This post is an update on my experiments measuring the effect of low-carb foods and dietary supplements on blood sugar.
Testing Queue:
- Baseline:
- Glucose re-test: In queue
- Low-carb foods:
- Meal replacements: 2/3 complete, (Ketochow previously reported)
- Flour replacements: 1/4 complete
- Tortilla: This post
- Bread: 1/8 complete
- Snack bars: 0/8 complete
- Ice cream: 2/11 complete
- Cereals: 4/7 complete
- Supplements:
- Vinegar: In queue
- MSG: Reported
This week, I have the results from low-carb Tortillas.
Tortillas
Summary:
I tested 6 low-carb tortillas from 3 different brands. The winner on both taste and blood sugar impact was La Tortilla Factory, with about half the impact of Mission and Nutri-Rica tortillas (~13 vs. 25% of glucose for peak BG/g & ~30 vs. 60% of glucose for iAuC).
The key difference between the brands appears to be that Mission & Nutri-Rica use resistant wheat starch, as their main ingredient, which I’ve previously observed to have almost the same blood sugar impact as glucose. La Tortilla Factory, in contrast, uses oat fiber or cellulose fiber, which have essentially zero blood sugar impact.
Overall, I’m really happy with how this experiment turned out. The La Tortilla Factory tortillas have low enough blood glucose impact that I’ve started using them with meals (recipe here).
I looked for other low-carb tortillas that don’t use resistant wheat starch, but except for La Tortilla Factory and Mr. Tortilla (recommended by a commenter on the preliminary data), they all are either too high carb or high calorie (e.g. using almond flour) and I’d rather leave room for more fillings. I ordered the Mr. Tortilla ones, but UPS lost the package so I wasn’t able to test them before this post (will update once I get them).
Does anyone know any other good low-carb tortillas I should try?
Details:
Purpose
- To identify low-carb foods that taste good and have minimal effect on my blood glucose.
- To determine the effect of popular, literature supported dietary supplements on my blood glucose.
Background
I was in the supermarket recently and noticed that they’ve started carrying low-carb tortillas. The macros looked decent (2-5g net carbs/tortilla depending on brand and type).
I love tacos and wraps and it’d be great to have a convenient way to make them, but I noticed that some of the brands used resistant wheat starch, which I’ve previously observed to have a substantial impact on my blood sugar (33% peak BG & 76% iAuC vs. the same amount of glucose).
To see if any of available low-carb tortillas would hold up, I decided to test them.
Design/Methods
Foods
I tested 6 low-carb tortillas from 3 different brands. Full nutrient and ingredient info here & at the bottom of the post.
Procedure
At 5:00a, I took 4.5u of Novolog (fast acting insulin, duration of 2-4h), then drank a Ketochow shake (website, BG testing) at 5:30a. After that, no food or calorie-containing drinks were consumed and no exercise was performed. Non-calorie-containing drinks were consumed as desired (water, caffeine-free tea, and decaffeinated coffee). At 11am-12 pm, the substance to be tested was eaten as rapidly as comfortable and notes on taste and texture were recorded (before observing any change in blood sugar).
Blood sugar was monitored for 5h using a Dexcom G6. Calibration was performed 15-30 min. before the start of each experiment.
Note: I take a long-acting basal insulin (Lantus, 2u at 9pm each evening).
Data Processing & Visualization. iAUC was calculated using the trapezoid method (see data spreadsheet for details). Data was visualized using Tableau.
Medication. During these experiments, I took long-acting basal insulin each evening at 9pm (Lantus, 2u) and 2000 mg of metformin and multivitamin each morning at 5am. I did not dose for the experimental food ingested.
Data
- Formatted raw data, peak blood glucose, iAuC, and time to peak data
- Summary data, ingredient details, and taste assessments
Results & Discussion
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| Figure 1. Left – Change in blood glucose vs. time. Right – Change in blood glucose per g(food) vs. time |
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Changes in blood glucose as a function of time are shown in Figure 1. The Mission and Nutri-Rica tortillas show a steep rise for the first 1-1.5h, similar to glucose, followed by a leveling off with a peak 2-3h after eating. This profile is similar to resistant wheat starch, their main ingredient (listed as “modified wheat starch”, but same thing). In contrast, the La Tortilla Factory tortillas show a slower rise and lower peak, consistent with their use of non-digestible oat fiber and cellulose fiber.
The difference between the brands can seen even more clearly by looking at the peak change and iAuC per gram, shown in Figure 2 and the blood glucose impact table. La Tortilla Factory tortillas have about half the effect of Mission and Nutri-Rica tortillas (~13 vs. 25% of glucose for peak BG/g & ~30 vs. 60% of glucose for iAuC).
