In many Mexican and Central American homes, tortillas are on the table at almost every meal. They hold the beans, the eggs, the meat and the salsa. So when someone in the family is told they have diabetes, a common worry is whether the tortillas have to go.

Tortillas are mostly carbohydrate, so they matter for blood glucose. But as with rice or bread, the question is usually how many, how big, and which kind. This article goes through what is known, and where the evidence is thin.

Corn and flour, side by side

Here is a corn tortilla and a flour tortilla, each at one medium tortilla as USDA FoodData Central measures it:

The medium flour tortilla shows clearly more carbohydrate than the medium corn one. Most of that gap is size: in USDA's records a medium flour tortilla weighs much more than a medium corn tortilla. Gram for gram the two are much closer, with corn a little lower.

Open each food page to see the fiber. Weight for weight, the corn tortilla has more fiber than the flour one.

Size matters as much as type

Tortillas come in many sizes, from small corn tortillas for street tacos to large flour tortillas for burritos. On each food page you can choose small, medium, large or extra large, or enter grams or ounces. A large burrito tortilla shows several times the carbohydrate of a small taco tortilla.

So the number of tortillas, and their size, often makes more difference than whether they are corn or flour. Counting how many you usually eat at a meal, and checking the size on the package, can be an eye-opener.

If you buy packaged tortillas, the Nutrition Facts label gives the carbohydrate per serving, and a serving may be one tortilla or two. Our article on reading nutrition labels for carbs explains how to read it.

Tortillas in other forms

Tortillas also turn up fried, as tostadas, taco shells and chips, and inside dishes such as enchiladas, chilaquiles and burritos. Each of those has its own food page here, because frying, fillings and sauces change the figures.

With dishes, the tortilla is only part of the carbohydrate. Rice, beans, sauces and a drink on the side all add to the meal. Looking up the dish as you eat it, rather than the tortilla alone, gives a fuller picture.

Whole wheat tortillas

Here is a whole wheat tortilla, also at one medium:

Compared with the flour tortilla above, at the same size it shows a little less carbohydrate and much more fiber; open the page to see the fiber line.

The American Diabetes Association's Standards of Care suggest choosing "whole-grain versions of commonly consumed foods", where that fits a person's culture, and give whole-wheat breads and pastas and brown rice as examples. They add that "when not culturally appropriate", the focus can move to portion control. Families who prefer the tortillas they grew up with can work on the number and size instead.

What research says about tortillas and blood glucose

There is very little research on tortillas and diabetes. The one human study we found that compared corn and flour tortillas directly is small and old:

  • Noriega and colleagues (2000) measured blood glucose after several Mexican foods in 8 healthy adults. In their study, corn tortillas raised blood glucose more than wheat tortillas, relative to white bread. Tacos made with beans raised it less than the tortillas alone, and a potato taco raised it most.

That result runs against what many people expect. But it came from eight people without diabetes, testing one kind of each tortilla, more than twenty years ago. Tortillas differ a great deal in how they are made. The authors themselves called for studies in people with diabetes. So the question of whether corn or flour tortillas affect blood glucose differently is not settled.

The finding about beans fits a wider pattern. NIDDK's plate method lists beans among the high-fiber carbohydrate foods, and our article on beans and lentils looks at them more closely. Beans carry carbohydrate too, so they count toward the meal.

Putting a tortilla meal together

NIDDK's plate method gives one simple way to look at a meal: half the plate non-starchy vegetables, a quarter protein, and a quarter carbohydrate foods. On a tortilla plate, the tortillas, rice and beans all sit in that last quarter. Some people fill more of the plate with salad or grilled vegetables, and eat fewer tortillas.

Whether any change suits you depends on your tastes, your family's meals and your care team's advice. If you take insulin or a medicine that can cause low blood glucose, eating fewer or smaller tortillas changes the carbohydrate in the meal, and that can change how much medicine you need. Talk to your diabetes team before a big change.

The Today page adds up what you log, so you can see what your usual tortillas add to the day. For how grams turn into carb choices, see What is a carb choice?. Other staples are covered in rice and diabetes and bread and diabetes.

Your numbers are yours

How many tortillas fit in a meal depends on your medicines, your glucose goals and your body. Your doctor, diabetes educator or dietitian sets those numbers, and their advice comes before anything you read here. If tortillas are part of every meal at home, tell them. A good plan works with the food your family eats, not against it.

Sources

  • Noriega E, Rivera L, Peralta E. Glycaemic and insulinaemic indices of Mexican foods high in complex carbohydrates. Diabetes, Nutrition & Metabolism, 2000; 13(1): 13–19. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10824718 (checked 8 October 2026)
  • American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee. 5. Facilitating Positive Health Behaviors and Well-being to Improve Health Outcomes: Standards of Care in Diabetes—2026. Diabetes Care, 2026; 49(Suppl 1): S89–S131 (recommendation 5.24 and Table 5.2). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12690188 (checked 8 October 2026)
  • NIDDK. Healthy Living with Diabetes (last reviewed October 2023). niddk.nih.gov (checked 8 October 2026)
  • USDA FoodData Central: Tortilla, corn (FNDDS 2707823); Tortilla, flour (FNDDS 2707824); Tortilla, whole wheat (FNDDS 2707825). fdc.nal.usda.gov (checked 8 October 2026)
  • Food figures on this page: USDA FoodData Central, via the DiabeticIndex food database.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Talk to your diabetes care team before changing how you eat or how you take your medicines.