Pancreatitis Support Group

Chronic pancreatitis can present as episodes of acute inflammation in a previously injured pancreas, or as chronic damage with persistent pain or malabsorption. Patients with chronic pancreatitis can present with persistent abdominal pain or steatorrhea, as well as severe nausea. Some patients with chronic pancreatitis often look very sick, while others don't appear to be...

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what do you eat at a restaurant?

TannersMom123
TannersMom123
I eat pretty much the same thing everyday. Lunch is usually always a turkey sandwich. Once the horrible nausea left and I got my appetite back, Subway Turkey sandwiches with most of the fixin's and the fat free sweet onion dressing tasted so delicious to me. But I slowly tiring of it.

Then I learned Chipotle's rice and beans with salsa is only about 6 grams of fat. Boring but it works.
Then I tried a chinese place by me and the chef is able to steam chicken and veggies, rice and usually a corn chowder soup with a wonton soup king of broth. I went yesterday for the 3rd time and the steam veggies were full of oil, had to send it back. 2nd dish was still oily so I had no idea how much fat I had, but seem to be ok today.
I also have an ulcer so pasta and marinara is out, or any tomatoe based food. most I do is a tomato on a sandwich
Today we went gambling and had several choices....asian, thai, the buffet which would be a total waste of money for me and the cafe. I ordered the club turkey sandwich with no bacon, no mayo and substituted a salad for fries.
I'm just wondering what you do when you are out and about all day and have to stop for lunch. How do you manage that? Or if you are invited to dinner at someone's house? Do you bring your own food? Does your family have to suffer with the same restaurant that you know you can order something you can eat?
dcockfield59
dcockfield59
when i first got this i was worried about low fat foods but alot of veg even though they have no fat they are hard to digest u have to look at the food is it fiborious and hard to digest tomatoes r very acidic the other is that they put hardly any weight on u at all which is one of the most important factor in this disease every one is different but think about how soft and easy to digest the food u eat is my bro has had this 4 20 years and cant eat anything without milk i cant process milk so everyone is different u have to learn yourself going to eat at someones house is a situation depends if they know about your disease but ur better to insult someone than go into a attack the foods that r easier to digest chicken fish and turkey hams a cionflipper if u get the 98 % fat free beef is tough any red meat or geasy like pepperoni the longer u have this disease the more unpredictable it is my bros had it 20 years still takes a ton of painkiller and still gets burned by eating the wrong thing well i hope this helped u good luck
deleted_user
deleted_user
I don't go out to eat.....and don't go to parties:(
TannersMom123
TannersMom123
HI, thanks dcockfield. I can't imagine doing this for 20 years!!! Well, that would make me 80 and I don't think I'm gonna make that anyway.
and diane, so sorry you don't go out or to parties :(
For breakfast I just started drinking Odwalla green superfood. I have a 2 horse power Blendtec blender and throw in 4 oz of odwalla, 1/3 apple, 1/5 banana, 3 strawberries & 2 frozen grape juice ice cubes, handfull of spinach and about 2 T wheat grass. The odwalla has spirulina(algea) wheat and barley grass. My stools used to be kinda pale and I wasn't really eating enough greens so I thought my body needed some greens and now my stools are darker. Not sure if that is a good thing but makes me feel better then looking at the lighter ones. Dr Oz talks about stools all the time, so I've gotten kind of obsessed about them. I also drink almond milk, unsweetend and add it to cheerios and add sugar. For breakfast I have egg whites and spinach scramble and have just started adding low fat cheese to it. (trying to avoid dairy because of ulcer) Anyone have any other recipes they would like to share? Thanks everyone for your comments. I feel like I found a place that understands what is always on my mind. Family and friends get tired of hearing about it. So it's nice to share here. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.
Sherri9182
Sherri9182
Diane, I feel the same as you. It is too risky. I almost always get flareups when I eat out. Maybe due to the fact that I also have food allergies. I cannot take the chance of food cross contamination. Besides, I get tired of explaining what I can and can't eat when I'm placing my food order. Too stressful!
tsj444
tsj444
I recommend a big box of chocolates, hee hee hee
lsjjm
lsjjm
Troy likes chocolate with a tin hat lol
Like Diane....my son, the one with cp no going out to eat.....on the rare occasion that he may be able to ..he just eats what ever they serve anymore cuz he dont eat most days anyway!! but before when we stressed about what to eat....mostly just eat before you go somewhere..and say...oh Im good Ill jsut have something to drink...or grab what ever is low fat....not a fun game!!!
deleted_user
deleted_user
I look online at the restauraunt's menu and see if there is something I can tolerate...soup or wheat pasta witb white sauce. It's always a child's plate and I never eat more than maybe 1/3 of it. Unsweetened ice tea is what I drink.

