Chips. Tortilla chips, specifically. The bane of my existence. Why are they so delicious? And, why are they free? Does the free-ness make them more delicious and desirable? I’m pretty sure. Let’s start with the basics. In last weeks’ post we discussed carbohydrates, and we know that carbs are, arguably, the one thing that impacts blood sugar the most. Herein lies the problem. Chips are full of carbs. The bad carbs, too. We call them simple carbs, because they are broken down and digested so easily that they have an immediate and terrifying impact on blood sugar. 

Livin’ this diabetes life since 2001, I have had my fair share of attempts at defeating The Tortilla Chip. I’ve stared at many a chip bowl and vowed to myself, as well as the chips, that I would only eat “x” amount, and I would show those chips a big eff-you when my sugar is 120 afterwards. This never works. 

Sure, there are better things in life than chips. But there is something about those damn triangles that just get me. I’d also like to mention that the chips pictured here are from Chilis – my husband and I shared a fajita plate a few weeks ago, and he tops off his order with, “and I’ll have an order of chips and salsa”. Damn you, Danny, damn you! Also would like to mention that Chilis chips are not even good. They are barely strong enough to scoop a moderate amount of salsa, and they taste so blah. But, of course, they still got into my head. It started with the usual.. I’ll have ten chips, because I can reasonably count the carbs for those… and, again, as usual, that “ten chip” idea was out the window in 2.5 seconds. Cue the hyperglycemia. 

Tortilla chips are such a problem for me that I refuse to keep them in the house. Danny has to specifically ask for tortilla chips to be put on the grocery list or go get them himself in order for them to wind up in our panty. Even then, when he takes them out, he knows that he has to keep the bag on his side of the table. You think I’m kidding. My husband is the one person that has permission to question my tortilla chip consumption. He has seen the after-effects when the meter registers 250 and rising – the rage, the self-loathing, the tears, the overall way I beat myself up mentally after eating too many chips. That one meal I wanted to feel normal and not have to count everything on my plate.

My friend Lauren knows my love-hate relationship with tortilla chips all too well. We went to dinner; I arrived first. They brought the bowl of tortilla chips, and I asked them to remove them from the table. Problem solved. I should have kept it to myself. The mistake I made was telling Lauren when she arrived that I had sent the tortilla chips away. I’ve never seen rage in her eyes but for this one night. She, too, loves tortilla chips. I will never do that to her again.

One more story. Best friend Ashley and I go wine tasting all afternoon in Temecula; we had an amazing day. Someone had the genius idea to top our evening off at Rosa’s Cantina (RIP Rosa’s) in Old Town. Having been slightly (and by slightly I mean heavily) intoxicated, I consumed handful after handful of chips. No one knows how many. There were no attempts at counting chips this evening. Let’s just say that, in regards to diabetes self-management, this particular event was quite scary in retrospect; safe to say that, at this time in my diabetes journey, I was much less mindful of the dangers of situations like these. Alas, a fun evening that provides yet another piece of proof that tortilla chips and I can never co-exist…

I digress… where are your favorite tortilla chips from?