My grown daughter has type I Diabetes and has since she was 8 years old. So ever since she was younger, I save the labels from her favorite or certain foods like cereals, salad dressings, soups, etc. So that when she comes over for a meal, it is much easier for her to be able look at the labels I keep in order to calculate her food exchanges and be able to give her self the right amount of insulin to cover what we will eat.
I also collect certain food exchanges from restaurants that we may go to together and keep them in my car. You can locate them from those web sites and print out a sheet to keep handy. I print small sheets with the information on them and this came in so helpful to her while growing up and going on field trips to fast food restaurants with the school or when spending the night with school friends.And I do this same idea when we have cookouts or picnics and save the labels from sauces or the dishes I have made so she can have more choices and be accurate on her exchanges she will be allowed.
This is also a good habits to practice in case other diabetics are present at these meals or family gatherings/parties. Even if you do not know who are diabetics, just place these labels in a spot easy to be seen so they too can use them and benefit from the idea. Many people do Weight Watchers and this will help them as well should they want to try other foods or dishes.
Source: The idea came to me when she was young and saw she was limited to the things she could eat at parties/family reunions/etc.
By Julie from Tenn
