Taco Shell

Food · Grain · Food, Typed Supps

Corn tortilla plus deep frying — the frying is most of what shows up on the label.

Stage by stage

Intake (Chewing): Fried to low moisture, the shell shatters rather than bending; amylase begins on the starch.
Stomach (Starch and fat): Both the corn starch and the roughly 22g of absorbed frying oil are processed.
Small intestine (Fat absorption): Bile emulsifies the oil, and the vitamin E that came with it absorbs alongside.
Circulation (Energy handling): Glucose and fatty acids enter circulation; low protein means poor satiety per calorie.

Time to effect

1–3 hours: Glucose and fat from the meal are handled over the following one to three hours.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

91 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — low. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.

Environmental footprint

1.6 kg CO2e and 648 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Wheat & rye" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £2.5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Frying oil fat
Fibre
Vitamin E

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 466
Protein: 6.8g
Carbohydrate: 56.3g
of which sugars: 1.1g
Fat: 21.8g
of which saturated: 1.8g
Fibre: 7.3g
Sodium: 80mg

Food vs. supplement

Not a supplement food. The point worth knowing is nixtamalisation: lime-treated corn releases bound niacin and gains calcium, which untreated maize does not.

Kitchen tip

Brush soft corn tortillas with a little oil and bake them over a rack if you want the crunch — you decide how much oil goes in rather than inheriting the fryer's.

Common myth

"Hard corn shells are just crispy tortillas, so they're much the same thing." In reality: The crispness comes from deep-frying, and the shell keeps the oil. Per 100g a fried shell carries roughly three times the fat of a soft corn tortilla and close to double the energy.