Skyline and Sky High

I’m currently visiting a friend in Cincinnati, and am dealing with all the fun of traveling with diabetes — extra sensors, syringes, insulin, test strips. I don’t have any makeup, but by God, do I have a lot of extra triple A batteries.

Anyway, this is my first time in Cincinnati and I’ve been intrigued by some of the food choices here. Like, for example, Skyline Chili, a restaurant where, as far as I can tell, everything comes with a scoop of chili on top of it. Hot dogs, French fries, baked potatoes — as I told my friend, Sarah, it’s what food would look like  if America threw up. (She, in turn, pointed out that the shredded cheese looks like orange pubic hair — an excellent, disgusting point.) Apparently the most popular option is a dish of spaghetti with chili on top, where the pasta has congealed into a sort of solid block, a state reminiscent of kugel (if kugel came with meat sauce).

I can’t say that I’d be lining up for some Skyline spaghetti if I didn’t have diabetes, but whoo, would it be a blood sugar disaster if  I tried to eat a plate of this local delicacy with a malfunctioning pancreas. I just checked out their nutritional information page and — spoiler alert! — it’s not very good for you. Take, for example, the Black Bean and Rice Five-Way Large. In addition to sounding kind of naughty, it also happens to have 1240 calories, 58 grams of fat, and 121 grams of carbohydrates.

I like to try new foods when I travel, but I think this is a case where it’d be safer to stick to a salad.

Catherine Price

Catherine Price (www.catherine-price.com) was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism

View Author Blog

Catherine Price

Catherine Price was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. She has written for publications including The Best American Science Catherine Price is a professional journalist who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 22 years old. Her work has been featured in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, Popular Science, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Salon, Slate, Men’s Journal, Health Magazine, The Oprah Magazine, and Outside, among others. A graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism