Cultural Shifts in Restaurant Responses to Diabetes #22

Deborah
00:01:55

Hi, all, and welcome to another episode of DiabeticReal. And I'm Deborah. This episode is about something that I've observed a change in over many decades.

As many of you who listen to DiabeticReal know, I've had type 1 diabetes for many decades. And this is a shift in.

I'd have to say it's a shift in our culture that I've noticed that has happened over time and actually it's been very slowly coming on. And it has to do with restaurants and their awareness of type 1 diabetes.

Now, okay, I say that and it's not like I think that, oh, wow, restaurants have to stop what they're doing, you know, stop the presses, and everything has to be about diabetes. No, no, no, no. I'm not thinking that. But I was talking to a friend the other day and his wife has celiac disease.

And there's concerns, and I'm not even aware of all the concerns with what is going on with her.

But I mean, it's like if people don't wash their hands in between, you know, food preparation and if any kind of remnants of bread products are there, she can have a reaction. In other words, how they treat it is. They don't even go to restaurants because it is such a danger to her.

And I'm not thinking that everybody has to be experts on every single ailment out there, but I think that it helps if restaurants at least have an awareness. I'm talking about, for instance, owners and managers know about some of the things like, for instance, peanut allergies, things like that.

But more so in this episode, I'm just simply disclosing what I have noticed in my lifetime as far as a shift in the awareness, even at the entry level jobs. So I'll be more specific so that it makes more sense. For example, there's two things.

Used to be that I could walk into a restaurant, and if I was low blood sugar, in which case I needed sugar, I could just simply say, hey, I need some sugar. And they would grab orange juice or a sugar soda, no questions asked.

It's like, look, they don't want a diabetic having an incident and they don't want to have to call the paramedics and have an ambulance on site.

Maybe you'll get more people coming to the restaurant and more food, but likely it's just going to get a lot of looky loos and not necessarily more food. And it might have people not coming to the restaurant. So that's not really what the restaurant wants. Is the wrong kind of attention.

And besides that, they don't really want a diabetic having problems and ending up on the floor passing out from a low blood sugar. So I found that it wasn't a problem.

And certainly under no circumstances did I ever want my blood sugar to drop just so I could go in and ask for orange juice. Besides, you know what? Truth be told, I don't like orange juice.

You know, I did know that, for instance, especially Denny's, I could go into a Denny's. I had low blood sugar, no questions asked. They would actually sit me down in a booth that was away from everything, actually close to the kitchen.

I remember that's something that Denny's would do, put me close to the kitchen. It's almost like so that they could keep an eye on me.

And they'd give me not just a glass of orange juice, but one of those big carafes full of orange juice so that I'd be okay. They never billed me for it. I mean, I always offered to pay for it, but they weren't concerned.

They just wanted to make sure that As a type 1 diabetic, I didn't have a medical emergency. Again, I always offered to pay for it because I felt I wanted to pay for it.

But at the time that I was having low blood sugar, I could barely vocalize that I was having a low blood sugar, let alone figure out how to operate payment. Now, more recently, I had a low blood sugar, and I was trying to vocalize that at a Jack in the Box. And I simply asked for a glass of sugar soda.

I said, hey, I'm a diabetic. I just need. And they didn't get the sugar soda. They pointed to the soda machine, and it was one of these newfangled ones I'd never used before.

And, guys, I'm telling you, if you're type 1 diabetic, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're not, bear with me. It's like I have absolutely no brain cells because I'm low blood sugar.

I couldn't figure out how to operate it because I was so out of my mind. Low blood sugar. I mean, I'm trying to get a sugar soda now. That never would have happened. I'm just telling you, that never would have happened.

Even at a fast food restaurant, like 40 years ago, you just walk in, you say you're low blood sugar. And they would have walked over to the machine.

Actually, they would have gotten a soda from behind the counter, but they would have walked over and they would have made sure you had a sugar soda in your hand because they didn't want you to pass out.

Now, thankfully, at the Jack in the Box, I was able to self serve, but I'm just saying, 40 years ago, if that never would have happened, the restaurant people would have made sure you were taken care of.

