Last Updated on November 29, 2025 by Krista Linares, MPH, RD
Making tamales is not easy work.
While no step in the process is too difficult, there are just so many of them!
In fact, I recently set out on an adventure to make homemade tamales all by myself, because I was working on recipe development (you can see the results here and here).
While I was familiar with all the different steps of the process, I had never actually made tamales from start to finish all on my own. Instead, my experience making tamales has always been as part of a gathering, or rather, a tamalada.
Doing it on my own was a good learning experience, but it definitely lacked some of the sazón I was used to. Instead of listening to my mom’s music or chatting with my sister, I was listening to an audiobook in my headphones. It was altogether a lonelier experience.
While I’ve talked at length about the health benefits of tamales, it got me thinking. What if the benefits aren’t just nutritional? What if it also comes down to the connection and tradition that comes from the act of making them?
What is a tamalada
A tamalada is a social gathering, often around the holidays, where people get together to make tamales (and lots of them).
At a tamalada you will see all generations coming together to make tamales and share laughter!
While we most often think of Christmas when we think of the tamalada, this tradition also happens on other holidays like Dia de muertos or even Three Kings Day.
Why the tamalada matters
The most obvious advantage of a tamalada is that it eases the workload for a pretty labor intensive kitchen task.
But I’ve spent the last year exploring the idea that food traditions nourish us not just through the nutrients they provide, but also for the less tangible, social and emotional benefits that come from sharing food with others and passing down traditions.
Here are some of the benefits that come from this tradition of shared cooking.
Passes down traditional cooking knowledge
I honestly can’t remember ever “learning” how to cook. While I have needed to learn specific techniques over the years, it feels like I’ve always had a baseline knowledge of the basics.
This is most likely due to observing my parents in the kitchen growing up, as well as them involving me by assigning me age-appropriate kitchen tasks like grating cheese or rolling balls of masa for tortillas.
By the time I started college, I could do the basics well enough to feed myself. More importantly, it didn’t feel like such a huge leap when I decided to learn how to make more complete dishes.
That early exposure and involvement in the kitchen made all the difference in developing solid nutrition habits once I was on my own, and there’s research suggesting it’s not just me!
Self-efficacy is someone’s belief in their ability to succeed at a task. And cooking self-efficacy is an important (and often underappreciated) factor in developing healthy eating habits.
One study asked young adults to describe their cooking skills. Those who reported “very adequate” cooking skills had better nutrition related health outcomes even as much as 10 years later (1).
What’s particularly interesting to me about this study is that it looks at this effect in young adults, in particular, and the effect lasts for up to 10 years. To me, this means that cooking skills developed in adolescence and childhood can pay health dividends well into adulthood.
Another study found that women with higher cooking confidence ate more fruits and vegetables (2).
The tradition of the tamalada can help young people develop their cooking confidence because they are observing and mirroring adults perform cooking tasks.
At a tamalada, you are often assigned a specific cooking task (like folding a tamal, separating corn husks, etc.). Dividing the task of learning to make tamales into these small micro-tasks helps teach cooking at appropriate skill levels for each individual person.
Not only does this cooking format help make sure that younger generations will be able to carry on the tradition and heritage of making tamales, it also builds cooking confidence in the community which pays off in health outcomes for years to come.
Increases Food Acceptance in Young Children
If you’ve ever struggled to convince a kid to try a new food, you’ll appreciate this.
It’s normal for kids to be hesitant around new foods, or to go through phases where they seem more “picky” than others.
At the same time, most parents want their kids to have a healthy, varied diet, and to be open to trying new things.
With immigrant families in the United States, there’s an added layer of complexity. Kids may experience shame or bullying from their peers over eating traditional foods.
It’s an all-too-common story for immigrant and first generation children to say they were embarrassed to eat their traditional food because their peers said it was “weird”.
With Mexican food in particular, there can be a stigma around our food being perceived as “unhealthy”, “dirty”, or “cheap”, even though none of these stereotypes are true (the exception is that Mexican food CAN be very affordable, but I would argue that’s a good thing).
Thankfully, the tradition of the tamalada can help families navigate these challenges and foster acceptance of traditional foods.
Research shows getting kids involved in the kitchen can help them try new foods.
One study found that in Hispanic families, kids who always helped with the cooking had higher vegetable intake than those who never helped with cooking (3).
Another study was a randomized controlled trial, and it found that kids who participated in a cooking program were more likely to try unfamiliar foods than kids who did not participate in the cooking program (4).
The hands-on nature of cooking may also be a factor. One study invited children to play with fruits and vegetables in a hands on way, and found that they tried more fruits and vegetables than children who did a different activity (5).
By exposing children to heritage foods, the tamalada may play a role in helping kids accept and enjoy these traditional foods, as well as fruits and vegetables.
Social and Emotional Well-Being
It may sound abstract or a bit woo-woo, but the wellness benefits of tamalada are more than just nutrition.
Part of the health benefits also come from the social connection and community building the experience provides us.
Shared meal time can improve happiness and perceived quality of life.
A joint report prepared by University College London, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford found that people who share meal with others reported higher life satisfaction.
The effect was at a similar level to income and employment, making shared meal time a major lever to improve well-being.
Additionally, a recent article made a big splash suggesting that doing everyday tasks like chores and errands with friends can also increase well-being.
A tamalada checks both of these boxes. Sharing the load of cooking among many hands, along with sitting down to enjoy the tamales as a group, can improve our emotional well-being.
And the evidence suggests this sense of connection and well-being can also show up in our physical health.
According to the CDC, social connection can help reduce risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as depression and anxiety.
Tips for a successful tamalada
Hopefully by this point I’ve convinced you a major part of the magic of Christmas tamales is making them together.
If you’re ready to host a tamalada, try these simple tips for success:
- Give each person a dedicated task. Think assembly line! Each person should have one fairly basic task that they are in charge of. This can be spreading the masa, adding fillings, folding tamales, separating husks, etc.
- Have 2 or 3 fillings. I like to offer at least one meat option and one vegetarian option. For a vegetarian option, try these poblano pepper and cheese tamales.
- Mark different tamales. If you’re using different fillings, make sure you can tell the difference! We always tie one or two pieces of corn husk around the wrapper to help differentiate between different fillings.
- Prepare ahead of time: Before gathering, consider soaking the corn husks, making the masa, and cooking any fillings that need to be cooked (like meats). Fillings can be cooked a day ahead of time and stored in the fridge.
Reflection
The tradition of throwing a tamalada to make Christmas tamales shows the best of Latin American food culture and its intersection with well-being.
Passing down cooking traditions sets children up for nutrition success for years to come. And the social connection improves our well-being both physically and emotionally.
While the evidence on the benefits of traditions like these is growing and growing … to me, the takeaway is that our cultural traditions have been serving us in a way that we’re only beginning to understand.