21 Healthy Low Carb Protein Snacks - Type One Diabetes Health

When you are a student and athlete, nutrition should be an extremely important part of your daily regimen. And it's even more so for someone living with the highs and lows of type one diabetes.

Raising a type one diabetic daughter has taught me a lot about nutrition, especially carbohydrates and protein. Don't believe every nutritional food label or menu for your insulin to carb ratio.  Two food items (including protein bars) with exactly the same amount of carbohydrates will affect your blood sugar, energy level and mental focus differently. Even bagels! And then there are those food items like pizza, pasta, french fries and apples, where carbohydrates on the nutritional menu isn't correct for a type one to use.

From experience, mini bagels are easier for the body to convert into energy then large bagels. I know those large bagels taste amazing, but they are horrible if your wanting to take a run in a couple hours or take a test at school. Same goes for pizza. We've found that Dominos pizza crust is easier for the body to convert into energy than New York style pizza dough. Madison loves New York style pizza crust, but every time she eats it, it leaves her blood glucose higher, longer and she feels like crap (headache and stomach). Inside info... three Dominos medium pepperoni slices is only 25 carbs. We've tested it for 7 years! NY style pizza is about 22 per large slice, but be ready for a longer high where you'll be giving more insulin 3 - 5 hours later.

During those critical times where Madison needs to take a test or she's preparing for a soccer game, she keeps to a very low carbohydrate, high protein diet three hours leading up to the big event. Her favorites are apples and peanut butter, Protein peanut butter bar, and hummus and veggies.

Here are 21 healthy low carb, high protein snack ideas for teen athletes and teen type one diabetes athletes.

Hummus and Veggies 
Carrots and cucumbers are Madison's favorites to go with hummus. She also likes red pepper and broccoli. (2 Tbsp of Hummus has only 3g carbs and 1g protein)

Hummus and Veggies

Lettuce Wraps
We love Jimmy Johns Lettuce Wraps. It's like a sandwich wrapped up in lettuce. Zero carbs if you fill with turkey, salami, roast beef and cheese. Tomatos have about 2g of carbs. And if you are real daring, throw in some free carb cucumbers.

Jimmy Johns Lettuce Wrap

Taco
This is such a great snack or meal! One hard shell taco is only 7 grams of carbohydrates. Fill it with beef or chicken and then add cheese, lettuce and salsa and you have a filling low carb, high protein treat.

Beef Taco

Grilled Chicken Skewer
This is a perfect (0 carb) healthy snack and can easily be made into a meal. Madison will hit it hot or cold.

Grilled Chicken Skewer

Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets
I know, you are probably thinking this is so unhealthy. But when you have a type one who is starving and wants to be like every other kid, Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets are perfect. Each nugget is about 3 grams of carbs, making a 6 count only 18 carbs.

Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets

Tuna Salad 

Tuna tastes great right out of the can. It's zero carbs and filled with protein. My kids prefer tuna with a little mayo on cucumber or spread on pita chips. 

Beef Jerky
This is one of my kids favorites. It's very high in protein and contains no carbs! Original and teriyaki  are our top of flavors; and organic is always my first buy.

Beef Jerky

Rice Cake with Peanut Butter
This is an amazing snack that is also filling. You can add so many toppings to it like strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mini-chocolate and more! Remember, the more toppings the more carbs. The carb count the below picture is about 13 carbs.

Rice Cake with Peanut Butter

Veggies and Ranch Dressing
Zero to no carbs and filling! Carrots, cucumber, and red pepper are my kids first choice.

Veggies with Ranch Dressing

Peanut Butter Celery Sticks 
The below Peanut Butter Snail recipe is such a cute diy food idea that I got from Walmart. Adding pretzels adds more complex carbs. I would ditch them and instead use carrots. 2 tablespoons of peanut butter is 8 carbs.

Peanut Better Snail Snack

Apples and Peanut Butter (picture from Walmart)
The yummy snack in the picture would be about 5 grams of carbs. A medium apple is about 15 carbs. Oh... here's where insulin to carb doesn't work again. The nutritional label says a medium apple is 25 grams. My daughter's blood glucose has crashed way too many times when we give her insulin to cover 25 grams of carbohydrates for an apple. It's too much! 15 works perfect.

Peanut Butter Apple Snack

Cream Cheese Celery Snack
If you are getting creative, here are some simple diy food snack recipe from Women's Day you can create with cream cheese and celery! We usually stick to the simple cream cheese spread on a celery stick - Carb count is simply none! Beware that when you start to add grapes, raisons and apples, the carb count starts to rise.

Celery Cream Cheese Snack

String Cheese Stick
These come pre-wrapped, making them an easy zero carb portable treat. The only thing to be aware of is the heat. Warm cheese isn't any of my kids favorites.

Cheese Stick

Deviled Eggs
Deviled eggs are easy to make! Here's a delicious Hellmann's deviled eggs recipe. Best part is they have no carbs!

Deviled Eggs

Almonds (and other Nuts)
There always is a bag of Almonds in our house. Low in carbs (6 g per 1 oz).  They are an excellent source of protein, Vitamin E, calcium and magnesium. They aide in lowering cholesterol and building one's immune system.  You can eat them right out of the container or chop them up and sprinkle some on a salad.

