A Shocking Ingredient Found In Tortillas

I recently read that cellulose is also used in packaged shredded cheese to keep it from clumping. I think I'll start shredding my own, thanks.

emmycooks

Thanks for the alternative suggestion. As always, thanks for the advice and keeping us healthy! :)

Katie @wishandwhimsy

I will note that if you don't try out the food or plan to, you can take a picture of it with your phone in the store. And I've never had an employee hassle me but you could just say you're picking something out for your partner or a friend you're about to go visit, and need the right brand or whatever. You do seem to talk a lot about buying things you'd rather not eat, so a $$ saving idea. :)

Kale Blossom (@kaleblossom)

I buy those carb balance tortillas a lot for me and my family. Good info - that may be a game changer for me! What I do like about them is that they are very pliable and stretchy and hold up very well to whatever you cram inside them. I tend to cram a LOT of food in one tortilla in attempts to keep veggies and protein high and carbs at a minimum! Whole wheat seem to fall apart and crack and break waaaay too easily! My recent new find, though, is Ezekiel bread tortillas. Who knew?? These bad boys are tough and sturdy and can hold on to anything. I have to warm them to get them pliable but it does the trick. They're very tasty. See if you can hunt some of those down! They're in the refrigerated section of my local Whole Foods with the eggs and such. The other tortillas next to them were also interesting to me and I'd love to hear your thoughts on them sometime.

Angie M.

Okay, so I went to my fridge to double-check the ingredients in my Whole Wheat Smart & Delicious Low-Carb High Fiber (7 grams) 2 Pts+ tortillas (available in most supermarkets). I always check ingredients before buying, so didn't expect anything too bad. Fiber is from oat fiber, don't see any cellulose: water, oat fiber, whole wheat flour, soy flour, expeller pressed canola oil, contains less than 2% of the following: baking powder, sea salt, guar gum, citric acid, yeast, xanthan gum, l-cysteine, to maintain freshness (sorbic acid, calcium propionate). Certainly not as good/simple as the Whole Foods ones, but at least no bad oil or wood pulp! I'm on Weight Watchers so looking for the lower points. I don't eat these often, so willing to accept having them 'less than perfect, but not too bad', as some tortillas are ridiculously high in calories (points)! Thank you as always for your work on our behalf :-)

JaneG

That's one of the things I really love about Whole Foods and Trader Joe's - I don't have to read ingredients in the same way I do at the conventional grocery store (in that I still read them, but I don't have to feel the same sense of foreboding). Now I want to check my Smart & Delicious tortillas though - they're high fiber, low calorie and carb...and I admit, I haven't really investigated them that carefully. You, Snack Girl? ;)

Marla

Hi. Thanks for posting. I recently read ingredients on my low fat Tortillas which really helped me lose a lot of weight. however, the more healthier I got the more I looked at ingredients and was not liking all the fake oils. So, you gave me the idea for the home made tortillas. I bought a press off of ebay and now I make my own corn tortillas. They are wonderful and so authentic. Note, they are quite small. They way the were originally. So thanks for your posting. Lara

Lara Gustafson

Is this the same stuff they add to other foods to bring up the fiber level? For example, Fiber One Honey Clusters. What is in that to bring up the fiber so high but leaves a strange aftertaste. I won't eat it because it seems to be "fake fiber". Heaven only knows what it really is.

Marcy K.

The sad thing is that cellulose isn't even the worst ingredient in those tortilla. There are at least 15 other unnatural products, but I'll pick on BHT. Here are some warning about BHT according to the Skin Deep website:

Do NOT let this chemical enter the environment.

Combustible.

Ingestion causes Abdominal pain. Confusion. Dizziness. Nausea. Vomiting.

The substance may have effects on the liver.

The substance is harmful to aquatic organisms.

Gotta read those labels!

Cristina @ An Organic Wife

I've sworn off store bought tortillas ever since making the ones from the recipe on this site. They are high in points (4), but I eat them so rarely that it doesn't bother me. I may be tempted to get the Whole Foods ones given that they seem to have the same ingredients in your recipe. The major brand ones will not enter my home though. Even if cellulose is a "natural" ingredient, it doesn't belong in tortillas.

Janet

"I get a lot of complaints - especially from Canadians when I mention them. Canadians always complain very nicely, though." Too cute! I had to send this to my Canadian friend whom we call "Curtis the friendly Canadian." ;-)

Great info. Wood pulp, huh?

