a&w restaurant: I'm going to the store tomorrow to pick up snacks for a type 1 diabetic. He is about to be discharged from the hospital for having high blood sugar. Hes sort of picky so I thought I'd check out the nutritional breakdowns of snacks that I think he would eat. Should I be looking for a certain number of carbohydrates or sugars per serving? Any suggestions on brands or foods to purchase?|||If you want to keep him healthy learn everything you can about nutrition. Type 1 diabetes is a tough one, and it can be surprising to learn what affects blood sugar and what doesn't. Here are some good snacks that will have a minimal to negligible affect on his sugars: String cheese nuts snack meats (like pepperoni sticks) plain yogurt non-starchy veggies and dip pickles eggs natural peanut butter (lots of PB has sugar added) When choosing foods for type 1 diabetes what you mostly have to keep an eye on is carbohydrates (sugar is a carb). Anything with carbs will affect his blood sugar, whether the food is sugary or not. That means bread, crackers, potato chips, fruit, carrots, peas, cereal, etc. These foods aren't completely off bounds but they need to be limited. A good rule to remember is, in general, for every 15 grams of carbohydrate he'll need one unit of insulin (this can vary a little from patient to patient but is relatively consistent). You'll also want to keep some sugary foods around the house in case of low blood sugars. Jam, fruits, and glucose tabs. There is a lot to learn and you'll have a lot of trial and error in the years to come, but the more information you have, the healthier and happier he will be. Good luck! Feel free to email me if you want any more info from someone with the experience!|||I think that it's important to realize that it's more than a snack and there isn't such a thing as appropriate. A snack can do many things to a diabetic and at different times a diabetic may need different snacks. If a diabetic is suffering from hypoglycemia due to excessive medications and or insulin, they need a quick source of sugar to return their glucose levels to normal levels. Hopefully this isn't often but you have to be prepared for it. What's recommended is 15 grams of sugar which amounts to 4 ounces of fruit juice, half a can of regular soda or three Dextrose tablets from the pharmacy. Tubes of regular cake icing also works well. As these are hopefully a rare event, products that last are best such as mini-cans of regular soda. After the glucose has been corrected, something long lasting such as peanut butter should be had. A diabetic can help spread out the glucose by frequent small meals, essentially snacking all day and indeed that's what a diabetic does when they are sick and have lost their appetite, they try to eat 15 grams of carbohydrate per hour when sick, even if it's just a minican of soda. If you look online for a diabetic illness plan, you'll find lists of possible 15 gram snacks. In general they say to keep the snacks to under 15 grams of carbohydrates, but sometimes a diabetic simply likes to feel like they can indulge a little in which case there are plenty of low carb snacks. Many cookies can be made with almond flour or almond paste resulting in low carb cookies which unfortunately are high in calories but at least there isn't as much of an issue with glucose. Obviously diet sodas aren't completely healthy either but at least there's no glucose impact. In truth, a diabetic can have whatever non-diabetics have but they just have to take the impact of the carbohydrates into account. Something that non-diabetics should too but there's little risk to a non-diabetic for being careless.|||The less carbs he ingests the less insulin he will need.. My favorites are Nuts, peanut butter on celery sticks..And home made beef jerky.. For convenience we can say that any food with fewer than 5 grams of available carbohydrate in a 100 gram portion is a free food. The rest of the portion is protein, fat, fiber, ash, and water. This is similar but slightly different from the concept used in the Dietary Exchange Lists, which says, “Free foods are those with either under 20 calories or 5 grams or less of carbohydrates per serving.” Excluding those foods not commonly eaten in the United States, they are as follows. All of the vegetables and fruits are raw, unless otherwise stated. The numbers are the grams of available carbohydrate (that is, carbohydrate minus dietary fiber) in 100 grams of the portion of the food): VEGETABLES: Alfalfa seeds, sprouted 1.28 Arugula 2.05 Asparagus, cooked 2.63 Bamboo shoots, cooked 0.92 Beans, green, cooked 4.69 Beans, snap, green, cooked 4.68 Beet greens, cooked 2.56 Broccoli, cooked 2.16 Brussels sprouts, cooked 4.5 Cabbage, cooked 2.16 Cauliflower, cooked 1.41 Celeriac (celery root), cooked 4.7 Celery 1.95 Chard, swiss, cooked 2.04 Collards, cooked 2.1 Cucumber 1.8 Dandelion greens, cooked 3.5 Eggplant, cooked 4.14 Endive 0.25 Fennel, bulb 4.19 Hearts of palm, canned 2.22 Jicama 3.92 Kale, cooked 3.63 Lettuce, butterhead 1.32 Lettuce, cos or romaine 0.67 Lettuce, iceberg 0.69 Mustard greens, cooked 0.1 Mushrooms 2.94-3.57 (except shitake) Nopales, cooked 1.27 Olives, canned ripe 3.06 Okra, cooked 4.71 Olives, canned ripe 3.06 Parsley 3.03 Peppers, serano 3.00 Peppers, jalapeno 3.11 Peppers, sweet green 4.63 Peppers, sweet red 4.43 Pumpkin, cooked 3.80 Purslane 3.43 Radicchio 3.58 Radishes 1.99 Rhubarb 2.74 Sauerkraut 1.78 Scallions (green onions) 4.74 Spinach, cooked 1.35 Squash, summer, cooked 2.91 Squash, zucchini, cooked 2.53 Tomatillos 3.93 Tomatoes 3.54 Tomato juice 3.83 Turnips, cooked 2.9 Turnip greens, cooked 0.86 Watercress 0.79 FRUIT: Avocados 2.39 Chayote (christophene) 2.20 Raspberries 4.77 Strawberries 4.72 NUTS: Macademia Nuts 4.83 Pecans 4.26 MEAT AND FISH: All meat and fin fish 0.00 Caviar 4.00 Crab 0.95 Lobster 1.28 Shrimp 0.00 EGGS AND DAIRY: Butter 0.06 Buttermilk, lowfat 4.79 Cheese, cheddar 1.28 Cheese, Edam 1.43 Cheese, Gouda 2.22 Cheese, Swiss 3.38 Cream cheese, 2.66 Cottage cheese, 2% milkfat 3.63 Eggs 1.22 Half and Half 4.30 Heavy Cream 2.79 Goat milk 4.45 Mayonnaise 2.70 Milk, 1% milkfat, added solids 4.97 Milk, 3.25% milkfat 4.66 Ricotta cheese, whole milk 3.04 Soy milk, 0.51 Yogurt, plain, whole milk 4.66 DIETARY FIBER: Soluble and insoluble fiber (a part of other foods) 0.00 BEVERAGES: Coffee (without cream or sugar) 0.00 Diet Soda 0.00 Tea (without milk or sugar) 0.00 Water 0.00 SWEETENERS: Aspartame (NutraSweet) 0.001 Saccharin (Sweet'N Low) 0.001 Stevia 0.00 Sucralose (Splenda) 0.001 Take care Ben Trolled