Now, I did walk back and pay for the soda at the Jack in the Box after I was able to get the blood sugar up and they didn't have any problem taking the money. And you know, this isn't about payment. This is about helping those in need when they're in dire circumstances.

Now the other thing that really surprises me, because this never happened, maybe I shouldn't say never. I should say 97, 98% of the time, it never happened years ago. And that is the consistency in the soda machine.

Like when you asked for a diet soda years ago, you got a diet soda. Now why is that a problem? Because if I asked for a diet soda and I have a large sugar soda, my blood sugar is gonna go sky high.

If I haven't given insulin for a sugar soda, I'm going to have a real problem with my blood sugar. Fortunately, I can tell the difference between the two. And I have a husband who can't stand the taste of a diet soda.

So I can hand the soda to him and say, honey, is this a sugar soda? And if it's a diet, he'll wrinkle his face and oh, nope, that's diet. So, you know, we test back and forth.

But the bigger problem is we're starting to get sodas where I don't know if they're testing their soda machine or what, but they're kind of half and half. They're like half sugar soda and half diet soda more and more. It's really strange to me.

And it doesn't matter what fast food restaurant we go to, we're getting more and more of that where it's like half and half and really kind of disgusting tasting sodas, to be honest.

So I just thought of that this evening because I ended up, well, it did happen to be a Jack in the Box again, but I did dump the soda because it didn't taste good. And I didn't know if I could trust it that it was actually a diet soda because it wasn't tasting purely diet soda to me.

And I do really well at keeping my blood sugars right tight within. And the last thing I wanted is to drink that soda and then hours later wonder why my blood sugar is really high.

Like, is that due to stress or is it due to something else? It would likely have been because of the soda. So I just dumped it so that I didn't have that variable of wondering what caused the high blood sugar.

I mentioned it to my husband. I said, I'm sorry, honey, I really appreciate that you got this soda for me. But I dumped it because I couldn't take the chance.

And he said, that's okay. He goes, lately I've been getting small soda because I don't want to take the chance of getting you a sugar soda.

So we're actually not ordering sodas at fast food restaurants anymore because we can't trust it. And it really is sad. I used to really look forward to adding a soda on whatever I ordered at a fast food restaurant because I could trust it.

You know, the 3% of the time that that soda wasn't right was because they didn't hear us right, or they weren't thinking, or somebody was helping them put the order together and they gave a bonafide sugar soda that tasted. It tasted right from the aspect that it was a sugar soda, but it was just somebody filled the order wrong with a sugar soda.

Now we're getting these things that are hybrids that aren't even. It's like somebody does not really have a lot of pride in what they're doing. And I don't mean to.

And by the way, I'm not criticizing Jack in the Box only. It just happens to be that we like to go to Jack in the Box, and I happen to have had those two incidences there. But this is across the board.

You go pick a name out of a hat. It's across the board that I've had these hybrid sodas at every fast food restaurant that I've gone to.

I haven't found a particular fast food restaurant that I've been attending that I can trust the soda, that it's always 100% diet soda when I get it. So I pretty much go to a gas station that's right next door and I get a soda that's bottled, that's Diet Coke.

Then I know it's a Diet Coke, and then I'm safe as a type 1 diabetic from speaking to diabetics listening to this. That's my recommendation, is if in doubt, leave it out. In other words, just skip that soda.

And for the other scenario, the first scenario that I mentioned, you know what? Keep a sugar soda with you, the kind that's bottled, that has a lid, so that if you need some sugar.

Keep that sugar soda so that you can pop it open and treat it yourself. And you're not dependent on having to go into a restaurant and have somebody who's not going to help you be your source of help.

Because you know what? These days our culture has shifted enough that I'm not entirely sure you're going to get the help. Sad to say, but it's fact.

Or at least what I've experienced. If you run into me on the street, I'm there to help you. But I can't be everywhere. So I'm just sharing with you what I've observed.

But I'm there for you. And this is Deborah, of DiabeticReal.