Carrie @ Season It Already!

Does anybody know of a good, organic, whole wheat tortilla for those of us who aren't lucky enough to live near a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's? :( There's no Trader Joe's in my state, and the only Whole Foods is about 60 miles away - not feasible for weekly grocery trips. My only options are really Walmart, Homeland, and Crest :(

Whitney

to JaneG whole wheat smart and delicious- check out L-cysteine you will be amazed

Jayne

http://www.ehow.com/about_4680517_what-cellulose-powder.html has a good explanation of cellulose powder.

It adds insoluble (as opposed to soluble) fiber and that (according to http://www.webmd.com/diet/fiber-health-benefits-11/insolubl…) adds bulk to the diet, prevents constipation, and speeds up the passage of food/waste through the digestive system.

My hunch (and I think that the USRDA is sadly (but not surprisingly) silent about daily requirements for each type of fiber, only citing a combined daily amount, which some argue is far too low) is that we need a good daily mix of both types of fiber, both soluble (which slows down digestion and increases satiety) and insoluble.

My layperson understanding is that soluble fiber keeps stuff around for a while (presumably so that the body can extract nutrients during the process) and insoluble pushes stuff out (presumably once the body's grabbed the nutrients from the food). I don't think it's surprising that increasing one and not the other would potentially cause problems.

After watching the documentary "Hungry For Change", I've become even more wary of "isolates" of any kind. That is, "ingredients" that have been extracted from their original form, heavily processed (or, as one of the folks in the movie alluded to, "pharmaceuticalized"), and rendered into a result that's all but unrecognizable to the human body. (For example, if I eat an ear of corn, great. However, if I drink a soda with 11% of it being high fructose corn syrup (isolated from who knows how many ears of corn), that's probably not a wise choice.)

As Angie M. mentioned, glad we found Ezekiel's minimally-processed products.

Andy D

Thanks Lisa! I appreciate the review. I will add tortillas to my list of things to try buying at Whole Foods instead of Safeway. I ended up buying Chi-Chi's whole wheat, which doesn't have a clean ingredient list, but they're whole wheat and not stuffed with an unnatural amount of fiber.

Jen

Thanks for the information, as a Canadian I thank-you for the compliment about complaining nicely! It's a jealous thing - we wish we had access to those stores.

I would like to know more about what other ingredients I should avoid, like I do when buying organic produce and making sure I avoid the "dirty dozen".

Allison

Thanks for pointing this out...I will make sure that I avoid the Carb Balance product. While I don't know if wood pulp would cause any harm, obviously, it is just not something that I would normally eat...To be on the safe side I think I will avoid it.

Stan Starsky

While some L-cysteine is directly synthesized in laboratories, most of it is extracted from a cheap and abundant natural protein source: human hair. The hair is dissolved in acid and L-cysteine is isolated through a chemical process, then packaged and shipped off to commercial bread producers. Besides human hair, other sources of L-cysteine include chicken feathers, duck feathers, cow horns and petroleum byproducts.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-cysteine_commercial_bre…

Teresa

@Teresa -- thanks for the education! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww! :P

"The hair is dissolved in acid and L-cysteine is isolated through a chemical process, then packaged and shipped off to commercial bread producers."

I think I'll stick with my Ezekiel products:

Bread INGREDIENTS: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Malted Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Fresh Yeast, Organic Wheat Gluten, Sea Salt.

Tortilla INGREDIENTS: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Unhulled Sesame Seeds, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Sea Salt.

Andy D

I prefer the Trader Joe's and Whole Foods ones as well. And don't hesitate talking or reviewing those two brands--those are the two nearest grocery stores to my house!

Leah

Thanks for the info! Even tho those Whole Foods tortillas are great they have a home shelf life if maybe two days. So if you don't plan on using all if them when you buy them, expect them to mold within atleast a day or two. It was very disappointing. But expected because lack of preservatives.

Melanie

Oh my gosh, this is horrifying! The fewer ingredients, the better, in my opinion. I've sworn off of Mission and the like and buy raw tortillas from Costco- SO GOOD! Great post!

