Bread is bread, even tortillas

Tortillas are a better dietary choice than whole grain bread, right?

I think it is a terrible dietary urban legend that tortillas are better for you, particularly spinach tortillas. Wraps are trendy, that's all. The truth is, bread is bread pretty much, and both flour and spinach tortillas are actually made of processed wheat flour (i.e.: they are white bread in disguise) and corn tortillas are pretty much out too as all corn is suspect at the moment because of GMOs.

FYI: you can get certified Non-GMO corn tortillas and other Mexican food from Que Pasa and from Kettle Chips.

Do a side by side comparison of the nutritional information for any two whole grain breads, including whole wheat tortillas, and you will find that they are virtually identical both in calories and nutritional values. The differences are minimal and favor both alternately, so it is really only a matter of your personal nutritional priorities. I'll use an example:

Whole Wheat Bread vs. Whole Wheat Tortilla

2 Slices Bread, 1 Large Tortilla

Note: the nutritional info for the wheat bread in the picture is for 1 slice, so I am doubling it for the example because I am comparing the amount of bread in a sandwich vs. a wrap, which would have 2 slices of bread.

Let's just make a list of pros for each:

Calories: Tortilla wins, but only by 14 calories, negligible. 

Fat: Bread, by 1 gram overall, plus has no saturated fat.

Sodium: tie, only a 4 mg difference, although technically Bread wins.

Potassium: big win for Bread with 102 mg vs. 0 for the tortilla.

Carbs: Tortilla wins with 4 grams less. Again, kinda negligible.

Dietary Fiber: Tortilla wins with 1 g more.

Sugar: tie, with 2 g each.

Protein: Bread wins, with a 2 g advantage.

TOTAL: 5 / 5, tie.

So really, bread is bread. We all know not to eat white bread, so as long as you stick to whole wheat or whole grain products, it's all the same stuff. 

What about spinach tortillas or other veggie tortillas?

Nope, sorry, those trendy spinach tortillas that restaurants love because they look so nice on the plate are more than double the calories, carbs, sodium and saturated fat as two slices of white bread. Most "vegetable" tortillas (spinach, pepper, basil, paprika, etc.) only contain the ground vegetable powder for taste and coloration, which spikes their sodium content, too. Sadly, they aren't better for you, it's just a marketing scheme. They are actually worse for you than white bread or a white flour tortilla.

But aren't corn tortillas the way to go?

Yes, but not since 2012. Right now -- no -- unless you take the steps to get Non-GMO corn products, which is possible.

It's really too bad about corn right now. Within the top results from a Google search for, "are tortilla's better than bread," you will be continually reminded that corn flour does in fact count as a whole grain. Corn tortillas are much lower calorie, low fat, no cholesterol, low carb, and have a little bit of fiber and protein. Unfortunately, as I said above, basically all corn products since 2012 are suspect, even farm stand corn because Monsanto also sold GMO sweet corn seed to local producers on a global scale, particularly in the Ukraine. Note, many American corn producers are finding that GMO seeds often fail, so hopefully between the GMO labeling push in the US and natural crop failures, GMO vegetables will go away. Soon. Until then, I'm avoiding as much corn product as possible.