Maybe kimchi jjigae isn’t so bad on the glucose after all?!

While I was waiting for Terry to get a haircut at a nearby vet’s office, I ducked into a small restaurant for lunch.

The last time I documented my before-and-after blood sugar results with kimchi jjigae (김치찌개), the results suuuucked!

The Accu-Chek Performa had me going from 114 → 215, and the Caresens N had me at 113 → 226.

But that was a time when I ate a LOT of this kimchi stew in one sitting. I picked it up from a restaurant where the nice lady there was/is in the habit of giving me too much, so I ate it all.

This time was different. I ate a “normal” portion of kimchi jjigae, and I mostly ignored the side stuff.

I didn’t eat any rice for obvious reasons, and I even left the little pieces of pancake uneaten (you can see them on the far left side in the photos).

What I did eat was a little kimchi and some of the spicy cucumber slices.

Blood sugar reading before eating: 104

This reading of 104 was in the afternoon around lunchtime.

I woke up at noon and I hadn’t eaten anything yet. And, as is always the case with these blood sugar experiments, I hadn’t taken my Diabex/Metformin yet.

Blood sugar reading after eating: 124

This was an hour after eating.

So … 104 → 124 is what I would categorize as basically nothing!

As for the difference between this test and that terrible other test from way back when, I think we can guess that the limited quantity of kimchi jjigae in this test definitely played a part.

Also, this was a different restaurant that no doubt makes their jjigae in a way that’s different from that other place I sometimes go to. Every restaurant is bound to be a little different.

So is kimchi jjigae safe to eat if you have goddam diabetes? In moderation, and if you skip things like rice and those little pancake squares, probably yes! But your mileage may vary depending on where you’re eating.

And for those who are curious about what’s in all these little side dishes:

• Top two dishes: seaweed and kimchi
• The two dishes beneath those: spicy cucumber and bits of Korean radish
• The small dish on the far left: Korean pancake (전)
• The small dish on the far right: fish cakes (오뎅)

The rice is off-camera to the left, where it belongs.