You know what I like best about real mexican restaurants? I love those warm, fluffy, hand rolled, love soaked tortillas. Mmm. I could eat a whole batch with a little melted butter and honey.

But I have bad news for you. If you love those little white disks of happiness, stop reading right now. I’m serious. Look away. You have been warned.

Tortillas are made from two basic ingredients: Bleached white flour and lard. That’s right, those yummy little flat breads are 100% fat and carbs. As far as your digestive system is concerned, you might as well, eat a big spoon full of Crisco with sugar on top.

I *LUVS* me some taco bell. I could have a 7-layer burrito and a bean burrito for dinner every day for the rest of my life and I’d die happy. I’d die at 38 years old and 800 pounds, but happy.

Using my handy-dandy WW Points calculator, I discovered that the meal above weighs in at 17.5 points (out of my daily allowance of 37*). Here’s the total, using my previous nutritional notation.

27 grams of fat:

9 grams of sugar (But more importantly, 119 grams of carbohydrates. Remember, you body treats bleached white flour much the same way it treats sugar.):

2540 milligrams of sodium:

And my new measurement, 17.5 WW Points:

Taco Bell has an awesome nutritional calculator (as do all the Yum brand stores). On their calculator, you can add extra or completely remove any of the ingredients in an item. That means that, yes Virginia, you can have a burrito without the tortilla.

I had to give it a shot. Today at lunch I ordered a 7-layer and a bean burrito sans tortilla. The staff was confused, but the manager assured them it was possible. Visualize a short, hispanic woman looking at you with furrowed brow like your just asked her to make a taco with extra crazy on top. “¿Menos tortiyya? ¿¡Por que!?”

Here’s what I got.

And it was delicious!! Even better check out these numbers with the lard pie removed.

17 grams of fat:

4 grams of sugar (And only 49 grams of carbohydrates, down from 119.):

1410 milligrams of sodium:

And only 8 WW Points:

Every value virtually cut in half! That’s SO AWESOME! The tortilla doesn’t add anything to the flavor and really offers nothing more than a handy carrying case, but doubles the gut busting anti-nutrition. From now on I’m a burrito bowl boy, baby!