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Snacking Tips for Diabetic Travers

Many people feel that going on vacation or when traveling they can eat whatever they want. Often when we go on vacation, our diet goes on vacation also; however, when you are a type 1 or type 2 diabetic, you need to always keep your diabetes diet in mind. You can avoid complicating your diabetes by reading and applying the following tips.

The first thing to remember when you are traveling is to take your medications with you. If you take insulin, be sure to put your insulin in a baggie or some plastic bag and keep your insulin with syringes together. Also carry a sharps container with your to put your used needles in. It is best not to recap your needles after giving yourself insulin, because you are likely to stick yourself by accident.

You may be confused about whether to refrigerate your insulin or not when you are traveling. It isn’t necessary to refrigerate insulin or to keep it on ice when you are traveling, because it is good for 30 days at room temperature. Be sure that if you do refrigerate it, that it doesn’t freeze.

You might be tempted to make poor snack choices when you are traveling, but you know that would not be a good choice, because snacking on chips and other junk foods will raise your blood sugar. When you are traveling, pack plenty of veggies that pack well for snacks. Baby carrots and cut up celery sticks are good finger foods to snack on. Fruits are also good snack foods in moderation. When snacking on fruit, be sure you know what a serving size is. For example if a small apple is one serving of fruit, and you eat an extra large apple, you could be eating 3 servings of fruit at one time, which could cause your blood glucose to spike.

Sugar free candy is a fairly good choice to snack on in moderation. You must remember that some sugar free candies contain artificial sweeteners which contain sugar alcohols and other types of carbohydrates. You may or may not see the words “sugar alcohols” on the label; however, read the labels and look for words such as polyols, maltitol, sorbitol, sorbitol, lactitol, xylitol, or mannitolthese are sugar alcohols and are used by the body as carbohydrates. These sugar alcohols may be metabolized slower than glucose, but they will raise your blood sugar, just the same, so be careful.

You may be tempted to snack on sugar free cupcakes or snack cakes. Again, you have the sugar alcohols to consider, and you also have the flour used to make the snack cakes and cupcakes, and other baked goods. You also need to consider the calories of the ingredients, such as chocolate, and the oils and other shortenings used to make baked goods. Baked goods made with white flour will be utilized just like it is sugar, because white flour is a simple carbohydrate. It will be better for you to make your own baked goods, so you know what is in them, when you are a diabetic. If you use whole grain flour in your baked goods, there are more complex carbohydrates and fiber, which makes the baked goods a much healthier choice. Whole grains stay in the stomach and gut longer than simple carbohydrates do, which keeps you satisfied longer.

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