[Jan B]

Originally Posted by Jill-O

I'm not sure this is even an option for people not in the US as it may not be popular enough to be on menus, but I always order unsweetened ice tea, and then taste it before putting artificial sweetener in it.

I always order tea for that reason. A lady I know who works concessions, told me when she runs out of diet, and the line is long, she just uses regular. She's been doing this for many years at shows and sporting events, and told me she never thought about diabetics. She thought people were too obsessed with their weight.

[Jill-O]

I think that's the case with a lot of people in food services. I don't think it's crossed their minds "what if the person is diabetic?"

Every once in awhile, I will have a sip of "regular" coke or pepsi. It tastes so sweet but is like the nectar of the Gods to me

[princesslinda]

Hubby and I were recently at a fast-food restaurant that has self-serve fountain drinks...I got myself a Diet Mtn Dew...and felt it tasted "different." I took it to the lady behind the counter, who assured me it was diet. She said several had questioned it and they had checked it out and it was indeed diet, but that it apparently had less "carbonation" in it so it tasted stronger.

I went ahead and had it with my meal....about 45 minutes later, I began to feel ill....my heart was racing and I felt quite sweaty and nervous. I didn't check my blood sugar at the time, as I was with the in-laws and didn't want to make a big deal out of it.

On our way home a couple hours later, I STILL felt "bad" and checked my blood....approx. 4 hrs after drinking the supposed "diet" Mtn. Dew, I was over 200! Imagine what level I was when I felt so bad.

The worst thing was there really wasn't much I could do about it....I did drink lots of water, but as for something to really bring my levels normal quickly...I was out of luck.

Now for the most part, i'll have either water or unsweet tea...its the safest bet for me.

[lilituc]

I have a hard time telling if something's diet or not when it comes from the fountain (because the mix is different usually) so I carry Diastix to test them with.

In the past, I've gotten regular (waiter screwed up and was pretty obviously lying about it), regular (fountain was hooked up wrong, waiter didn't believe me until I showed him the strip, was quite rude about it), regular (fountain ran out of diet), and half regular (fountain ran out of diet halfway through pouring). I never got anything free (or asked for it), though. I just wanted them to *know* and to know why it was important, and I was always polite about it. Unfortunately, it seems hard to find people who know the meaning of service these days.

[barbarac]

It's just a coke!? Skip part of your meal?! If you sit down to eat a nice meal--which we don't always get to do, you do not want a coke instead of part of your dinner!! Your answer was even irritating. A fat coke, sugary coke would not substitute for part of your dinner. How depressing was that answer.

[Gembo]

Originally Posted by parrotletzoo

Next time you choose to eat something you shouldn't and your blood sugar is elevated I hope you scold yourself as well as you scolded the restaurant employees.

Not sure what that's supposed to mean. Judging from other posts I think most people here beat themselves up quite severely when they do let things slip like that.

Anyway if you pay money for a meal you really don't want to spend the whole time fighting a high blood sugar. If it was me it would probably ruin the experience.

[MollyM15]

I have had that happen to me lots of times luckily I can't stand sweet stuff so I always know when it's not diet...

[JediSkipdogg]

The hardest part is it's the same color. I personally see no fault in restaurants when this happens. They are busy, people are working 10 tables at a time, and can get orders mixed up. Then if they get drinks for two tables at once (faster service that way then making an individual trip each time) they might get the drinks mixed up by accident.

Maybe someone should target Coke and Pepsi and tell them to change the color of their diet drinks. Wait, we tried that once with Clear Diet (or whatever it was called) and nobody bought it.

[fgummett]

Maybe like the different coloured collars on caffeinated and decaf coffee jugs they should use a different colour glass for the diet? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to come up with a simple idea like that.

To dismiss this as just a mistake is wrong on several levels:

As a paying guest you are entitled (even contracted) to get what you asked and paid for... this is what service establishments do for a living! From the brief straw poll in this thread, it is clearly something that happens too often to be acceptable. In my job, if we make a mistake we develop procedures to stop it happening again.

As diabetics we need to control what we put in our mouths and we are an ever-increasing part of the population; so either the food industry gets wise or they will lose paying customers.

As a health concern I have to wonder what other shortcuts and mistakes are being made in orders which affect not just diabetics but many other disorders.

[jerryn]

Originally Posted by Stuboy

Tonight Laura and I went to a resturant. I ordered a diet coke and made a bit of a fuss that it should definatly be diet. The first drink was diet...

But sinse we had to wait for a HOUR for our food, we inevitably ran out of drink! So i ordered a re-fill, again emphasising diet coke please.

The girl who brought the new drink to the table wasn't our waitress apparently, i didn't see her i was too busy tucking into the food that eventually arrived.

Anyway, i must have drunk about 3/4 of a pint of the second drink before Laura took a sip and said "this isn't diet!" I took another small sip, it tasted like diet to me...

I thought maybe it was a weak mixure, so i did the finger dip test... didn't feel too sticky, but laura disagreed...

