IMO, diabetics need to learn to function in the real world without special food or nutritional information supplied by the restaurant. A diabetic can eat the same foods as anyone else, they just have to learn how with experience. The learning curve is steeper for some diabetics.
Food intake is only one part of the puzzle and it’s not always predictable. Every diabetic should learn how an apple, a Big Mac and every other food they ingest may change their blood sugar. It’s up to the diabetic, not the restaurant to cipher the information.
Frankly, I don't think most food nutritional information is very accurate.
By that logic, diabetics should also allow themselves to lose their eyesight and have their feet amputated as that may be the "real world" and they better learn to function in it. Do you have to learn from those experiences before you ask for resources on how to avoid them?
The reality is that doesn't happen. Diabetes is all about knowledge - and knowledge = health. You are gaining the knowledge by trial and error, and that is your right. We are doing the same, and I'm going to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can to allow more trial and less error.
I hand you a "widget" for lunch. You're going to eat it and have the choice of viewing my nutritional information or not. Wouldn't you take it? At least the first time? Even if the info is wrong - it is better than taking a guess, even an educated guess, and being wrong. You would look at the info, eat the widget, give insulin and monitor the reaction. If the info was wrong, you'll note that. But more than likely, the info helped and you were better off with it.
As an adult you are able to closely monitor reactions, remember the foods you've eaten, keep a steady body condition (health, weight, etc) and return to many of the same foods while managing all the other variables like stress, exercise, insulin types, etc. With children and new diabetics, there are
even more variables and there's no reason not to use nutritional information to help maintain an even keel in the face of the other factors.
Yes, we try to learn from each meal. But some are taken at school, some are snuck into the trashcan, some were last eaten when she was 35 lbs, now she's twice that, etc. So while the information on a Big Mac might be wrong, I do know it is
always the same - which gives me a better baseline from which to learn.
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I fully understand that Disney doesn't owe us this information. My appeal to Disney would not be for medical reasons, as yes, we can do (less well) without. The appeal is a marketing one - many other major franchises offer this information without major cost or image downside - why can't Disney? We've been to Disney parks 17 days in the last year and ate every breakfast outside the parks - simply because without the information, there's too much risk of losing control and I'd rather not start off the day like that. We pretty much have to take the risk later in the day, and we've had to leave once or twice because of it.
We stayed in Disney hotels all 17 days and still didn't eat at those either - we bought groceries - cereal, muffins - that had nutritional information.
Doesn't Disney want my breakfast dollar? Their vendors have the nutritional info - so both the info and my money is there for the taking...