Chelsea

La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Low carb/high fiber Original Tortillas

Ingredients: water, oat fiber, whole wheat flour, soy flour, vital wheat gluten, expeller pressed canola oil, contains less than 2% of each of the following: baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), sea salt, guar gum, citric acid, yeast, xanthan gum, l-cysteine, to maintain freshness (sorbic acid, calcium propionate). and they taste good too.

Ofe

back in the early days of industrial United States: ingredients for hot dogs included sawdust! so eventually came about the Food & Drug Administration, but they don't seem to be able to do enough to keep companies careful & consumers safe. e-coli salad anyone?!

Kris

I have not been able to find any tortillas without soy. I would really appreciate any suggestions, as I am heavily sensitive to soy.

Kerrie

We love the "La Tortilla Factory" whole grain/brown rice tortillas! Pricey compared to Mission/other brands, but we can find them at our local grocery store and they taste great!

Lesa

Oh, Snack Girl! You got me reading the label of my formerly loved Flax and Fiber Sandwich Thins. They are like a thin slice of bread and 100 calories with lots of fiber. There are too many ingredients in those, too. Guess what one of them is? While I don't think it'll kill me, I didn't want it in there. I had one in the toaster and threw it out. I am sad now, but better off knowing!

A

Celluloase is from plants, which is as natural as it is coming from the hulls of grain or from any other source. It is non-digestible because it is an insoluble fiber, just like so many other foods contain naturally. And it is beneficial because it keeps you full longer and improves your digestive system's regularity. I try for more than 30g every day and have lost 70 pounds in 7 months because I have managed to get my fiber and control my net carbs. These new super high fiber foods are a god-send to people trying to manage their weight. All this ridiculous "but it's just saw dust" fear mongering is shameful, misguided and disingenuous.

Kim

Paranoia will destroy ya. Wood cellulose is as natural whole wheat flour - remember the wheat berry is extracted from the plant as the cellulose is. The carb balance (and carb smart) brand tortillas have been a godsend for someone like me who was recently diagnosed with diabetetes and had to drastically cut the sugars (carbs) in my diet. The fiber is high, but it has actually helped me lose weight as I control my blood sugar. Technology is mostly damaging to communal society, but in some cases it is helpful. If you wish to return to the "natural" diet of the nineteenth century, than be prepared to accept the death of your lived ones at nineteenth century levels - life expectancy 49. You too.

Wayne

Is there a HEALTHY, low carb tortilla, that is made with 100% NATURAL ingredients?

Karen Saylor

Powdered cellulose: is either wood pulp OR plant fibers - I don't think the organic ones are low carb and there for not healthy at all for a diabetic. They should limit carbs as much as possible. My husband eats the low carb tortiallas and has never had any issues with the amount of fiber - plus he has finally for the first time in his life been able to keep his blood sugar at a normal level - with out insulin !

So if you really really cant give up the bread (and who can) and you are watching carbs to lose weight to maintain blood sugar then the low carb tortillas are a blessing

Virginia Brocato

This is the same thing as the black bread of Auschwitz,they put sawdust in the dough to make it stretch further and therefore it blackened when baked!

Leatrice Virden

I appreciate your analysis but I believe you have missed a key metric: net carbs. If you on a low carb diet and trying to keep you net carbs under 10 to 15 grams in every meal, then Missions Barb Balance is a awesome solutions. Its not about adding fiber ... Its about avoiding digestible carbs.

Just some food for thought.

Rodney White

Just fyi if it hasn't been said, cellulose is described under a huge number of words. My daughter's and I are allergic to pine, guar gum is a cellulose made from pine 😅😭

MaryAnne

I think you are missing the entire point of LOW CARB. Its ... low carbs. All you did was say 'hey, get these instead. they have lots of carbs but its cleaner'. You realize that carbohydrates is what destroys the pancreas. Err ..no? But yeah excellent work.

Jackie

I eat the carb balance tortillas pretty often and I have no idea how you could possibly think they taste “chemically.” I’ve also tried the whole foods tortillas and they’re absolutely awful. If you have issues with ingredients, that’s fair. Don’t lie about taste though. You can’t convince me that you actually prefer the taste of those god awful whole foods tortillas.

Christopher

Omg I like the taste of the mission carb balance but wow do they make me bloat and really gassy :(

Sheila

I use
1 cup of sprouted whole wheat flour
1 cup cooked sweet potato
1 tsp salt
And herbs you might like

Makes a yummy lower calorie healthy tortilla!

Susan