Then i remembered that some meters can read the sugar in drinks... i had tried this with my ultrasmart before which didnt' work, but hadn't yet tried it with my new compact plus meter. so i did... and to my horror it read "HI"
I tested my blood.... 18.7mmol/L !! I hadn't had enough of the food yet for it to affect that much that quickly either...

We complained and the manager came over (about 10 minutes later) and patronizingly said.... "do you need me to call anyone for you?" i was so tempted to say "well and ambulance would be a good start!" but i didn't... instead i just started rambling on about when someone asks for a diet coke they should get a diet coke... blah blah blah.

Anyway... i got him to wipe the bill clear so we ended up having a free meal! Im never sure what to really say in these situations! It's always hind-sight that i think of things i "should" have said... grrr

But here is a good tip... the Accu-Chek Compact Plus does read sugar in drinks!! We tested it again when we got home with diet lemonade, diet coke and full fat 7up. the diet drinks read ERR and the 7up read 17.8mmol/L, the full fat coke read "HI". So if you have this meter, and you're in doubt of your drink being diet... you can use your meter to find out.

I wish now i'd have told him i'll press charges if i end up in DKA later that night... but i didn't. I did tell him he needs to have a staff meeting to warn them all about situations like this, and he said he would definatly do that (but i dont know if i should beleive him)

silly people!

Cool tip for checking sugar content in drinks! I have not consumed any form of pop since I've been diagnosed. I kind of have a gut feeling that the phosphoric acid found in a lot of beverages isn't good for you, and you end up consuming phosphoric acid in diet drinks too. I tend to have an unsweetened ice tea with my meals. Sometimes coffee..again no sugar and just a little cream.

[Glucoweb]

Interesting story. I am very curious now which meters can read sugar effectively in sodas. I think I just might be turning my kitchen into a lab when I get and test with my meter on different diet and regular sodas.

[notme]

I don't know if this belongs on this thread, but this was sort of interesting.

My (furture) grandson was having his 12th Birthday party at a place called Incredible John's. This is sort of a Chucky Cheese kind of place geared toward older children. There are video games, all you can eat buffet, and party rooms for the kids Birthday's. It really is a pretty expensive place for a party. The charges were $13.00 per child for the room, party and some tokens for games. My son's fiance paid for about 10 kids and 4 adults. I showed up later to the party. When I went in the front door for the parties, I was met by a lady that said I had to pay $11.20 to get in. I told her I didn't want to eat, I was only there to help with the party. I had to pay. Many of the parents just dropped off their kids and let them go in the party room and didn't go in because they didn't want to pay $11.20 for a buffet they didn't want. So poor Lisa had all of these kids and no help. Once the room time was up the kids just scattered out into the video game section and she had a hard time keeping track of the kids. I raised holy...... well I was unhappy with the owners and wrote one heck of a letter to them.

Long story short, I told them they should have wristbands for "parent supervisors" and they were in line for a lawsuit if a child ended up missing because one parent couldn't keep track of all the kids.

Many of the parents spent approximately $25.00 on a gift for Noah, spent $4.00 a gallon on gas to get to the party and then were charged to supervise their child in a pizza place.

Needless to say, I doubt there will be a party there again anytime soon.

[davef]

My brother had a pub in Florida, he sold it moved to TN where he has a new pub. He always believes that the customer comes first, if he or his staff don't live up to that then he will do his utmost to correct the problem and ensure it does not happen again.

Things do go wrong, people make mistakes, the important thing is how the mistakes are handled and what is done to ensure they don't happen again.

I also believe that as customers (and as Stu did) we have a responibility to make it clear that our needs are, if the server does not seem to understand or listen, then we need to stress that there are medical reasons for our requests. I generally say, "I know you guys are busy but it's really important that I get a diet drink as I have a medical condition and the wrong drink could make very ill." and I find most people respond very positively and some go out of their way to make sure everything is right.

I think it was good of the restaurant to take responsibility and to offer to tear up the bill. In return, maybe Stu will see his way to eating in the restaurant again.

[fgummett]

As above, I think you have every right to expect to get what you paid for and every right to complain if the service is not good enough. I write software for a living and if my code did not meet the client's specifications I would very quickly hear about and would be expected to rectify the matter ASAP... why do we have different expectations of the service industry? As another example, I fly quite often and it never ceases to amaze me how disorganised the airlines seem to get when there is bad weather. Yes there is much about the situation that is outside their control but beyond that I have to wonder why they behave as if it is a total surprise... it's not exactly the first time it has happened to them... it's what they do every day for Pete's sake! I'm actually a pretty quiet and unassuming guy but when I pay for something I think it only fair that the other side keep up their end of the bargain.

[betty6333]

we have had that happen at resturants.... you tell them it is for medcial reasons and you can't have that much sugar and they think you are kidding or something.... VERY frustrating... i loved one lady," you don't look like you have diabetes" i was mad..... anyway lucky you caught it when you did..... we have gotten home before we realized what had happened....