What Can I Eat With Gestational Diabetes - Fast Food Series - Starbucks

Satisfy the Starbucks craving without forsaking the gestational diabetes diet with these low carb and sugar free options.

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I don't know about you but my Venti Iced White Chocolate Mocha was the first thing I thought about when GD slapped me in the face. I wish I would've taken the time to look at their menu rather than just think I couldn't have it at all.

Dissecting a menu takes a lot of time so I've done it for you. There isn't a "fix" to every drink, but hopefully you can find an alternative to your favorites.

Starbucks has a really great nutrition info page and you can click on any of the heads to sort the entire page. So, of course, click on Carbs and it'll sort the list by carbs, highest to lowest. Click it again to resort it from lowest to highest.

If it's not listed here it's because it just didn't make nutritional sense.

The Bakery

Item	Total Carbs	Protein
Petite Vanilla Bean Scone	18	2
Butter Croissant*	27	5
Everybody's Favorite Bantam Bagel (2 pack)*	28	6
The Classic Bantam Bagel (2 pack)*	28	6
French Toast Bantam Bagel (2 pack)*	30	6

The Butter Croissant isn't an ideal choice, but if your carb limit for breakfast is 30, I can see eating half of the croissant with 2 boiled eggs for protein (you can find these in gas stations nowadays).

I say eat only half of it because you have to remember that it's breakfast and you're coming off of a fast so you don't want to shock your glucose, and these croissants are made with nutritionally-empty, high-carb white flour.

Same case when it comes to the Bantam Bagels. Eat only 1 out of the 2-pack and pair it with a low carb protein to make it work.

Salads

Item	Total Carbs	Protein
Cauliflower Tabbouleh Side Salad	7	2
Garden Greens & Shaved Parmesan Side Salad	9	7
Grilled Chicken & Cauliflower Tabbouleh*	15	21
Seasoned Turkey & Green Pepper Pico*	30	28
Cage Free Eggs & Seasoned Grains Side Salad	33	17
Za'atar Chicken & Lemon Tahini*	42	21
Chicken & Quinoa Protein Bowl w/Black Beans & Greens*	42	27
Roasted Carrot & Kale Side Salad	44	10
Roasted Turkey & Dill Havarti*	46	32

Before you order one of these salads, especially the higher carb ones, make sure you know what you're getting in size. You want to make sure that the size of the salad is big enough to satisfy you and makes sense with the amount of carbs it has.

For example, the Cage Free Eggs & Seasoned Grains Side Salad has 33g carbs, but it's a side salad.

The nutrition info includes the dressing, so if you really want the salad, maybe use only a portion of the dressing, or remove the sugary or carb-heavy component.

The salads annotated with a "*" are high in sodium, about ¼ - ½ the daily recommended amount. Not a huge deal since you're eating out and eating out will always give you more sodium than home cooked food. But if you're dealing with other health issues you may want to be wary of it.

Ideally, each meal/snack you eat would be ⅙ of the daily recommended amount, which is equal to about 400 mg of sodium per eating.

Protein Boxes

Item	Total Carbs	Protein
Creminelli Sopressata Monterey Jack Snack Tray	0	15
Farmer's Market Protein Box*	29	21
Cheese & Fruit Protein Box	34	20
Eggs & Cheese Protein Box	40	23

The Farmer's Market Protein Box is also high in sodium.

Breakfast Items

Item	Total Carbs	Protein
Ham & Cheese Croissant	28	14
Reduced Fat Turkey Bacon & Cage Free Egg White Breakfast Sandwich	28	18
SOUS VIDE EGG BITES
Bacon & Gruyere*	9	19
Ham, Cheddar & Peppers	11	17
Chicken Chorizo Tortilla*	13	15
Egg White & Red Pepper	13	13

The items annotated with an "*" are high sodium.

Others

Item	Total Carbs	Protein
Avocado Spread	5	1
Justin's Classic Almond Butter	6	7
Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter	12	4
Mango & Coconut Yogurt Bowl	34	16

Don't forget that they always have new grab and go products inside. Check them out!

Drinks

Since liquid carbs are digested more quickly than solid carbs, I keep the drink carb allowance to 10g. It's a totally arbitrary number, so decide what you will.

Item	Size	Total Carbs	Protein
Iced Coffee	Grande	0	0
Nitro Cold Brew	Grande	0	0
Starbucks Cold Brew Coffee	Grande	0	0
Starbucks Cold Brew Coffee w/Milk	Grande	0	0
Nitro Cold Brew w/Sweet Cream	Grande	4	1
Cold Brew w/Cold Foam	Grande	7	2
Teavana Shaken Iced Black Tea	Tall	8	0
Teavana Shaken Iced Green Tea	Tall	8	0
Teavana Shaken Iced Passion Tango Tea	Tall	8	0
Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew	Tall	9	1
Blonde Roast	Venti	0	1
Clover Brewed Coffee	Venti	0	1
Pike Place Roast	Venti	0	1
Featured Dark Roast	Venti	0	1

To list the remaining drinks would be endless so instead I'll give you some pointers and tips.

Sugar

By default, drinks are sweetened with sugar. Some are sweetened twice, like the Chai and Matcha flavored drinks. They come as pre-made powder mixes that contain sugar, and more sugar is added when the drink is made to order.

Drinks with Skinny in the name are technically sugar free. They are sweetened with sucralose, which has a 0% glycemic index. Also sweetened with sucralose are 3 sugar free syrups: Mocha, Cinnamon Dolce and Vanilla.

Even though those syrups are sugar free, the drink may still have a considerable number of carbs so it's best to check the menu.

If you order a drink outside of these syrups, order it WITHOUT the Classic Syrup (liquid sugar). They have other sweeteners, including Stevia, that can be mixed into the drink, or that you can mix in yourself.

Milk

Keep in mind that milk is categorized as a carbohydrate in this diet. Starbucks has six options for "milk," but know that substituting will alter the taste, sometimes dramatically.

I order the White Chocolate Mocha every time, and one day I tried it with almond milk (YUCK!). I like almond milk but it was a terrible substitution.

The one drink worth mentioning is the bottled drink, Evolution Fresh Organic Green Devotion. It's a blend of green veggies with no added sugars. You can sweeten it yourself and get in extra veggies!

New Drinks

The Macro Barista on Instagram is constantly creating new Keto friendly and macro-focused drinks and telling you how to order them! Check him out!

What drink order has been working for you? Tell us in the comments below!