Unhealthiest Breakfast Burritos You Can Buy

Who doesn't love the idea of getting everything you need for breakfast wrapped up in a hand-held capsule that also tastes like a delicious hug for your stomach? The breakfast burrito may hold a special place in your heart and your dining habits, but one false move in the freezer aisle and you could be staring at a dietary crime you had no intention of committing. Even if you're flying blind on a shopping jag where breakfast needs to be easy and readily available, your body may not forgive you for making such a rookie move when it comes to consuming fuel while minimizing the potential physical fallout.

How could eggs, cheese, and meat embraced by a simple tortilla cause so much nutritional chaos? Blame it on the fat, cholesterol, and sodium inherent in the recipes used by some of the best-known fast food breakfast burritos on the block. We've compiled a non-shopping list of the unhealthiest wraps around to make steering clear an easy endeavor. Apologies in advance if you find your favorites listed here; it's always better to be informed than to turn a blind eye to the nutritional compromises your early morning eating may present.

Just reading the name of El Monterey Egg, Sausage, Cheese, & Potato breakfast burrito is enough to stir the soul. The label may cry out "10 grams of protein!" to entice you with a claim of healthful happiness behind the wrapper. But flip the package and read the nutrition facts and you'll discover that a dime of protein can't compensate for the heavy-handed inclusion of other unwanted components.

Let's start with the fact that there's sugar among the tortilla, sausage, and cheese sauce ingredients, a disappointment that might be forgivable on its own. There's also "process cheddar cheese product" and eggs that use butter flavoring instead of actual butter, neither of which sing healthful good tidings. And when we gaze upon the nutritional breakdown, we find one 290 calorie breakfast burrito carries 13 total fat grams, 4 of which are saturated and both of which represent a full 20% of what you should be eating all day. The cholesterol in that equation pops in at 70 milligrams, or 23% of your daily intake. Pile on the 550 milligrams of sodium, also at 23% of your daily allotment, and you're looking at a concentration of substances that could easily be minimized with a homemade burrito instead.

Aside from being a country singer and T.V. show host from the mid-20th century, Jimmy Dean also became one of the most recognizable names in the breakfast meat game, shilling sausage for more than 50 years. So, when the company decides to add a breakfast burrito to its suite of offerings, you can bet your bottom patty there'll be a preponderance of hearty meat included in the formula. Which is where we find Jimmy Dean Meat Lover's breakfast burrito, where meat isn't simply an ingredient meant to contribute taste and texture; it's a featured player as important as the eggs and cheese but with top billing. Talk about a dining diva.

Just one of these tasty twists takes up 340 calories, carrying 19 grams of fat into your circulatory system, seven of which are saturated. The math on comes out to 24% of your total fat and a logic-blitzing 35% of your advised saturated fat intake. But wait ... there's more! Meat and dairy ingredients almost always mean cholesterol is on the scene, too, a sizzling 95 milligrams and 32% of your one-day capacity. And don't forget the sodium, 920 milligrams representing 40% for a whole day's eating. If that's not enough to make you choke after the first bite, reading the volume of processed ingredients that include mechanically separate chicken and lipolyzed butter fat just might.

Of course, Walmart is going to elbow its way into the breakfast burrito ballpark with a Great Value version of an original that works wonders for other food producers. To keep it cost-effective, there'll be something of a compromise in the ingredient quality. That compromise will result in reduced nutritional value. Even if affordability puts the Great Value Egg, Sausage, Cheese, & Potato at the top of your shopping list, it's bound to linger near the bottom of your dietary wish list once you read the rundown waiting around the back of the packaging.

For a handheld food that claims to consist of four ingredients (five, if you include the tortilla), there sure is a litany of components listed on the back. Even the potatoes have seven different ingredients. At least you can spot actual cheese and cheese elements among the alphabetic snarl. But the real nitty-gritty is in the nutritional facts, where a 290-calorie burrito piles on 12 grams (or 15%) of your daily total fat intake, 4 grams (or 20%) of your saturated fat allowance, 55 milligrams (or 18%) of your cholesterol allotment, and 460 milligrams (or 20%) of your sodium quota for the day. All that in a burrito that weighs under 4 ounces? Um, no.

Wasn't ground turkey supposed to offer a healthy alternative to more prevalent options in a sector dominated by beef and chicken? With high protein content and slightly less fat that chicken, it was a solution that came with a more gamey flavor for lovers of rustic fare that kept nutrition in check. But Red's Turkey Sausage breakfast burrito seems to blow the treasures of turkey out of the air with a less mindful creation that adds back the rough stuff in favor of flavor.

What's so unfavorable about a breakfast burrito trying to talk turkey to breakfast lovers? For starters, the 340 calories are a considerable count for a 5-ounce burrito. The 14 total grams of fat take up 18% of a day's worth, bringing 5 grams and 25% of saturated fat as part of the deal. There are also 95 milligrams of cholesterol absorbing 32% of your one-day ration, and 580 milligrams of sodium accounting for 25% of your provision for that highly consequential mineral. It's a lot of non-nutritional nonsense to fold into a burrito, though the ingredients appear largely whole-food based. But a little less salt and fat would go a long way toward proving that this burrito isn't a total turkey.

Like ordering up a classic sunrise platter at your favorite diner, a Jimmy Dean Sausage breakfast burrito piles on the comfort food, bound in a tortilla that lets you take your old-fashioned order on the road. Sausage may be the headline, but the fine print reveals egg and cheese as part of the line-up, too. It's a vintage combination that gets all the country goodness of breakfast huddled up to help you get revving and roaring down the road.

