Chinese food and diabetes

[cantdrv55]

I don't know what it is about Chinese food but eating it always makes my blood sugar spike. This time I had one small serving of sweet/sour chicken, prawns in lobster sauce and shrimp fried rice. About an hour-and-a-half later, I rode the spinning bike for a half hour and lifted weights for the same but my glucose was still very high at 187! Usually I can eat anything including a big bag of popcorn at the movies and as long as I ride my bike and lift, my blood sugar drops to below 100.

What the heck is it with Chinese food and how come you never hear of diabetic Asians? I'm an anomaly.

[aigel]

What you ate was not Chinese food. It was American Chinese.

Go to the Chinese grocery store some time. Watch closely what the folks put in their cart. I am always amazed at the amount of vegetables. Literally mounds of green leafy vegetables. The seafood counter there also is at least the size of the meat counter. Average American supermarket has no seafood counter to speak of.

You are what you eat ...

George (I like pork!)

[pwd72s]

Sweet & sour sauce? I dunno..haven't eaten chinese since being diagnosed with type 2...

[VroomGrrl]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

I don't know what it is about Chinese food but eating it always makes my blood sugar spike. This time I had one small serving of sweet/sour chicken, prawns in lobster sauce and shrimp fried rice. About an hour-and-a-half later, I rode the spinning bike for a half hour and lifted weights for the same but my glucose was still very high at 187! Usually I can eat anything including a big bag of popcorn at the movies and as long as I ride my bike and lift, my blood sugar drops to below 100.

What the heck is it with Chinese food and how come you never hear of diabetic Asians? I'm an anomaly.

Between the rice, and the sweet sauce, and the breading on sweet & sour chicken, a meal like this would cause me a big spike. In addition, I think that the high salt content in Chinese food (often increased by monoSODIUM glutamate, MSG), can change the body's hydration enough that the blood sugar effect is exaggerated.

In my case, I have a weird problem (since gastric bypass surgery) where a spike is followed by a super-severe crash. Bigger the spike, bigger the crash. I passed out a couple of times and that was it. Once I learned what was going on, I adjusted my diet to basically eliminate all this stuff. No more passing out.

I've been really surprised at some of the things that make my blood sugar spike. One time my in-laws invited us to their favorite fancy restaurant (Olive Garden - no flames, trust me it's not MY favorite...) and I thought I was making a good choice in the chicken marsala and grilled veggies instead of a heaping pile of pasta. Skipped the bread. Salad, chicken, veggies. Worst. Crash. Ever. Sweet wine, reduced in a sauce, apparently did me right in. Lesson learned.

[ruf-porsche]

Originally Posted by aigel

What you ate was not Chinese food. It was American Chinese.
You are what you eat ...

George (I like pork!)

+1

I had a Mexican Dinner last night, Tacos and rice and refried beans.

[Gogar]

+1 "American Chinese" food sure is yummy, unless you look at the nutrition facts.

A pint (16oz) take-out box of, let's say, Sweet and Sour Chicken from Panda Express?

1240 Calories,
56 g. Fat (88%)
112 g. Carbs (36%)
1320 g. Sodium. (56%)

not including rice! YUM!

http://caloriecount.about.com/panda-express-nutrition-m264

[vash]

sweet and sour is loaded with sugar. lobster sauce has sugar in it...the rice converted to sugar after the first spike...and held it there.

i agree with the veggie loading. my wife fills the cart with crazy unidentified plantlife. as a chinese dude growing up in el paso texas, i didnt see the exotic plants. i eat them all.

i think all three of those items were authentic chinese food at one time. americans have just put them centerstage.

[GWN7]

Your basic sweet/sour sause is one part sugar to one part vinagar with tomato for colour and spices for flavor.

Figure if your chicken had 100 ml of sause on it that means you ate 50g of raw sugar. The rice prob soaked up the leftover sause when you ate that.

