Diabetic movie patron kicked out for bringing strawberries

http://nypost.com/2014/03/28/theater-calls-cops-on-diabetic-man-with-strawberries/

What do you think? Should diabetics be allowed to bring their own snacks?

 

In this article, the person had type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetics need quick acting sugar -- like juice and tabs. A Type 2 could go without eating for the duration of the movie. He didn't need to bring in the food; he just wanted to. I think he should have left the food at home.

 

Agreed. Whole different ball game if he were Type 1. People like this guy add to the general population's misinformation about T1D.

 

Type 2s on insulin or metformin can also have lows. It's not an exclusive Type 1 thing. I know someone with Type 2 that was put on large amounts of Levemir and sent home without education. He was having swings from 20s to 500s without feeling the difference. I encouraged him to call his endo, but he was reluctant to before his next appointment.

As far as snacks, I think people with medical conditions should be left alone. When and how to treat involves a lot of criteria that differ. We started having my daughter bump BGs toward 100 when her CGM alarms with a couple of carbs after we took a T1U class where Gary discussed the stresses that lows put on the body. The first year, I never let her have something unless she had below a 70 on the meter, even when she was shakey. Now I've learned and seen how greatly meter readings can differ.

Add allergies or a desire to eat healthier into the mix, and being out at a place like a move theater that only allows their products to be consumed (so they can make more money) adds stress to already living with chronic conditions.

 

Type 1 or 2, we've discussed it before - its manageable within the constructs of movie theater rules. There are treatments of lows you can take that are more "medicinal" like glucose tabs. If you can't honor a movie theaters rules to eat their food or nothing at all, don't go. Strawberries aren't a low treatment - he just wanted to eat. So eat before you come - it can be done.

 

I agree. I was curious hat other thought.

 

If you want to fight the fight that movie theaters should allow or provide healthy snacks, I'm all for it. But don't do it in the name of diabetes. It does just bring the wrong kind of publicity to the issue. I want education, not fear mongering. THe article including a quote from a person saying "he could die" if he was not allowed to bring in a whole container of strawberries. Unless there is another medical condition at play, that I'm not familiar with, you won't die from going 2 hours without eating strawberries. From the healthy eating standpoint, there are countless studies that show that the mindless eating one does while watching TV is the worst kind of eating we do as a species, regardless of what the snack is. If you want to eat healthy, eat before or after the movie, not during.

I do understand not being able to join in the social aspect of eating, I have a food allergy that prevents me from eating movie snacks, but I think a social eating event prior to the movie is a better solution anyway.

 

Yea, this ^^^. Eating at a movie isn't a right.

 

I agree that he should not have brought the strawberries, I bring food into movie theatres all the time, but it is usually candy to treat a low, not a snack. And if what ever I had did not constitute as a low treatment (come on we've all brought in other foods) then I would take it to my car and return to the movie. should diabetics be allowed to bring in food? yes. should that food be a unnecessary snack? no.

 

No, because what about the people with Celiac? Nut allergies? Egg allergies? And so on and so forth. If you think about it, the majority of society is a special exception. Plus this person is T2. Strawberries may treat a low, but they aren't the most discreet thing to bring in.
I think the persons time would be more well spent working with the theater to offer a healthy option or two, than going to the media.

 

The article is written a little sloppily, but it suggested to me that he takes insulin.

I can't imagine repacking my daughter's D supply bag based on the policies of whatever store or theater or restaurant we are visiting, and I'd be pretty irate if a theater or restaurant manager asked to look inside of it. My child's bag is always stocked with juice, gummies, and glucose tabs, and she knows that those items are not snacks for casual grazing; they are on hand to treat a medical condition. She's a fickle kid, and even more changeable during lows, so we have to have on hand low treatments that we know she will accept.

It's possible that this guy was taking advantage of his diabetes to enjoy his preferred snack, but I don't think that should translate to a general exclusion policy that would sweep up all bona fide low treatments.

 

You've made some excellent points. We recently took my daughter to the movies and she brought along her diabetes bag which always contains a couple pouches of juice and zip-locks containing pre-counted Skittles (my daughter's two treatments of choice for low BGs). I would have been irate if we had been stopped from taking these into the movies. I must confess that we sometimes have snuck in diet sodas because of the astronomical prices at concessions. If I were to be caught with "illegal" items, I'd like to think that I'd just take the rap and return the items to my car. But I would undoubtedly be as assertive as it took regarding my daughter's low BG treatment items.

 

We've discussed this before. I don't sneak in food. I don't sneak in snacks. Yes, they cost a fortune, but that is how they make money. The movie theaters don't make any movie off the ticket prices - concessions are how they make money. Why do so many people think its ok to take away profits from a business you are frequenting because you aren't willing to pay their prices. Don't like it - don't go, but don't take your own snacks or food because you don't like their prices because that is their business and you are taking that away from them when you do that.

 

Basically, I agree with this. I make it a practice to always have something to treat a low on me. So I will most likely carry something small into a theater - a roll of Life Savers, a pack of Skittles, etc. That way if he goes low, I have something to treat it immediately, and am not frantically standing in line waiting for a $7.00 box of JuJuFruits. But much more than that gets the big hairy eyeball from me.

 

Don't get me wrong - I'm not begrudging a low treatment. If Skittles is how we treated, then that's what I'd be taking in. For us, its a pack of fruit snacks. But otherwise, yeah!

 

I know people like to pull the diabetes card or the disability card to get what they want sometimes, but it discredits true needs. I have a T1 daughter AND a completely disabled daughter in a wheelchair. Most of the time we have to adapt to the rest of the world, rather than the rest of the world adapting to us. That's just the way it is. I think a small packet of candy for a low is different than a carton of fruit.

 

I just can't fathom going to the movies with a basket of strawberries to start with. I think that's very different than some skittles or glucotabs.

(I guess I sort of picture someone skipping along with a big basket like Red Ridding Hood.)

 

I have no guilt of sneaking in a no caffeine diet soda into a theater, and yes I would fight to keep it.

 

I must live in fairy land because I can't imagine anyone at any of our local theaters paying the slightest bit of attention to what I'm eating during a movie, much less searching my bag. If it got to that, I'd probably just wait to buy the DVD or stream it.

 

Same here. We'll sneak in food they well, refuse to stock. No caffeine diet soda. I'm not giving my kids caffeine at night, and why do other kids get to have soda but not mine just because they have regular no caffeine soda? We don't sneak in strawberries lol, but I have brought in lunch sized chip bags. We don't buy that chemical filled popcorn, and there's nothing else really other than candy.