Maybe you should put something cleaner in your tank, however. One of these bad boys puts 330 calories on your daily tally, with 19 grams of fat, seven of which are saturated, adding to the balance. Working the percentages, that's 24% of your total fat intake and 35% of your saturated fat intake, which eats right into the rest of your eating for lunch, dinner, and snacks. And 100 milligrams of cholesterol — 33% of your daily allowance — and 880 milligrams of sodium — 38% of what you should be eating — fill out the rest of the bill. The total of what you get in a single burrito is more nutritional liability than you're probably willing to take on. And that's not to mention the processed goods that gum up the works even more. Thanks, Jimmy, but we'll take a pass.

There's no question that Home Chef Egg & Cheese is a breakfast burrito that sounds like something you could easily throw together yourself, if you were so inclined and had space on your schedule. But why bother buying eggs, cheese, and tortillas when you can cruise through the frozen breakfast space at your favorite shop and toss a few premade burritos in your cart? Imagine the time and trouble you'll save having this hearty wrap at the ready ... then take a breath and imagine the compromised nutrition you'll be engaging in by not making a better choice.

Glance at the back panel and your eye will undoubtedly pick up on the prevalence of hard-to-pronounce add-ins included in the formula — all undoubtedly food-safe, but also all shortcuts that take you further from wholesome nutrition in a creation that's at its best when at its most basic. Those additives plus the actual food components create a 280-calorie breakfast burrito with 13 grams of fat, or 17% of your daily dole-out, five of which are saturated for 25% of what you should have from sun-up to sundown. The 135 milligrams of cholesterol are an exasperating 45% of your whole-day dealings, and the 480 milligrams of sodium take up 21% of your salt consumption. And this is considered a premium option, which just goes to show you that premium means "comes at a price," in no uncertain terms.

If only José Olé Egg and Sausage breakfast burrito could keep the simplicity of egg and cheese in its crosshairs, maybe customers would have a chance at stocking their freezers with burritos that are worth the money. Even if you recognize the packaging and consider these wraps easy eating for rough mornings, the nutrient break down is an actual break down that could get your day off to a tasty beginning but leave you in worse shape than you started out in.

Do your scrambled eggs include xanthan gum to thicken them up? José Olé's do. Do you choose cheddar cheese as a filling in your breakfast burritos? José Olé uses processed American cheese. These are choices you wouldn't necessarily make in a home-cooked product, José Olé lets it slide. All ingredients considered the net result is a 240 calorie breakfast bite with 10 grams of fat, or 15.38% of your day's allowance, 3.5 of which are saturated, which is 17.5% of your one-day intake. The 80 milligrams of cholesterol takes up 26.67% of your recommended consumption, while the 650 milligrams of sodium chews off 27.08% of your whole-day total. Does all of that sound like it deserves an "olé"? Nay, we say.

It may be subliminal advertising or just an unfortunate mistake that Red's Meat Lover's breakfast burrito includes the words "red meat" in the name. Even though there's no red meat in the burrito itself (only pork and bacon, which are plenty), eaters seeking lighter proteins to start their day get an unintentional beacon warning them away. While we'll give this one point for using uncured bacon to keep troublesome nitrates out of the package, the rest of what's happening here could be a nutritional mistake for anyone who likes to keep their healthy eating habits locked down tight.

Even with the thumbs-up for using cage-free eggs and antibiotic-free pork, this burrito is on shaky nutritional ground, starting with the 280 calories for a 4-ounce burrito. With 13 grams for 17% of your day's total fat that includes 4.5 grams for 23% of your day's saturated fat, this breakfast bundle is taking you pretty far afield before your day has even fully begun. Mash in 65 milligrams for 22% of your allotted cholesterol and 550 milligrams for 24% of your recommended sodium, and you've consumed almost a quarter of your entire day's intake of these elements, which are better kept below your daily minimums when possible. You'll also find brown sugar in the bacon and cane sugar in tortilla, making this option hard to digest for anyone looking to keep sugar out of their diet.

There's no harm in aiming for tradition in a frozen breakfast burrito, and El Monterey tries its darndest to hit the bullseye with its Egg, Sausage, and Cheese option. Complications arise when you break down the elements that make up such a simple mix and discover the nutrition facts are a warning against tossing this morning starter into your microwave. It may be an easy decision when you're groggy and getting into your groove, but you'll wish you'd been clear-eyed when your systems feel the impact.

Bite into this burrito and you'll be downing a bold 300 calories, the vehicle for 14 grams of fat and 25% of what your recommended daily amount should be; 4 of those grams are saturated, dialing in at 20% of the advised amount. 100 milligrams of cholesterol, which is a breakfast-breaking 33% for the whole day, and you'll undoubtedly taste the salt here with 430 milligrams, representing 18% of your advocated sodium intake. It seems that corn syrup solids have worked their way into the breakfast sausage, while sugar makes appearances in both the tortilla and cheese sauce, and the eggs are enhanced with butter flavor instead of actual butter. Isn't breakfast supposed to provide a wholesome start to your day? Not where this El Monterey entry is concerned.

Homemade breakfast burritos let you control the sodium, fat, and cholesterol content of your creation by giving you ingredient options that allow limits on how much of each you use. When you unwrap a premade breakfast burrito, however, you're at the mercy of the food producer, who may have other priorities in mind — primarily providing flavor tempting enough to make you a return customer. The end result can be a seemingly simple wrap that's actually a health bomb you can't defuse once you've hit the "go" button.

We looked for store-bought breakfast burritos with the highest concentration of calories, fat, cholesterol, and sodium, both by grams and by percentage of the recommended daily allowance of those elements listed among the nutrition facts on the labels. Often, these nutritional imbalances coincided with the inclusion of processed ingredients that further complicate the concoctions and draw down the nutrition. Some of our choices may have been lower in calories but higher in sodium, while others were lower in sodium but higher in fat. With so many ways to gloss over nutrition, we thought it was important to represent a spectrum of possibilities.