Like the man said, You are what you eat

[wolf76]

Hello. It also has to do with the high fat content. I am a Type1 and I've noticed that with Chinese food as well as Pizza my sugar will spike much later than with other meals. I was told the reason is that the fat slows the digestive process and causes a rise in blood sugar later rather than sooner. Just one more reason I'm glad I'm on an insulin pump. If any of you guys are Type1 I highly reccommend it. It has changed my life for the better.

Chris

[tabs]

Hate to tell ya, but your all gona die...sooner or later...

[ruf-porsche]

Originally Posted by vash

.............. as a chinese dude growing up in el paso texas, i didnt see the exotic plants. i eat them all.

All this time I thought you were the hottie in your AVATAR.



Bummer

[creaturecat]

Originally Posted by tabs

Hate to tell ya, but your all gona die...sooner or later...

........sooner OR later, that is correct. Most people would prefer it to be later.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by tabs

Hate to tell ya, but your all gona die...sooner or later...

And that's a fact. BUT...as a newbie to the diabetic thing, and knowing I still have much to learn, I really don't want to rush things. Tabbydoll, it's not just a reading on a test meter. It's about trying to feel good generally. Just being able to function.

[Tobra]

Dude, you need to go to a nutritionist. Ask your primary care doctor. Your insurance will pay for it. Go to the eye doctor at least once a year. Go see a Podiatrist. Diabetes will make you tend toward high cholesterol, with the attendant adverse effects.

Are you really surprised your blood sugar went up when you had sweet and sour sauce?

If you are diabetic and smoke, you might be better advised to shoot yourself in the head.

[cantdrv55]

My point is that every time I eat Chinese food, regardless of what it is, my blood sugar spikes. I can control it with exercise but not when I eat Chinese.

[Tobra]

You can eat bread, rice and sugary syrup and your blood sugars don't spike unless it is in the process of eating Chinese food?

[cantdrv55]

Those foods make my blood sugar spike but nothing like when I eat Chinese. For instance, tonight I had spaghetti and a slice of apple pie for dessert. After a couple of hours, I rode my spin bike for 30 mins, no lifting. My blood sugar was 106 after exercise.

[WPOZZZ]

Lay off the rice.

[Hebrewhomeboy]

white rice, especially the cheap crap many take-out places us, can be very high glycemic. The noodles used in said take out places is also very high glycemic. Carbohydrates by themselves cause an insulin/blood sugar spike, but carbohydrates and protein together can cause a massive spike. What is most chinese take-out? Chicken with a sugary sauce. That's carbs and protein right there, baby, and in many cases not enough fat to slow it down. I'm not diabetic, but hypoglycemia runs in my family, and I've got it, so I have to watch what I eat. Here in Hawaii, every place serves starchy white rice, so I have to be careful. Good call on the exercise though, that definitely helps.

[911pcars]

There are like a gazillion recipes that make up "Chinese Food" and probably 10-20 in the American-flavored Chinese food category that aren't really that healthy. Sweet and sour (chicken, beef, fish) is one of them, and as Vash pointed out, S&S is an American invention, like Chop Suey and Egg Foo Young.

If you'd care to list the "Chinese" you're intaking, we can more accurately assess the quality of your diet.

"American" food is also diverse. It could either be steak, fried chicken, fish, deep fried bacon, pancakes, stew, steamed veggies, salad, grits or rocky mountain oysters. While most aren't good for your health, they're not all equivalent.

I don't think it matters what type of ethnic food is served in the U.S. The corporate food industry usually finds a way to popularize it and make it "fast", which means "processed", and in so doing, squeeze most nutrients out of it.

BTW, according to one website, here's a list of the most popular foods in the US:
1. Hamburger. Wiki says peanut butter sandwich
2. Hot dog
3. French fries
4. Oreo cookies
5. Pizza
6. Soda, soft drinks
7. Chicken tenders
8. Ice cream
9. Donuts
10. Potato chips

Notice the preponderance of the color brown and the absence of the color green? I rest my case.

Sherwood