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Food

Why a “Healthy” Wrap Can Be as Bad for You as Eating a Whole Pizza

Wraps are often promoted as a healthier alternative to sandwiches, but a new study of 240 different wraps in Ireland found that that's often not the case.

It's official. The vanguard of college coffee shop blandness that is the wrap just might have breathed its last breath.

The generically multicultural wrap has long been tolerated due to its supposed nutritional superiority to sandwiches, but all that is about to gloriously change, friends.

A survey recently conducted by food safety organization SafeFood has just found that some wraps can contain as many calories as a personal 12-inch pizza. That's right, sweet vindication. The survey—which looked at 240 takeout wraps from over 80 stores found throughout Ireland—revealed that many of the tested wraps contained up to 1,000 calories and were high in fat and salt.

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SafeFood is saying they decided to conduct the survey after previous research found that one in three people believe wraps to be a healthier choice than a sandwich, an oversimplified belief they took objection with. In fact, the average sandwich wrap itself contains about the caloric equivalent of two slices of bread.

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The three most popular fillings found in the survey happened to be chicken Caesar salad, chicken tikka, and chicken and salad (which I imagine to be a hell of a lot like the first option). Calories for the wraps with said fillings ranged from 267 and 977, with the total fat ranging between six grams and 59 grams.

Out of the 240 wraps looked at in the survey, the largest portion wrap was about two-and-a-half times the size of the smallest. Similarly, the chicken tikka wraps could wildly vary from 300 to 1,000 calories. The surveyors indicate that eating one of the larger chicken tikka wraps along with a soda and bag of chips was the equivalent of 60 percent of your recommended total daily caloric intake. We're pretty sure you probably wouldn't eat that on a diet anyways, but we'll cut them some slack for the effort.

SafeFood is using the survey as a warning and asking eaters to select smaller portions, leaner meats and fish, and less sauces when selecting a lunchtime wrap. We, on the other hand, think you probably deserve something a little bit better for yourself than that same miserable wrap.