Breakfast out is a bit easier...a small bowl of plaim grits and one slice of wheat toast. A few ounces of apple juice is what I'll have to drink.

I do have my enteral running. I take Creon prior to eating. And it's rare I
do go out.
deleted_user
deleted_user
I haven't eaten out in a long time. But that is mainly because I've been in too much pain, especially my back, to be able to sit and enjoy my meal. But I am fortunate that I really haven't found any particular foods that I can't tolerate. So as long as I go to a restaurant where I can get grilled chicken or fish, I'm fine. I look for restaurants where I can look up nutritional information before I go. And I have found that most restaurants don't have a problem accommodating requests.
TannersMom123
TannersMom123
Thanks everyone - I do what laura does. I check the nutritional value on line. That's how I learned that I can eat some foods at Panera bread, Chipotle and Subway. Too bad the family owned restaurants don't have (by law) to provide the nutritional break down.
I guess at this stage of my pancreatitis I'm able to go out. I don't know which way its going to turn. It could get better and I suppose I could have complications. My heart goes out to all of you that have suffered so long with this nasty disease.
deleted_user
deleted_user
This was a big issue for me recently as my family just went on a vacation and we ate out one to two meals a day. At home I almost never go out to eat, I always stay back and they bring me stuff they know I can eat ie: subway sandwiches :) . Well this vacation went pretty well, only a few flares. But my family was pretty good at picking restaurants that had a fairly wide variety on the menu, one restaurant was a seafood buffet restaurant so I could kind of pick and choose small amounts. I learned very quickly I cannot eat seafood like shrimp but that is ok cuz I am not a big fan of seafood but I survived. Most of the time I would try salads or pasta dishes and would only eat a quarter of the dish and take it home. Or something like chicken cooked a way I know I can eat and only eat a small amount of that and take the rest home. So basically I would order what I thought I could eat and only ate small portions of it. Then if that went well, I would have more of it when we got back. Also we bought a lot of things I could eat to have back at the condo, and had boost on hand too. So I learned that I still could go out and have some fun too, even though this disease is horrible. It is kind of trial and error, but if you play it on the safe side it should still be ok. Hope this helps! :)
TannersMom123
TannersMom123
Hi Buzz, thanks for your reply. Before I had my first acute attack, I used to stuff myself. I couldn't just finish what was on my plate, I had to finish what was left over in the pot till I was uncomfortably stuffed. I'm feeling pretty good now and enjoy eating. After 3 months of nausea, and nothing tasting good, I love eating again. But I really have a problem with stopping before I'm stuffed, eating only small portions. I didn't feel so great this weekend so I really have to learn what you do and just eat a little bit at a time. I'm glad you are able to go on vacation. My daughter lives in London now and I had always planned to visit her every year, but now I'm afraid to travel to another country. Her baby is due in 3 weeks and I'm afraid to visit. I don't know which way my condition will turn but it deeply saddens and depressed me that I may not be able to visit her there ever again.
lsjjm
lsjjm
Tanner.....I am sorry that this horrid desease is stopping you from visiting your daughter.....here is a tip....when my son REALLY wants to go somewhere....he will only drink his food for about 2 or 3 days before the event.....I dont know if you could do this for London....but you can google around food maintenance stuff and there are things that you can survive on if you want to go to London...its just not fun...... just a thought......
TannersMom123
TannersMom123
isjim - thanks for the tip. I have a pseudocyst that was very large, 2 EUS with stents. Waiting to hear if I need a 3rd procedure. I'm hoping it goes completely away. The thing about traveling is I would never want to have an acute attack in another country, and be in the hospital. My insurance stinks and I have a large deductible and for out of network, another $6,000, then another $13,500. (per year) Every one tells me I worry too much (and I do) and they tell me not to read these boards because only people with major problems come here and I'm only seeing the worst cases, not all the people that recovered and are living normal lives. And it's true, reading everything here has me terrified that I will never recover, only get worse and never be able to travel to visit my daughter. I do tell those that poo poo these boards that I've learned so much about this disease and knowledge about it I think is better then burying your head in the sand and acting like nothing is wrong.
deleted_user
deleted_user
If I go out to eat I will order a "naked" baked potato.

I generally try to eat before an event and tend to bring my own snacks.
TannersMom123
TannersMom123
Thank Mrs10-
My sister is coming for a visit and we want to take her to Napa - wine tasting. I guess I will be the designated driver. Then we want to take them to a great place called Texas Roadhouse. Great BBQ ribs.
It just makes me sick that I can't have any of that food. I will probably end up with a baked potato and salad. My pancreatitis isn't that bad, it's not chronic yet, but I try to stay b et ween 20 & 50 grams of fat. My ulcer is what keeps me from eating many things too.
I just started eating saurkraut for my ulcer. It's hard to know what's good for the ulcer, is it bad for the pancreas....it's crazy!