The Store-Bought Wraps That Are One Of The Unhealthiest Options

Sandwiches might be the lunchtime staple that have been around for decades, but there are plenty of reasons to opt for turning that sandwich into a wrap — starting with the fact that you can keep a stock of store-bought wraps in your pantry and they'll stay fresh for much longer than that loaf of bread will. They're a lighter option that can be easier to eat, and you can add more fillings than you can with a sandwich. Making Buffalo chicken lettuce wraps for lunch? The more chicken, the better, right?

Wraps also have the reputation for being a healthier option than bread, but it turns out that's not always the case. Wraps can also be filled with things like preservatives and other artificial ingredients, and when Daily Meal took a look at some of the unhealthiest wraps on the market today, it was pretty eye-opening stuff. In addition to finding things like hydrogenated oils and a surprising amount of added sugars and preservatives, there's one brand that made it onto the list several times: Toufayan.

For starters, let's look at Toufayan's Hearth-Baked Garlic Pesto wraps. The nutritional information on this one includes multiple preservatives, four ingredients with sodium, and several sulfites. Sulfites are a commonly-used preservative but they can cause a severe reaction in some individuals, and although it mimics an allergy, it technically isn't. It commonly occurs in people with asthma, and anyone can develop a sulfite sensitivity at any time. Risks include gastrointestinal distress to anaphylactic shock, and there's other reasons you may want to steer clear of these wraps.

There's a few more things we can look at that stand out on the ingredient list of Toufayan's wraps, starting with sodium. General guidelines suggest we should be aiming for limiting sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams per day, with an ideal of 1,500 milligrams per day. "Low-sodium" foods mean they contain less than 140 milligrams per serving, and there are wraps with less than that. However, Toufayan Garlic Pesto wraps have 350 milligrams of sodium per wrap, which takes a big chunk out of your daily intake.

Toufayan Keto Wraps also made the list of unhealthiest wraps. They have 200 milligrams of sodium per wrap, as well as three phosphate additives: sodium aluminum phosphate, dicalcium phosphate, and monocalcium phosphate. So, what's the problem here?

While we need a certain amount of phosphorus, too much is a bad thing — and although healthy kidneys can filter and remove extra phosphorus, damaged kidneys don't. More than 35 million Americans have some kind of kidney disease, and about 90% of people with chronic kidney disease are undiagnosed. When kidneys can no longer extract extra phosphorus, it can lead to hyperphosphatemia, which can cause condition like brittle bones and nails, memory problems, seizures, and an abnormal heartbeat. Calcium is removed from bones and deposited elsewhere, which increases the likelihood of strokes and heart attacks. Fortunately, it's easy to make homemade tortillas, and that's a much better option than some of the store-bought alternatives.