A while back, I declared KFC safe to eat. That was when I was eating only fried chicken, and yeah it’s easy to see why that would be safe.
The KFC Double Down, however, is a completely different thing. It’s got cheese, BBQ sauce, bacon, and a damn HASH BROWN stuck in the middle of two hunks of chicken!
This thing is unhealthy no matter who you are, but if you have GODDAM DIABETES, it’s especially bad. You would think the absence of bread makes it safe, but (probably) the hash brown ruins the whole thing.
Blood sugar reading before eating: 88
This reading of 88 was on a Saturday evening. My first meal of the day because I have bizarre weekend sleeping habits.
Blood sugar reading after eating: 192
This reading was about an hour after I finished my KFC Double Down.
I ate the whole thing, hash brown and all, and this is the result. Not good! But you know, sometimes these tests can give weird results. So, in the name of science, I ate another Double Down.
Blood sugar reading before eating: 92
This reading of 92 was on a Saturday evening several weeks later, just like my first Double Down.
Blood sugar reading after eating: 183
This reading was about an hour after I finished my KFC Double Down.
So … sonofabitch! This result is basically the same as the last one. Double Down, bad.
But what if you take the hash brown out of the equation? Hmm. This sounds like another scientific experiment that requires exploration.
UPDATE! I actually did get a Double Down *without* the hash brown, and it was MUCH better on the blood sugar:
Blood sugar reading before eating: 92
This reading of 92 was on a Saturday afternoon. I don’t think I had eaten anything yet.
Blood sugar reading after eating: 135
This reading was about an hour after I finished my KFC Double Down sans hash brown.
So yes, the hash brown seems to be the culprit here. And if you take that out of this, uh, “sandwich,” what you’re left with is two big hunks of fried chicken with some cheese, bacon, and a bit of sauce in the middle.
It’s still really, really unhealthy, but getting rid of the hash brown certainly helps to make it less terrible for you.
im confused what number should we not go over as a diabetic? Im not really finding out on the net by general googling
Hi Raji, I think the reason it’s hard to find an answer is that “good” numbers for you may not be the same as for others.
For me, I want my fasting glucose to be under 120 (closer to 100 is better), and I like to be under 180 if I check glucose again 1 hour after eating a full meal. That doesn’t always happen, but it’s something I shoot for when I’m not doing the glucose “tests” that I publish on this blog. Anyway, that’s what works for me. For you? I can’t say. The person to ask is your doctor!
But maybe a glucose chart will help you get a feel for what numbers are generally considered normal. I posted one of these charts here.