why my go-to choices are hot sauce and mustard these hardly

ever impact my blood sugar at all because they tend to have no or very a little sugar and fat content all right all right I have to take a break here because I just realized I'm giving you all these blood sugar friendly options but I have to admit to something I don't follow these healthy tips 100% in fact sometimes I don't follow them at all there are days and occasions when I choose to not follow them because I simply want to enjoy the time with my friends or family sometimes I just want to hang out

eat the same things that they eat and not worry about my blood sugar too much all right and that's why in those situations it's perfectly fine for me to have a few giant slices of pizza a big fat burger with fries or a Chinese takeout now usually I don't blame myself for doing it because I developed these strategies and I know how to deal with those kinds of meals and keeping my blood sugar between 70 and 140 or at least 180 most of those times so whenever I go wild like that I follow these five

rules rule number one always order a veggie appetizer with it I know that if I eat vegetables first this will help reduce blood sugar Spike from any other meals that I will eat later on rule number two is I keep moving after I eat the carb meal if there is a chance to stand up and mingle or go for a walk or get involved in any kind of activity be it with friends or their kids that are part of the group I'll go for it any kind of aerobic physical activity will make me instantly more

insulin sensitive and that will help keep my blood sugar lower number three when I order a Chinese takeout that has a lot of white rice and some sweet sauce I just know it will be full of fast acting carbs it will have a high glycemic index and it will Spike my blood sugar very fast now as you know I'm a type 1 diabetic so I have to inject insulin before pretty much any meal but this actually is a good thing because I can take advantage of that insulin and time it properly to fight or counteract

that fast blood sugar Spike from the Chinese takeout the simple way to do it is take that insulin ahead of the meal and for a high glycemic index type of meal like this one I can take the insulin even earlier than I'm used to with other meals and in this specific instance in my case it can be up to 20 minutes before the meal by the way you can use exactly the same strategy for other carb meals like breakfast cereal or a fruit bowl it works like charm for me rule number four when I eat

pizza that not only has a lot of carbs it also has a lot of fat I know it will be acting very differently from that Chinese takeout the spike in my glucose will be slower and my blood sugar might be going up for several hours after eating that pizza but again I can make use of my insulin to counteract that slower but longer blood sugar Spike the way I do it is I only take half of my insulin dose before the meal and the other half of of the insulin about 90 minutes after eating that

pizza and again you can use the very same strategy for many meals that are very high in fat and very high in carbs now your body the type of insulin you use and your insulin needs might be different from mine and that's why my next rule is probably the most important one on the list but before we get to it I need to tell you something very important you know I get a lot of offers from the companies in the diabetes space wanting me promote their products to you they usually offer decent financial compensation but

most of the time I say no because I want to keep this Channel free from excessive advertising but creating these videos is how I make my living and that's why I'm so incredibly grateful to those of you who support Me On patreon by joining the patreon community you get direct access to me bonus content invitations to virtual community meetups and much more spots in the patreon group are limited so go ahead and join Jo while you still can now moving on to the most important tip of this whole video the trial and error you see

when I get adventurers and decide to try a new meal often times there is no way for me to know what exactly is in that meal the first thing I do in those kinds of situations is to try to estimate the number of carbs that meal could have another thing I think about is is this meal similar to something I already know something I already have strategy for is it more like a Chinese takeout is it more like a pizza or is it more like a Chipotle Bowl I don't expect to get things 100% right

for the first time but I always take it as an opportunity to learn about how my body will react how my blood sugar will react to that meal and how I will feel after eating that meal the easiest way to do it is to take a moment and look at my blood sugar graph on my CGM when I get home and if things didn't go so well think about what I can do differently next time with this specific type Tye of meal should I eat less of it next time should I take more insulin should

I take the insulin earlier is there anything I can improve with diabetes it's all about trial and error so it's really beneficial for anyone who's trying to figure things out to get curious and just try and try again I promise you that over the time you'll be able to figure out a strategy for pretty much any life situation any meal any activity anything but the thing is fast food is not the only challenge when you live with diabetes another big one especially when it comes to socializing is alcohol so if you want to know how

I manage my blood sugar while drinking and what my favorite blood sugar friendly drink is click on this video and watch it next I will see you there ciao