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.
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
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.
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.
That’s quite a rise! 😱
How do you cope and stay positive when you have BG spike like this ?
I’m always having a hard time and beat myself up so much, even though I know how and why.
Hi Suchira, my one and only reader! haha
High blood sugar results don’t bother me that much … just as long as the glucose comes back down. It’s just a lesson on what NOT to eat/drink. No need to beat yourself up!
That’s really good information.my neighbor just brought me ,two dozen tamales and i am glad that i read this article before I ate them. It’s hard being a diabetic but as you said as long as it goes back down it’s lessoned learned about what not to eat.
Thanks again for the very useful information.
Thanks for commenting, Ken! I hope you ate and enjoyed the tamales … but maybe just half at a time?
I was about to order tamales for a friend but she’s diabetic and morbidly obese. Good thing I found your info. Thank you for sharing your blood sugar results. This is very helpful. All the best.
Glad you found it helpful, Mina! Thanks for commenting