Misson Carb Balance Tortilla calorie mystery

I'm back on the forum after a couple of years away (1/9/14 vsg) to consult with my fellow vsg-ers about the recent change to nutritional info for the Mission Carb Balance tortillas.

I noticed that sometime probably over the summer, the calorie counts were reduced dramatically. For example, the big whole wheat burrito size ones went from 210 to 110 for one tortilla! Crazy! Of course, I would love for the 110 number to be correct, but I have serious doubts. All the other nutritional info is almost identical.

My only guess so far is that they are subtracting the calories from the massive amount of insoluble fiber in these puppies, but that doesn't seem really legit. Web search has revealed nothing, so I may contact the company directly - it's really bugging me! This falls into the "probably too good to be true" category. :)

Thanks all - have a great day!

The two nutritional info labels I found show differences in the ingredients between the old 210 calorie label and the new 110 calorie label. But yes, the macros seem to be nearly identical, so the difference in calories seems weird. I'm guessing you're going to have to contact the company.

Thanks Cathy! I've contacted the company, so I'll post their reply if/when I hear back. :)

The company says it is due to a new FDA labeling regulation, which I think is a terribly vague answer. I poked around on the web and found a long document from the FDA, and I think it says that they can subtract all non-digestible carbs, not just insoluble fiber. It's a little fuzzy because it almost looks like it should be added back in another section, but that's what I'm going with for now.

It's a fallacy to assume the fiber in processed foods is non-digestible. It is. It's actually used as an artificial sweetener of sorts. It will spike blood sugar, and usually faster than white sugar. It absolutely adds calories.

Thanks for that info Grim! This would certainly explain why I'm easily addicted to these tortillas and have mostly cut them out cold-turkey. When I treat myself on the rare occasion, it's a very slippery slope.

I've been reading more of the FDA regulations to try to figure out how Mission can seriously cut 100 calories out with the new labeling rules, given that the calories are still lurking there as you said, but haven't found more answers quite yet (it's a looooong doc). I may give up on the sleuthing and just not eat them anymore - the ingredient list is actually pretty unappealing/scary. I've been trying to educate myself more about nutrition (ie various types of oils are my topic this week) - I thought I was fairly well educated about this and being pretty good with my choices, but this oils/fats research is fascinating and eye-opening, and a fiber/carbs deep dive is next.

Tapping into your expertise (I've seen your name highly esteemed in these parts for a long time! :)), if you have any reading/online recommendations, I'd love to hear them. After four years (since surgery), I've finally convincing my husband ("low-fat everything man") that saturated fat is not evil and too many carbs are, so we're both studying the studies about all this stuff to learn better eating habits. Sure wish I liked more veggies. :)