{"id":33643,"date":"2013-08-01T11:39:15","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T15:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?post_type=feature&p=33643"},"modified":"2016-01-09T05:55:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T10:55:34","slug":"road-trip-with-diabetes-what-can-i-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=33643","title":{"rendered":"Road Trip with Diabetes: What Can I Eat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0just before dawn I landed in the Philadelphia airport with my husband, three sons, and our trip-saving iPad.\u00a0 After a 12 hour flight, the horror of facing an airport where all coffee shops were closed, and a long wait for a rental car followed by my sons\u2019 fight over who would get the middle seat, we were ready to start our trip.\u00a0 Fortunately, during the seat-fight the only blood shed was from my fingertips.<\/p>\n

As expected, my blood sugar was high.\u00a0 How could it not be?\u00a0 Crossing an ocean and several time zones, combined with sitting still and a few bites of airplane food can lead to only one thing, hereby known as traveler\u2019s diabetes<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0(Not to be confused with traveler\u2019s diarrhea<\/em><\/a> which is defined as \u201cas three or more unformed stools in 24 hours passed by a traveler.\u201d I define traveler\u2019s diabetes<\/em> as three or more out of range blood glucose readings in 24 hours experienced by a traveler.)<\/p>\n

Once my husband and I got our three boys settled in the back seat of the car and began to drive, we did what any undercaffeinated, jetlagged parents would do; we burst into a duet of Sponge Bob\u2019s Road Song.\u00a0 The kids sang along for five seconds before they went back to the iPad which, even if you feel carsick while using it in a moving vehicle – that’s far better than the nausea caused by embarrassing parents.<\/p>\n[youtube]http:\/\/youtu.be\/qeghQA7OkzU[\/youtube]\n

As we cruised onto the highway, coffee was the most important thing on our agenda. I looked for Starbuck\u2019s signs.\u00a0 Instead, I saw sign after sign alerting me to the nearest Dunkin Donuts.\u00a0 At first I laughed haughtily at them, but after three weeks on the road Dunkin Donuts was a sign of salvation (i.e. coffee) and civilization.\u00a0 When in the United States of Donuts, I told myself, let them eat donuts.\u00a0 So, for the first time, my kids were semi-regular donut eaters.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t happy about it, but I also wasn\u2019t too distressed.\u00a0 It was vacation, after all.\u00a0 But I was truly upsest by the fact that on the road, I couldn\u2019t find a thing to eat.<\/p>\n

None of the quick-stop-shops we encountered had low carb food options.\u00a0 There were all sorts of variations of chips, cookies, crackers, and dozens of brands of energy bars. (I call them sleeping bars because they are carby enough to spike my blood glucose to 250 in no time, which leads to that \u201cI need to nap now feeling,\u201d and that\u2019s never a good thing, especially not when aiming to be safe on the road.)<\/p>\n

So is it possible to eat healthily on the road?\u00a0 The moment I was collapsing with hunger somewhere in Massachusettes and took a nibble of a glazed Dunkin Donuts Munchkin, I vowed to find out. I\u2019ll admit, the Munchkin was up there with the best things I\u2019ve ever eaten, and it was so tiny I didn\u2019t think it could do much blood glucose damage. I guesstimated 3 grams of carb. Turns out, there are 8 evil grams of carb in a Munchkin.<\/p>\n

I could blame hunger, hypoglycemia, lousy willpower, or traveler\u2019s diabetes<\/em>, for my Munchkin mistake, but it doesn\u2019t really matter why I broke down.\u00a0 What matters is that \u00a0there is nothing decent to eat, and that\u2019s not just a problem for people with diabetes, it\u2019s an issue for everyone.<\/p>\n

The solution to managing a road trip with diabetes is, of course, to plan ahead and pack snacks.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not so easy when you\u2019re staying in hotels without kitchen facilities.\u00a0 And it\u2019s pretty hard to explain to hungry, cranky kids why you\u2019re thinking of driving 30 miles out of the way to find a store that sells expensive containers of sliced cucumbers when \u201clook!\u201d there\u2019s a 0.96 cent donut for sale down the street.<\/p>\n

My experience and recent research has led me to conclude that the best way to road trip with diabetes is to order nonperishable snacks online before you set out.\u00a0 Nuts are a great choice, unless you have a nut allergy in the family.\u00a0 If you are a meat eater, there are a lot of jerkies and meat snack sticks available.\u00a0 And pork rinds have no carbs. If you aren\u2019t bothered by alternative sweeteners or soy protein isolate, your options are decent, even in a regular supermarket. \u00a0But, if you\u2019re like me and you\u2019re looking for something all natural, meatless, and affordable (no $8 bags of kale chips!), then you\u2019re in trouble.<\/p>\n

I’ve found a few things that I believe would make easy road trip snacks and I\u2019m going to list them below.\u00a0 Readers, please add to the list.\u00a0 There may not be a vaccine against traveler\u2019s diabetes<\/em>, but together we can stop it from messing up our trips.<\/p>\n

Olives: These preservative-free olive snack packs<\/a> from Cat Cora\u00a0 claim to have no water and a resealable pouch, making them car-friendly.<\/p>\n

Coconut Butter: Artisana sells single serving squeeze packs of coconut butter<\/a>, as well as a variety of\u00a0 nut butter squeeze packs.<\/p>\n

Nut Butter squeeze packs: ASweetLife contributor Katie Bacon reviewed Justin\u2019s nut butter squeeze packs<\/a> and found them satisfying.\u00a0 See here for the review.<\/p>\n

Dark Chocolate Bars:\u00a0 Mark\u2019s Daily Apple<\/a> reviews the best dark chocolate bars.\u00a0 I\u2019m a fan of Lindt 70%.<\/p>\n

Sugar Not Cookies:<\/a> Has anyone tried these?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The obvious solution to managing a road trip with diabetes is, of course, to plan ahead and pack snacks. But that\u2019s not so easy when you\u2019re staying in hotels without kitchen facilities. And it\u2019s pretty hard to explain to hungry, cranky kids why you\u2019re thinking of driving 30 miles out of the way to find a store that sells expensive containers of sliced cucumbers when \u201clook!\u201d there\u2019s a 0.96 cent donut for sale down the street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":41854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1449,1431],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRoad Trip with Diabetes: What Can I Eat?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The solution to managing a road trip with diabetes is, of course, to plan ahead and pack snacks. 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