Fast Food Restaurants: Taco Bell Nutrition

 

Taco Bell is a fast food restaurant specializing in Mexican food. The chain was founded in 1962 and is based in Irvine, California. Taco Bell brags that it switched to frying oil that has zero trans fat. Does this make the food healthy? Let’s take a look.

Lowest Calories – Fresco Crunchy Taco 150

Highest Calories – Volcano Nachos 980

Lowest Fat – Fresco Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco 4g

Highest Fat – Volcano Nachos 61g

Lowest Sodium - Fresco Crunchy Taco 350mg

Highest Sodium – Grilled Stuft Burrito Chicken 2010mg

Lowest Cholesterol - Fresco Bean Burrito 0mg

Highest Cholesterol – Grilled Stuft Burrito Chicken Enchilada 85mg

The Fresco items are the lowest in every category. The Fresco Crunchy Taco is impressive in calories and sodium. At the other end of the spectrum is the Volcano Nachos. The nutrition facts on this item are frightening. They have almost 50% of a day’s calories and nearly 90% of a day’s fat intake.

Burritos

Avg serving size -250.4g

Avg calories – 499.4

Avg fat – 19.3g

Avg sodium – 1431mg

Examining all the burritos at Taco Bell brings up some interesting numbers. They are high in every category, but the sodium numbers really stand out. The average burrito contains almost 2/3 of the recommended daily intake of sodium.

Chalupas

Avg serving size – 164.3g

Avg calories – 393

Avg fat – 22.7g

Avg sodium – 749mg

The Chalupas are low in sodium but are quite high in fat. Even though the average chalupa is larger than a burrito, it contains 15% more fat.

Gorditas

Avg serving size – 155.1g

Avg calories – 313

Avg fat -14.5g

Avg sodium – 696mg

The gorditas rank in the middle in the food categories. Their sodium level is fairly good compared to the other foods at Taco Bell.

Nachos

Avg serving size – 193.7g

Avg calories – 525

Avg fat – 30.5g

Avg sodium – 922mg

The nachos rank very poorly in two categories. Their calories to serving size ratio is the worst of all the food categories and the fat level is very high for products that are under 200g.

Salads

Avg serving size – 437.5g

Avg calories – 810

Avg fat – 46.8g

Avg sodium – 1550mg

Salads are normally thought to be healthy but the ones at Taco Bell definitely do not fall under anyone’s definition of healthy. Even though the size of the salads average over 400 grams, they are high in all three categories. The dressing is definitely the culprit here as the fat content is higher than any other category.

Tacos

Avg serving size – 121.1g

Avg calories – 241.8

Avg fat – 11.5g

Avg sodium – 558mg

At first glance, the tacos seem to be the healthiest choice. However, on closer inspection the tacos are not so good. The fat content is fairly low, but if you check the size-to-calorie ration you will see that they are no better than the other categories. Taco Bell is not the worst fast food restaurant in terms of nutrition data, but they have some items that should be avoided.

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