Happily, I liked the taste of the La Tortilla Factory tortillas the best of all those I tested. The flour tastes like a real flour tortilla: chewy, not much flavor, and with a hint of sweetness. The wheat has a strong wheat taste and is slightly gritty, very similar to the taste of oat fiber (main ingredient). I really like the wheat taste by itself, but found it would overpower/obscure the taste of fillings when I used them in meals. The La Tortilla Factory tortillas are also the thinnest of those I tested, letting you put more filling in a taco or wrap.
The Mission tortillas were pretty good as well: thin, with decent texture, though not quite as good as La Tortilla Factory. The spinach and tomato basil were ok, but I prefer a neutral flavor so the tortilla pairs with any filling.
The Nutri-Rica tortillas had good flavor (flax seed), but were way to thick and chewy for me. I prefer a thinner & larger tortilla that can hold more filling.
Note: taste and texture observations were recorded when I ate the food. I.e. before I knew its impact on my blood sugar.
Thoughts & Next Experiments
I’m really happy with how this experiment turned out. It reinforces my previous observation that resistant wheat starch is not really low-carb and I need to avoid it. But, the La Tortilla Factory tortillas have low enough blood glucose impact that I’ve started using them with meals (will post some recipes soon).
I looked for other low-carb tortillas that don’t use resistant wheat starch, but except for La Tortilla Factory, they all are either too high carb or high calorie (e.g. using almond flour) and I’d rather leave room for more fillings.
Does anyone know any other good low-carb tortillas I should try?
As always, please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.
– QD
La Tortilla Factory – Flour
La Tortilla Factory – Wheat
Mission – Wheat
Mission – Spinach
Mission – Tomato
Nutri-Rica
Have you tried Mama Lupe? They’re my favorite for taste and texture, though they are a bit sweet and rather small. I especially like them for baked tortilla chips or peanut butter and sugar-free jelly rollups. They use oat fiber and wheat gluten, but also whole wheat flour and corn starch, so I’m curious how they’d stack up.
I haven’t. I’m really surprised they can get the carb count that low with wheat flour as the first ingredient. Must have a lot of the gluten and oat fiber to make that work. I’ll keep an eye out for them and test if I can find them.
Tumaros Carb-Wise Wraps. Although technically a wrap, they also work as tortillas. Appear to be very similar to LaTortilla.
Used for wraps as substitute for sandwiches, low carb with added benefit of replacing two slices of bread.
Thanks! Those look pretty good. I’ll keep and eye out for them to try.
Have you tried Ole Xtreme Wellness tortilla wraps? I’ve seen a couple of really positive tests but would appreciate your input. Also have you been able to test the Mr Tortilla? I saw one test where it spiked blood sugar and was not recommended.
Have you tested any homemade recipes? I have been making quinoa tortillas which are basically soaked quinoa and water blended into a batter and cooked in a pan with some olive oil or spray. I then freeze them. Their texture is more like a corn tortilla and they taste nutty like whole wheat. They are high in protein and fiber but I wonder how they compare the store bought low carb tortillas. Just curious if you ever had these
This is very helpful and informative. Thank you for all the work you put into conducting and sharing this experiment.
There’s a 0g net carb wrap by Mission, I’ve only seen them in the small taco size and they’re hard to find at Stop & Shop and expensive $6 for 14 tiny tacos.
They’re only 25 calories each, 7g carbs 7g fiber (0g net carbs). Unfortunately they too use modified wheat starch as its main ingredient. My blood sugar was 96 before I ate 400 calories of chicken wraps made with these 0g carb wraps from Mission, an hour later my blood sugar shot up to 131, and two hours later it was down to 107. I highly doubt it was caused by the chicken as it is canned and it claims to have 0g carbs so it must be the wraps.
It’s unfortunate because I like the taste it tastes like a regular flour tortilla but I can’t trust that it’s really 0g net carbs. There’s also flour flavor tortillas from Mission with the same great taste but they are 19g carbs 15g fiber so they are 4g carbs but you guessed it it uses modified wheat starch as one of its main ingredients so i’d probably get an even higher blood sugar spike from eating it.
Thank you so much for this useful study, and for your attention to data and details.
I’m type 2 diabetic, and have been enjoying La tortilla zero net carbs tortillas. However the package I bought this morning (3/17/24) now shows water and modified wheat starch as the first two ingredients. Have you tested this new formulation yet?