There are so many gluten-free tortilla options to choose from these days, but are gluten-free tortillas healthy?
Gluten-free tortillas aren’t too high in calories or carbs, and are more nutritious per serving than other foods like gluten-free bread. Overall healthiness of gluten-free tortillas depends on the type of flour used and the number of tortillas eaten.
Gluten-free tortillas can be made with anything from almond flour to sweat potato flour.
Gluten-Free Tortillas – How Healthy are They Really?
Gluten-free tortillas can be appealing because they’re flatter than bread and therfore can seem like a much healthier option. Also, tortilla wraps are frequently viewed as a healthy meal option, and you don’t generally hear people speaking about how unhealthy tortillas are.
And let’s not forget tacos and burritos, you can’t make those with gluten-free bread (and I feel sorry for you if you’ve ever had to try)
Let’s take a look at how gluten-free flour tortillas stack up with their nutrient facts compared to gluten-free bread as a reference.
| Nutrient Facts | Gluten-free Flour Tortillas – Averages | Corn Tortillas | Gluten-Free Bread – Averages |
| Serving size | 50g – 1 or 2 tortillas | 47g – 2 tortillas | 50g – 1.5 slices |
| Calories | 134 | 100 | 128 |
| Total Fat | 5g – 8% | 1g – 2% | 2.1g – 3% |
| Cholesterol | 0mg | 0mg | 4.67mg – 2% |
| Sodium | 226mg – 9% | 20mg – 1% | 203.7mg – 8% |
| Carbohydrates | 21g – 7% | 21g – 7% | 26.6g – 9% |
| Dietary Fiber | 3g – 12% | 2g – 8% | 2.6g – 10% |
| Sugar | 0g | 2g | 3g |
| Protein | 2g | 2g | 0.5g |
| Calcium | 40mg | 20mg | 10.8mg |
| Iron | 0mg | 0.3mg | 0.5mg |
| Potassium | 117mg | 80mg | 0mg |
The nutrient facts for gluten-free flour tortillas varied somewhat by type of flour used, which isn’t visible above as this table is comparing averages. One quick thing to note is that the 2 gluten-free tortillas made from almond flour had a much higher fat content than the rest of the gluten-free tortillas. If we remove them from the average, fat content drops to about 3.5g verses the 5g shown in the table.
Gluten-free tortillas do not have astronomically high amounts of calories, fat, and sodium, but they also doesn’t have the lowest amounts either. When comparing the nutrient facts per serving of gluten-free flour tortillas to corn tortillas, gluten-free tortillas are not the healthier choice. Corn tortillas are gluten-free, we’re just distinguishing between them here because they are generally referred to separately.
Corn tortillas are usually smaller in diameter than gluten-free flour tortillas, which means some people are more likely to eat more of them than gluten-free flour tortillas. But, even if you double the amount of corn tortillas and eat 4, you’ll still consume less calories, fat, and sodium than if you ate 2 gluten-free flour tortillas.
The nutrients found in gluten-free bread are more similar to gluten-free flour tortillas than corn tortillas, so gluten-free tortillas being flatter than bread doesn’t mean you can eat more of them and be healthier than if you were eating gluten-free bread. Gluten-free bread nutrients vary by brand, so health benefits gained by eating bread or tortillas varies by brand.
Serving size and the number of tortillas consumed is another important fact in considering their healthiness. Just by eating one extra gluten-free flour tortilla (total of 2), you’re eating on average 264 calories, 7 – 10 g of fat, and 450 mg of salt. To achieve the healthiest balance of gluten-free tortilla consumption, you’ll want to not consume too many more tortillas than the serving size.
Are Gluten-Free Tortillas Healthier than Wheat Flour Tortillas?
