Corn taco shell (tostada)

What it is and how to eat it

The Diccionario de americanismos defines a tostada, in Mexico and Guatemala, as a fried corn tortilla topped with tomato sauce, avocado or beans, and in Mexico also as a dried tortilla dressed with cream, grated cheese, salsa and lettuce, among other foods; by contrast, the Dictionary of the Spanish Language, with no country label, defines tostada as a slice of toasted bread. The FAO explains that maize cooked in lime water, a process typical of Mexico and Central America, is made into the dough for tacos and enchiladas, and that when the dough is fried and flavored it yields foods such as chips and chilaquiles. This page uses USDA's packaged corn taco shell, with 476 kcal, 21.79 g of fat, 6.7 g of fiber and only 6.4 g of water per 100 g, compared with 222 kcal and 2.5 g of fat for a soft corn tortilla.

A packaged tostada weighs about 12 g according to USDA's entry for corn tostada shells, so two, about 25 g (0.9 oz), provide, with this page's figures, 119 kcal, 5.4 g of fat, 1.6 g of protein and 1.7 g of fiber: what fills you up is what goes on top. The 2025 nutrition advisory on GLP-1 therapy suggests eating protein first, like the tuna in the Mexican-style tuna tostadas, which have two tostadas per serving, or beans, shredded chicken or fresh cheese. The same advisory suggests avoiding fatty or high-fiber foods in the first days of treatment, and in those days, and in the weeks of dose increases, a soft tortilla warmed on the comal usually sits better than a crunchy tostada.

What the evidence says

According to USDA, this tostada has 7.105 g of saturated fat per 100 g, 13% of its calories, and the WHO recommends that saturated fat provide no more than 10% of total energy in the diet and suggests limiting baked or fried foods and pre-packaged snacks. With 6.7 g of fiber per 100 g it exceeds the 6 g the EU requires for a "high fibre" claim, but its 100 mg of calcium fall short of the 120 mg for "source of calcium" (Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EU) No 1169/2011), although the FAO notes that cooking maize with lime can raise the calcium in tortillas by up to 400%. In the Wegovy (semaglutide) trials, according to its label, nausea affected 43.9% of patients, compared with 16.1% on placebo, and the NIDDK, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, notes that high-fat foods can increase bloating in some people.

The sources for this section are listed under "Sources" at the end of the page.