Sorry, but tamales are not bueno for diabetes :(

tamales are bad for diabetes

I got my hands on some tamales recently! There aren’t a lot of places in Seoul that make them, so when a friend at work invited coworkers to submit a mass order to a small mom-and-pop shop, I was like hellzzz yeah.

I bought four tamales, three of which immediately went in the freezer, and I ate them over a period of several weeks.

tamales are bad for diabetes
The first clue that tamales suck for diabetes? THE CORN HUSK!

Knowing that tamales are made from corn, I was kind of expecting the blood sugar tests to be muy malo, and I was more or less right.

Here are the results of all four of my tamales, eaten at different times on different days:


Tamale #1: 96 → 203

Tamale #2: 110 → 199

Tamale #3: 115 → 169

Tamale #4: 112 → 211


tamales are bad for diabetes

As usual, all post-eating blood sugar tests were about one hour later. And as predicted, the blood sugar test results were overall pretty terrible.

But why was Tamale #3 so much easier on the blood sugar than the others? I have no idea. There was nothing remarkable or especially different about that tamale or the conditions under which I ate it.

tamales are bad for diabetes

As for what was in the tamales besides masa (dough made from corn), I don’t really remember! But there was definitely some chicken, and I’m thinking “mole” or something.

The bottom line is that tamales = bad for blood sugar. No es bueno, as they say.

But dammmmnnn I really enjoyed the hell out of these tamales. I won’t be making them a part of my regular diet, but I wouldn’t mind having half a tamale here and there.

tamales are bad for diabetes
tamales are bad for diabetes