Gluten-free tortillas are not significantly healthier than wheat flour tortillas when comparing calories, fat, sodium and carbohydrate content. Corn tortillas are healthier than both wheat flour and gluten-free flour tortillas.
| Nutrient Facts | Gluten-Free Flour Tortilla – Average | Wheat Flour Tortilla – Average | Corn Tortilla |
| Serving size | 50g – 1 or 2 tortillas | 50g – 1 tortilla | 47g – 2 tortillas |
| Calories | 134 | 132 | 100 |
| total fat | 5g – 8% | 2.4g – 4% | 1g – 2% |
| Sodium | 226mg – 9% | 286g – 12% | 20mg – 1% |
| Carbohydrates | 21g – 7% | 23g – 8% | 21g – 7% |
| Dietary Fiber | 3g – 12% | 2.4g – 10% | 2g – 8% |
| Sugar | 0g | 0.9g | 2g |
| Protein | 2g | 4.2g | 2g |
| Calcium | 40mg | 66mg | 20mg |
| Iron | 0mg | 1.1mg | 0.3mg |
While the nutrients for wheat flour tortillas vary by brand, on average wheat tortillas are comparable to gluten-free flour tortillas in nutrients.
If you were to compare wheat flour tortillas to gluten-free tortillas made with almond flour, wheat flour tortillas would be healthier as almond flour tortillas had and average of 170 calories and 11 grams of fat per 50g serving verses wheat flour tortillas’ 130 calories and 2.4g of fat per 50g serving.
In general, gluten-free tortillas and other gluten-free foods are not inherently more healthy because they are gluten-free. In many cases gluten-free foods are less healthy for you because they have more processed starches, carbs and sugars.
Here is the list of gluten-free tortillas that were compared for this article:
- Siete Almond Flour Grain Free Tortillas
- Siete Cassava Flour Grain Free Tortillas
- Siete Cassava & Chia Grain Free Flour Tortillas
- Siete Chickpea Grain Free Flour Tortillas
- Mikey’s Grain-free cassava flour tortillas
- Mission Gluten-free original tortillas
- Whole-Foods 365 Everyday Value Almond Flour Tortillas
- BFree Gluten-Free Wrap Tortillas
- Maria & Ricardos Quinoa Flour Tortillas
And here’s the wheat flour tortillas that were compared:
- Guerrero Riquisimas Soft Taco Flour Tortillas
- Whole Foods Market Organic Flour tortillas
- Mission Soft Taco Flour tortilla
- Whole Foods Market Organic Whole Wheat Tortillas
- Mission Soft Taco Whole Wheat Tortilla
Which Gluten-Free Tortillas are the Healthiest?
Corn tortillas are the healthiest type of gluten-free tortillas as they have the lowest calorie, fat and sodium content. Mikey’s Grain-Free Cassava Flour tortillas are also a healthy option with a low calorie and sodium content, while fat content was average compared to other tortillas.
Here’s a comparison of corn tortillas to Mikey’s Grain-Free Cassava Flour tortillas (see tables above for average gluten-free flour tortilla nutrients.)
| Nutrient Facts | Corn Tortillas | Mikey’s Grain-Free Cassava Flour Tortillas |
| Serving size | 47g – 2 tortillas | 50g – 2 tortillas |
| Calories | 100 | 120 |
| total fat | 1g – 2% | 3g – 5% |
| Sodium | 20mg – 1% | 50mg – 2% |
| Carbohydrates | 21 – 7% | 21 – 7% |
| Dietary Fiber | 2g – 8% | 3g – 12% |
| Sugar | 2g | 1g |
| Protein | 2g | 1g |
| Calcium | 20mg | 20mg |
| Iron | 0.3mg | 1.9mg |
| Potassium | 80mg | 141mg |
Gluten-free tortillas made from almond flour are high in calories and fat content compared to other gluten-free tortillas, but they were also higher in protein, calcium, and potassium than other tortillas.
Mission Gluten-Free Original Tortillas have the highest calcium content of all the tortillas we compared, but they also have the highest carbohydrate and sodium content per serving. (420mg of Sodium per serving! 33% more sodium than the next highest sodium content)
