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Fired Up Friday – Limited Drink Options at Restaurants

Every time I go to a restaurant, I tend to get a little mad.  There may be a few reasons why, but primarily it is because I may not be in the mood to drink water, diet Coke / Pepsi or un-sweetened iced tea.  But, guess what, those are the only options.  With so many diabetics in this country don’t you think we deserve to have just as many options of beverages than people who are not living with diabetes have?  Not only people with diabetes, but all the people who are trying to diet and make the right choices when eating out have minimal choices.

I have always wanted to start a petition to force restaurants to have more options.  I’ve been told by people that if I want diet soda then I probably shouldn’t be eating there anyway.  Let’s take an example of this.  If I walk into a fast food joint because I’m in the mood for it, and order some unhealthy greasy burger and fries, ok let’s be realistic, 2 burgers, but I order a diet coke.  Should I be looked at weird because I’m getting a diet coke to go along with my 1,500 calorie meal?  No, not at all because I am choosing to take about 10 units less of insulin by drinking the diet coke.  Therefore, I should have a few more options of drinks.

Let’s take a look at some of the people who are doing it right and why I will choose their place to eat over others.

  • Chick-Fil-A – I will spend more money for a chicken sandwich here than other places because they offer sugar free lemonade and diet Dr. Pepper.  I love diet Dr. Pepper, it is the only diet soda that I used to drink before I was even diabetic, because I can’t taste the difference in the two.
  • Quiznos (some) – Why would I rather pay an extra dollar for my footlong?  Easily, they offer un-sweetened, Sprite Zero, diet Mtn. Dew, and various bottled beverages that are zero carb or diet.
  • Pei-Wei – There is more than one reason why I enjoy this place, but I spend more money on their food, for one the quality of food is better, but also because they have two different flavors on un-sweetened tea, they also have Fresca, which is a great alternative to diet Sprite all the time.

These are just a few of the places that have won my customer loyalty all because they offer drinks other than diet coke and un-sweetened iced tea.  If there are any restaurant owners / managers out there reading this right now, did you just read that?  I have been won over by places because of their beverage options, not because your burger is a ¼ larger, or you have extra sauce or your foot long is only $5.00(even though you charge almost $3.00 for a combo which ends up being more expensive than your competition, I see your trick).  I understand that I am in the minority here and you have to make business decisions based upon the majority.  Put, are you really going to spend that much extra money by eliminating 1 flavor or regular soda and switching it out with diet?  I doubt not.

I have gone as far as bringing in my own drink into a restaurant because they don’t have a type of drink that I like.  They didn’t have a problem with it, they just charged me for the cost of purchasing a drink of theirs.

How do you all feel about this?  Am I just over-reacting to this situation?

6 thoughts to “Fired Up Friday – Limited Drink Options at Restaurants”

  1. I like Sonic. Diet Limeaide. Yummy. I also love Chick-fil-a because of the lemonade and dt. dr. pepper. Zaxby’s chicken also has the lemonade too.
    I usually get unsweet tea (I don’t like diet coke) or ice and I bring my own.
    I go back and forth. More options would be nice…but how many more? I’d settle for 1 more. Places like Sonic, Zaxby’s, and Chick-fil-a usually do it for me in cases like that.
    (Oh and I’ve gotten the weirdest looks for ordering a root beer float w/ diet root beer at A&W; I’m w/ you, less insulin the better.)

  2. This has always bugged me, too. What’s worse, there are so many “fine dining” restaurants that have three choices for a diabetic: water (ick with a meal), diet cola (coke, pepsi), or booze. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, they’ll have unsweetened tea. So, if you want a non-caffinated, non-alcoholic drink, you’re stuck with water. It drives me bonkers!

  3. I don’t think you are over-reacting. As I was reading the post, I didn’t understand the point of people saying you shouldn’t eat there if you want a diet soda because you already stated they had diet sode (although no depth in options). I’m so conditioned to appreciate the need/desire to minimize carbs, the point of eating a completely healthy meal was lost on me. Of course it would be nice to have a longer list of options. What I think is great is that there are places that offer what you are looking for so you can decide which places to patronize, albeit, it seems the list is unfortunately short.

  4. I feel the same way you do but having managed various convenient stores for years I understand. The diet sodas are more short dated than the regular. Look at them in the cases and you can see that. If the resturant does not sell the diet soda it will go bad and they will lose money. However, I feel that more people are diet conscious and would drink diet if it were offered, just to save calories.

  5. Our oldest daughter (age 9) is T1. Before she was diagnosed, I noticed Fazoli’s has diet Minute Maid Lemonade and some McDonald’s have the diet MM Lemonade too. But the McD varies a lot, it would be nice if they would standardize. Most Chick-Fil-A’s have expanded to having caffeine free Diet Coke (what I drink most of the time), Diet Coke, and Coke Zero (though if you don’t like cola that doesn’t help at all!). I wish there were more choices! She’d probably like diet orange too.

  6. I have a pet peeve about places that offer diet soda, but don’t offer a sugar free caffeine free choice. A solution is to order water and buy the powder individual packets to add at the supermarket.

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