Low Carb: Panda Express

I used to get a meal from Panda Express quite often before, and since I started my continuous blood glucose monitoring journey more than a year ago, I've been trying to find what I can get in Panda Express to stay low carb and keep my blood sugar level in range.

Let me just tell you, it's not easy.

First of all, of course, drop the side, or get "super greens" instead of their fried rice or chow mein; that's for sure. But what about the entrees?

Apparently, all entrees in Panda Express (at least all that I tried, and I think I tried most of them) have either added sugar, or some carbs that do spike your glucose levels; some actually spike a lot. In general, try to avoid any entree where the meat is coated in a batter or has a lot of sweet sauce. Some entrees come with a lot of veggies or mushroom, which, even with the sweet sauce, seems like a better choice than others.

Examples

On two different days, I tried two different entrees. Here's their black pepper angus steak, which is basically a stir-fried beef with mushrooms and some veggies. Just an entree, no side:

You see it spiked, but not a lot; for me it is an acceptable level, but maybe not really a low carb meal, after all.

Some other simple entrees such as teriyaki chicken are similar; possibly producing a spike because of the sauce.

But then I tried Beijing beef, and it spiked me all the way up to 220 mg/dL:

Well, what can I say here? Avoid Beijing beef. I would assume that orange chicken, which is coated in batter, will give similar, if not worse, results.

So, what's our summary here?

Avoid

• Rice
• Chow mein
• Entrees coated in batter or sweet sauce, such as orange chicken or Beijing beef

Get

What worked for me:

• Black pepper angus steak
• Teriyaki chicken
• Broccoli beef
• Mushroom chicken

Take it as an entree with no side (they have special boxes for that!), or take super greens as a side.