Picky Eats – My name is Aiden, and I am 16 years old. I’m also a Type 1 Diabetic. I like eating at restaurants and ordering from the adult menu. I like playing tennis, skiing, fishing, travel, going to school, and staying at home. I also like playing the piano. I do community service in my free time. In school, I like learning advanced math and science, whether taught at school or self-taught. Being Type 1 hasn’t stopped me from being like everyone else.

I was diagnosed on May 1st, 2018 as a Type 1 Diabetic. From the start, I discovered it was more difficult to eat at home or at a restaurant than before. Now that I’m Type 1, every meal or snack, I have to count carbs and get a shot whenever I eat. The good news is when I started looking at nutrition, I realized that I started eating healthier. My parents helped, so they ate healthier too! Now, even with an insulin pump, I’m still counting carbs, but that hasn’t stopped me from eating at restaurants. When I eat out, I ask the chef what’s in the dish, and what the nutrition info is. By doing this, I’m educating the chefs as well. With this blog, I’m hoping to make it easier to eat healthy, no matter who you are.

I started this blog primarily as a review of restaurants I’ve tried around the world and secondarily my volunteer activities as it relates to food. As a result of the pandemic, I haven’t traveled or eaten at a restaurant in ten months. That’s not a bad thing. One door closes, other doors open. The site is now more about my volunteer activities and less about my food adventures. At least for now.

To view my volunteer projects select the “Volunteer” tab. To view the latest volunteer news blog, go to “News” tab. or go to: https://www.pickyeats.org/category/volunteer-news/

Dad – Aiden loves food and eating at restaurants. We taught him early on the really good food isn’t from the kids menu. Try ordering from the adult menu or asking the chef what’s good. Aiden loves ordering from the adults menu (whenever possible). The original goal of the blog was to share with you what my son found interesting about the restaurant he ate at, what food he ordered, and would he recommend it to other kids.  He will also tell you what he didn’t like.  The reviews are by him.  The parents at times will add our five cents to the review. That was the goal of this food blog.

That all changed May 1, 2018. Eating out wasn’t as easy anymore. All the carbs he wanted had to be measured. Mom brings a scale and calculator to measure the carbs. He then needed an insulin shot. He can’t eat the food in front of him for twenty minutes because it takes that long for the insulin to take effect. If he wanted dessert, he needs another shot, wait another twenty minutes, etc., etc,. Eating out was no longer fun for Aiden or for us. We needed to rethink if Aiden’s food blog is still worth doing.

Four to six months after diagnosis, life started to be normal again. We started to nail down our diabetic routines and start planning how we can beat this disease or contribute to the conversation. Diabetes for Aiden is just another goal in life. Aiden loves goals. Eating out again and enjoying it was a top goal for us. After much discussion, Aiden decided to continue with his food blog but with a new emphasis in nutrition.

We changed the format of his blogs to include nutrition information such as carbohydrates. The blog will provide our readers (parents, keto, diabetic, etc..) general carbohydrate information to help other people calculate carbohydrate intake and calculate insulin needs. This is a work in progress. We have more exciting updates coming up. To learn more about the new blog format, www.pickyeats.org/blog-format

We thank you for all the public support. Please enjoy Aiden’s food & volunteer blog!

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” – Virgina Woolf