Dining Out

The key ways to manage GDM well are following the recommendations of your health care team and the suggestions we have outlined: healthy plate, using hand as portion reference, combining smart carbs and healthy proteins, eating three meals and three snacks per day and making them healthy, and eating mindfully. This allows you to really know what you are eating, particularly if you are not taking food out of a package. It is always best to prepare your own food from scratch. 

Making healthy choices can be more challenging if you are at a restaurant, at a take-out counter, in front of a vending machine or in a corner store. 

Still, we do ‘eat out’ sometimes. Here are some tips to make this healthier:

Tips to help control the portion size:

Even if most restaurants serve large portion sizes, try to eat the same amount you usually eat at home:

  • Choose the smallest meal size and avoid super sizing.
  • Order half portions if possible or share with a friend.
  • Stop eating when you are full (mindful eating).
  • You are not obliged to eat everything on your plate.
  • Take any extra food home. Ask for a take home container before starting to eat, keeping on your plate your usual portion size and putting the rest in the container. You could also take your own container to the restaurant.
  • If you are on insulin, you may need to adjust your insulin dose to the serving size to keep your blood sugar level stable (see carb counting). Your health care provider can explain how to do this.

Ask questions:

Don’t be shy. This is the only way to know if what you are eating follows your meal plan or not.

  • Are there any added sugars in this dish?
  • How is it cooked? Fried? Grilled? Roasted?
  • What do the sauces and gravies contain?
  • Do you use whole grain flour in your pizza dough?

Ask for what you want:

  • Do you have low sugar or low salt menu choices?
  • Can you make my chicken baked, broiled, roasted, grilled or steamed instead of breaded or fried?
  • Can you please put the sauces and salad dressings on the
    side?
  • Do you have whole grain options?
  • Can my chicken be skinless ? Can it be cooked with less oil, butter or cheese?
  • Could I replace:
    • French fries with vegetables?
    • Regular salad dressing with lemon juice, flavored vinegar or low-fat salad dressing?
    • Cream with milk?

Hidden Sugars

Hidden sugars: Some sugars might be hidden, for example in salad dressing, BBQ, teriyaki, sweet chili, and sweet & sour sauces. Fat free options may contain extra sugar to improve the taste, so be aware.

Food options:

Appetizers:

  • Skip or share your appetizers in order to keep room for your
    main dish.
  • Drink water to avoid nibbling while waiting for the main course.
  • If you want to have an appetizer, good options are vegetable-based appetizers like clear or vegetable soups, raw vegetables, or salads.
  • Less healthy options are cream soups, wings, egg rolls, onion rings, nachos, white or garlic bread, and rolls with salty, buttery crusts.

Main course:

  • Follow the healthy plate recommendations. The best protein options are lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, low-fat cheese, tofu, soy products, legumes (e.g., lentils, chickpeas, beans).
  • Choose simple meals rather than mixed dishes such as casseroles, meals with gravies, special sauces, and condiments to limit the amount of hidden fat and added sugars.
  • Avoid high-salt and/or high-fat meats (e.g., ribs, wings, sausages, wieners, poultry with skin on, processed luncheon meats).
  • Avoid fried food (fried meat, fried rice).
  • If you have many sauce options, aim for tomato-based sauce, ask your sauce to be on the side, and limit food with sweet, creamy or soy sauces.
  • If you are very tempted by an unhealthy choice, share it with someone or balance it with a healthier choice (e.g. fried chicken with baked potato instead of French fries). Remember your smart carbs.

Beverages:

  • Water is the best beverage. You can also have unsweetened iced tea or coffee, sparkling water, or mineral water.
  • Sugar-sweetened soda, shakes, fruit juices (even if 100% natural) have a high glycemic index and may spike your blood sugar level.
  • Alcohol should be avoided during pregnancy (see foods to avoid).

Dessert:

  • Listen to your body and use mindfulness concepts when deciding whether you want a dessert.
  • Dessert is never mandatory,- you can always skip or share.
  • A fruit is a healthy dessert option. So is yogurt.
  • If you are choosing a less healthy dessert once in a while, you may want to reduce the amount of bread, rice or other carbohydrate (choose smart carbs) in your main course to compensate for the carbohydrates in the dessert.

Tips for Different Types of Restaurant

Not every type of restaurant is discussed below but a few tips are provided.

Fast Food Restaurants

  • Avoid breaded and deep-fried foods such as fried chicken, fish sticks, or breaded meats or remove the bread or batter coating. Go for grilled!
  • Choose a plain small hamburger or cheeseburger and/or remove the top bun,
  • Swap fries for a green veggie or salad.
  • Whole wheat English muffin or whole wheat toast are better choices than croissants at breakfast.

Mexican Restaurants

  • Carne asada – charbroiled beef or meat is a healthy Mexican choice. It is grilled marinated flank steak. Ask for it to be well done.
  • 1 or 2 plain tortillas will be your starch for the meal. Both corn and flour tortillas have the same amount of carbohydrates. Pick the one you prefer.

Chinese Restaurants

  • Carbohydrates are present in many dishes besides rice.
    • Noodles, Chinese pancakes, egg rolls, fried won tons and deep-fried battered foods are high in carbohydrates
    • Sugar is present in oyster sauce, duck sauce, plum sauce, and sweet and sour sauces.
    • Cornstarch is found in meat and vegetable dishes, and soups.
  • Steamed fish with stir fried vegetable dishes are delicious and diabetes friendly.
  • If you are counting your carbohydrates, one fortune cookie is ½ carbohydrates serving (7g, see carb counting).

Japanese restaurants

  • Teriyaki sauces, tempura, and sweetened rice dishes can raise your blood sugars
  • Raw fish is not a safe choice during pregnancy (see food safety).
  • Sushi may also contain too much rice and sugar. In fact, besides the starch already in the rice, sushi rice contains additional sugar.