Wraps are so versatile, quick and easy to make a meal out of. They’re thin and light and when stuffed full of meat and healthy salad or vegetables seem like a healthy choice. It’s no wonder the question is often asked, are wraps keto friendly?
You might be thinking, “aren’t wraps just flour tortillas?” But commercially manufactured low carb wraps are different than homemade wraps. They’re often made with things like soy protein isolate or peanut flour which can result in some pretty high levels of carbs and calories.
Wraps come in so many different varieties. I’ll start by talking about the most common wraps, why you shouldn’t eat them on keto, and give you some alternative choices to keep you in ketosis.
Can You Eat Flour Tortillas on Keto?
You can’t eat flour tortillas, or corn tortillas (which are made of corn) and still be keto. When you are just starting out with the ketogenic diet, cutting out bread products like wraps, can seem difficult.
Whilst you might be tempted to just have one small flour tortilla, don’t. Flour tortillas and corn tortillas are not suitable on the keto diet, with approximately 11 grams of carbs in each.
Commercially manufactured low carb wraps can range from 3-11 grams of carbs in one wrap. You can quickly eat your way out of ketosis with those on the higher end of the scale.
But don’t worry! There are low carb alternatives that will help keep your bread cravings at bay.
Are Corn Tortillas Low Carb?
According to the USDA, one corn tortilla has 11 grams of total carbohydrates and 1.5 grams of dietary fiber. This makes the net carbohydrates 9.5 grams. This is higher than what would typically be considered a low carb food.
To remain in ketosis your ideal net carb count is 20 grams per day. Whilst you could eat one or two corn tortillas and remain under this (minus the fillings), you would need to make sure you ate zero carb foods only for the remainder of the day.
My recommendation would be to chose a different low carb tortilla or make your own.
Are Low Carb Tortillas Healthy?
Looking at the ingredients lists for low carb wraps, they seem to still be a wheat based wrap. This makes them unsuitable for anyone who follows a gluten free diet or preffers to restrict gluten from their diet.
What makes the wraps low carb, is the inclusion of insoluble fiber. I have to question how your body would react to the carbs in the wheat based flours?
Personally, I would prefer to make my low carb tortillas using keto friendly flours such as flax flour, coconut flour and almond flour. Surely this would a much better choice.
If you cannot make your own, take a good look at the ingredients list and make sure they are suitable for keto. A good example is the Tumaro’s low carb tortillas vs the Mission low carb spinach tortillas with 4 types of wheat as the main ingredients.
Are Spinach Wraps keto approved?
Spinach wraps, from the outside, look like a keto friendly option. For instance, I took a look at Mission Carb Balance Spinach Herb Tortilla Wraps, which are promoted as having 3 grams of net carbs per serve.
Whilst this is true, they do have 3 grams of net carbs, the bulk of the ingredients are modified wheat starch, whole wheat flour, wheat gluten, vegetable shortening (soybean oils) and wheat gluten isolate. Yikes! That sounds like a lot of wheat to me!
Eating a commercially prepared spinach wrap at 3 grams of net carbs may not put you out of ketosis, but you do need to be mindful of what ingredients they contain. Some might cause problems for those with irritable bowel syndrome, gluten intolerance and other food intolerances.
Looking further at the ingredients, the wraps contain less than 2% spinach powder, salt, onion powder, spices, garlic powder etc.
Now, I’m not a food scientist, but to me it looks like a whole lot of unhealthy wheat products counteracted with a bunch of fiber to make the wrap 3 grams of net carbs. Would I buy these and eat them on keto? Probably not.
Are Flat Out Wraps Keto?
Flat out wraps make a lower carb option called the “carb down” range. I took a look at both the olive oil and sea salt carb down wraps and the 5 grain flax wraps.
Olive Oil Sea Salt had the lower of the net carbs out of the two, at 7 grams per wrap. The 5 grain flax had 8 grams of net carbs in each wrap.
If you’re busy and don’t have time to make your own keto wraps, could you buy these instead? Yes, you could. At 7 and 8 grams of carbs in each serving, they are fairly high on the carb count. Especially when you consider my recipe for flaxseed wraps has less than half a gram of carbohydrates per serving.
Here are some of the ingredients in these low carb tortillas:
- Whole wheat flour
- Vital wheat gluten
- Grain blend (cut wheat, wheat barn, cut rye, corn meal, barley grits, bulgar wheat, steel cut oats, oat flakes, yellow corn grits, barley flakes, rye chops, hulled millet and wheat flakes)
- Flaxseed meal
- Fiber is oat fiber
Oat fiber is keto friendly. As an insoluble fiber, it has zero net carbs. Oat fiber is also fantastic for low carb wraps as it has a very fine texture and mild taste. It adds the same amount of fiber as if you had used whole wheat flour.
Are Subway Spinach Wraps Keto?
The spinach wrap has 48 grams of total carbs and 2 grams of dietary fiber, making the net carbs 46 grams per wrap.
Given the Subway nutrition chart states a 6 inch italian white bread has 34 grams of total carbs you may as well just eat the sandwich, rather than thinking you’re being healthier with a spinach wrap. Either way, you’ve well and truly blown your carb count!
If you are going to order from Subway, get the meat and salad with no bread products. Avoid the high carb meatballs (11 grams net carbs) and chicken fingers (14 grams net carbs).
Are Tumaro’s Wraps Keto Approved?
Tumaro’s are one of the better low carb wraps, in my opinion. Their 8 inch low carb multigrain wrap has 3 grams of carbs (net). The ingredients list seems far more simple than other low carb tortillas. They are also made with keto friendly oat fiber.
Mama Lupe Low Carb Tortillas
Mama Lupe are a popular choice for keto wraps, with 3 grams of net carbs per tortilla. Their primary base is wheat products and keto friendly oat fiber and they do contain both soy oil and soy flour.
If you are okay with gluten and soy you can find them here:
Mr Tortilla Low Carb Tortillas
These are a hugely popular tortilla for the keto diet as they are oat fiber based, making them just 1 gram of net carbs per tortilla.
I was almost going to say per serving there, but you won’t eat just one! They are small – which is hard to judge when you see a packet on the internet, but know ahead that Mr Tortila low carb keto wraps are street taco sized, measuring approximately 4.5 inches in diameter.
Having said that, they taste good, are convenient and freeze well. Check them out here:
La Banderita Carb Counter Low Carb Tortillas
Another incredibly popular low carb tortilla is La Banderita. At 4 grams of net carbohydrates per tortilla these have the closest look, feel and taste to a flour tortilla out of any store bought keto wraps I have tried.
They’re well priced too and a worthwhile buy if you are after a soft, low carb keto tortilla that looks and tastes like the real thing.
Conclusion
Do you have to avoid wraps on keto? No, but the carbs in traditional wraps and tortillas are not suitable for your diet if you want to stay in ketosis (burning fat). It is essential that you read labels and calculate how many grams of net carbohydrates there are per wrap before you buy.
I’ve covered the most popular low carb wraps in this post, which are easy and convenient. I also highly recommend making your own keto wraps. Check out my tortilla recipe here (which uses brown flaxseed meal), or the golden flaxseed tortilla recipe.