Onion Rings = THE DEVIL.

[jer.lawrence]

So, I went out with my wife to lunch at Firebird's (don't know if you guys have them, it's sort of a steak house / wood grill type place. We were splitting one of their grilled chicken salads, so decided to get an appetizer before.

I didn't know the nutrition information at the time, so we chose their "Ranch Rings" -- Panko breaded onion rings with ranch dressing. I figured they were a little carby. I ate a little less than half of them, and then half of the salad.

I just checked my sugar about 2 hours later, 138! That's the highest I've been in quite a while. I look up the nutritional information, and those onion rings have 178g of carbs!!!

I had no idea! I wish (now) that I'd checked my sugar before the 2h mark, but I plan to keep a pretty close eye on it for a couple more hours until it comes down. On the one hand, I'm glad it isn't any higher than 138, but on the other hand, I just ate like 100g of carbs for lunch! I had the onion rings, a small piece of bread before the meal, and the salad.

Yeesh. Anyone else had similar experiences? What to do?

[jer.lawrence]

Eee, 2.5 hours, up to 150! :( When will it stop? Hehe. I'm very upset with myself.

[Granny Shanny]

You don't think the bread was at all implicated in this? Onions can sure be a problem when they're cooked a lot, and some types of panko can be higher carb too . . . sorry for your crummy Sunday, Jeremy.

[jer.lawrence]

Oh I'm sure the bread played a part in it as well. The shocking part was just how high carb those onion rings were, though. At 3 hours, now (and a short walk), I've come back down to 111 (double checked). Crazy.

They don't list their bread on the nutrition information, so I'm not sure how bad that is.

[davef]

Jer,

Did you enjoy them?

Hope you did, I have a similar issue with onion rings, I love them but them don't love me.

Don't stress over it, enjoy them occassionally and move on.

[lark 27]

Onion rings are an absolute favorite of mine, but I am slowly coming to terms with realizing I can't really enjoy them because they will wreak havoc with my BG. They really are high carb count, but then also the high fat count makes it so that if I bolus too much I could easily have a low, followed by eating emergency carbs, leading to a realy high later with the emergency carbs plus the slower effect of the onion ring carbs. As a Type 1 I'll be honest, I'd be happy if my BG only made it to 150 from onion rings. However, I'm with Dave that moderation is key. I used to order the onion rings as a side and my wife would eat a couple. I'm now trying to convince my wife to order them and I'll just eat a couple of hers.

[Granny Shanny]

I used to order the onion rings as a side and my wife would eat a couple. I'm now trying to convince my wife to order them and I'll just eat a couple of hers.

Hee hee hee . . . what an ornery pup you turned out to be! Good luck with that, btw . . . :D :D :D

[MCS]

Love the onion rings, man they are bad, have come to find out, the only safe onion is a raw onion. My chilli when reheated with the onions spiked me twice as bad second time around.

What else I had to look out for was them sneaking back up on me the next day or even the next meal. Would get an abnormal spike eating a very low carb on my next meal, ghostly carbs they are.

[jer.lawrence]

My FBG was 116 this morning, which is about 20 points higher than the norm. Yep, they're sticking around. :P

They were really good though. I've been trying to eat well today, hoping that'll keep me down. :)

[Supermario]

I love myself a good O-ring as well (ewww, that sounds dirty)

I think panko crumbs are made from very refined white bread (no crusts), so it would likely spike the BS more than regular bread crumbs... that might have contributed to your troubles. Live and learn I guess.

[jer.lawrence]

Ugh. I'm all upset w/ myself now, I had a cheeseburger (whitewheat bun) and some quiche for dinner tonight. I also had 2 small pieces of dark chocolate afterwards. About an hour later, I had a carb smart ice cream bar from Breyers. I got up to around 130 again today.

I'd been doing so well, before the Onion Rings, it had been almost 2 weeks since I'd even seen a 120. Now I hit 150 yesterday, 130 again today, I feel like I'm slipping.

Need to get back on track!! Words of wisdom would be welcomed. :P

[Granny Shanny]

Ditch that "whitewheat" bun . . . that would be my first suspect.