Taco Bell’s Big-Cheez-It menu is loaded with fat and more salt than most people should have in a day
There are people who love Taco Bell, and there are people who love Cheez-Its (including me). But what would happen if the two united into one salty, cheesy meal?
Just as Taco Bell did with the Doritos Locos Tacos back in 2012, the company is once again combining its popular tacos with a crunchy, savory snack in its latest culinary innovation.
“Taco Bell and Kellanova unite to create the cheeziest menu items of our lifetime, featuring a Cheez-It cracker 16x bigger than the original,” Taco Bell wrote in its May press release.
What’s on the Big Cheez-It menu?
There are three additions to the Taco Bell menu from its Cheez-It collab: the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme, Big Cheez-It Tostada, and the Big Cheez-It Box.
The Crunchwrap replaces its typical corn tostada shell with a giant Cheez-It cracker, but still has its classic components of ground beef, nacho cheese, lettuce, sour cream, and diced tomatoes, all wrapped inside a tortilla.
The Tostada also trades in the corn shell base for the Big Cheez-It, piled high with ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce, shredded cheese, and sour cream.
And then there’s the Big Cheez-It Box, which according to Taco Bell, includes the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme, a Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, nacho fries with nacho cheese sauce, and a large fountain drink.
What’s the sodium and fat content?
On the Taco Bell website where you can order the new Cheez-It items, a sodium warning cautions customers: Sodium content higher than daily recommended limit (2,300 mg). High sodium intake can increase blood pressure and risk of heart disease and stroke.
The Food and Drug Association and American Heart Association (AHA) each recommend a daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day—however, the AHA urges Americans to go no higher than 1,500 mg of sodium per day.
What the warning doesn’t reference is saturated fat content, which the AHA advises should be no more than 6% of your total calories per day. For someone eating 2,000 calories in a day, that is less than 13 grams. Saturated fat should be limited, the AHA states, because it can raise your “bad” cholesterol (also known as LDL) and increase your risk of heart disease.
Here’s how each of the items stack up, according to nutrition information provided by Taco Bell and based on a person consuming 2,000 calories a day:
The Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme:
- Saturated fat: 6
- Sodium: 1,720 mg
The Supreme has 45% of the FDA’s daily recommended limit of saturated fat, and 75% of the sodium limit—but its sodium content exceeds the AHA’s guidelines of 1,500 mg.
The Big Cheez-It Tostada
- Saturated fat: 5 grams
- Sodium: 570 mg
The tostada might be your healthiest bet at around 25% of the recommended sodium limit and 40% of the day’s limit for saturated fat.
Big Cheez-It Box
The Big Cheez-It Box contains a Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, which has 1,270 mg sodium, 8 grams of saturated fat, and 500 calories. Once you add in the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme and a drink, the total calories range from 1,400 to 1,820, which is nearly an entire day’s calories for a person on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Within that box also comes a whopping amount of 3,000 mg sodium—well over your daily recommended intake. And that doesn’t even include the nacho fries with nacho cheese sauce, whose nutritional info isn’t available on the Taco Bell website. That means the Big Cheez-It Box has enough sodium to hit an adult’s maximum daily limit for a day and a half.
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