Cottage Cheese
We don't eat a lot of cottage cheese in our house. But I did want to include it because there are so many health benefits of cottage cheese. 1 cup of cottage cheese only has 8 grams of carbs. 15 ways to eat cottage cheese.

Bacon wrapped Scallops
Zero carbs and amazingly delicious! We just love bacon! Bacon on salad. Bacon in a Lettuce Wrap. Its the condiment of meat. And it comes with no carbs.

Scallops Wrapped in Bacon

Simple Salad
Leave off the croutons, bread and chips and you'll have a healthy low carb salad. This Greek Salad from Panera Bread is only 11 grams of carbs.

Panera Bread Greek Salad

Greek Yogurt
You can't go wrong with having a cup of Greek Yogurt (9 carbs in 1 cup). Greek Yogurt gives just as much nutritional punch as Almonds and Broccoli. Each cup is filled with protein, calcium, iodine and potassium. The best part is it keeps you feeling full.

Greek Yogurt

Protein Bar
Madison loves Pure Protein Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar and Larabar Peanut Chocolate Chip. If she needs 8 - 15 carbs before a soccer game, I'll have her have a half or the entire Pure Protein Peanut Butter Bar because it's only 16 carbs. Larabar's are 24 grams of carbs, so she'll have that after the game instead.

Protein Bar

Atkins Dark Chocolate Milk
Only 5 grams of carbs per drink! Madison has one after most soccer games. It's filling, low in carbs and the protein helps stabilize her blood glucose.

Protein Shake

6 Pregame Teen Athlete Secrets Living with Type One Diabetes

A1C 10/8/2018

30 minutes has passed. My mind has been racing to find the perfect title to kick-off my daughters type one diabetes blog. It was supposed to be her blog, where she shared her story. But with school and soccer and managing her blood glucose time always slips away, so instead I'm going to take a stab at sharing OUR story.

When your child has type one diabetes it doesn't just affect them. It affects everyone who touches her life (parents, siblings, neighbors, friends, teammates and the coach). This invisible disease (that just plain SUCKS) truly is a rollercoaster ride. One that never seems to end.

This past weekend we headed to Georgia to play two National League Piedmont Conference soccer games. Madison and I spent almost 5 hours on the drive down coming up with the perfect game plan for managing her blood glucose on and off the field (and including some type one diabetes stress tips).

It was invincible! Nothing could throw our game plan off! Yea... right... like every type one moment, not one thing went as planned.  (Saturday's game plan below)

• Eat healthy carbs 3.5 hours before game.
• No insulin on board prior to warm-ups. Madison's blood glucose consistently crashes if she has more than 1.5 units of insulin on board before a soccer game.
• Reduce basal 85% for one hour 30 minutes before warm-ups.  
• Check blood glucose 15 minutes before game (finger prick). 
• Wear Dexcom G6 receiver in a fanny-like pack to check blood glucose on field. 
• Put Glucose Gel in socks if low happens on field.
• Check blood glucose at half-time (finger prick) for 2nd half of soccer game plan.

Everything was on track two hours before the game! (below is the text she and I shared)

Our reality at the field was different... It was hot (which we knew, but didn't realize the true heat index). Stupid weather never works in our favor. Then she was hungry. Mom guilt kicked in so we snuck in a few peanut butter crackers before she headed out for warm-ups. She now had insulin on board (my stress thermometer just bubbled, but her belly felt better).

Things stayed inconsistent from there. The coach didn't work them as hard during pregame work-out because it was so stinking hot. I knew her blood glucose was going up. I was so stressed and I'm sure she was too. Our game plan changed. As soon as she had a chance, she changed her basal settings so she'd start getting more insulin and she also gave herself a bolus of insulin. Clock kept ticking, but her blood glucose wasn't going down. Insulin never works fast enough when you need it too.

National League Piedmont Conference Soccer Game Georgia

When she finally stepped onto the soccer field to play, the adrenaline effect kicked in. I was ready to throw in the towel. Her blood glucose went over 300 creeping up to 400. I don't know how in the world she played, but she did. I could see the heat, the stress, the pressure and the adrenaline all affecting her. Her face showed the struggle of trying to beat the heat and the high blood glucose. Such determination. Tears filled my eyes (and they still do). She never gave up. Somehow she pushed through it.

After the game, she came up to me with an ear to ear smile, face beaming and said, "We won!"  Then her face cringed as she said, "I didn't feel too well out there, did I play okay?" I said, "You played amazing in this heat and kept up with both teams."

Not once did she mention that she wanted to give up playing. Her type one diabetes wasn't going to get the best of her. And I'm trying sooooo hard not to let it get the best of me.

Here are our 6 Pregame Secrets for a Teen Type One Diabetic Athlete:

• No matter what pregame type one diabetes high and low prevention plan you create, be ready for lots of variables to change
• Be there for your child as a supporter and realize that their performance on the field sometimes will be out of their control and let that be okay
• Keep in touch through cell phone if your type one athlete needs to bounce ideas off of you or just needs an emoji smile / hug
• Always plan for weather changes
• Remember lots of teen type one athletes experience the adrenaline effect during and after game
• Stash some fast-acting sugar in their socks for those unexpected lows on the field