You can serve pizza to kids or adults.You can serve pizza to vegetarians or the meat-and- potatoes crowd.You can order pizza with just cheese or pepperoni.
You can order it with anything from potatoes, pineapple, or pears to barbecue chicken, garlic shrimp, roasted duck, or fried wontons. And you can accent it with flavors like peanut and sesame sauce, curry and chutney, or chilies and salsa.You can order a thin crust, thick crust, stuffed crust, pan crust, or practically no crust.
You can have it delivered to your door, and it serves more people for less money than virtually any other restaurant food.
It should come as no surprise that Americans order three billion pizza pies a year, largely from the more than 60,000 pizzerias that operate out of strip malls, food courts, and Main Streets.
The question is: How many of our clogged arteries do we owe to this enormously popular dish? And, more to the point: Is there any way to make pizza healthy?
For many people, pizza is a lousy food, period. On the other hand, some dietitians claim that pizza is nutritious because it has components of each of the four basic food groups.
“You get your grain in the crust; you get tomato sauce, which can count as your vegetable; a cheese, which is your dairy; and protein in many toppings,” Connie Diekman, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, explained to HealthScout News, an online consumer health site, in December 2000.
Never mind that almost all pizzas are loaded with salt, sometimes over a day’s worth. Never mind that pizza is a minefield of saturated fat, and not just from the sausage, ground beef, and pepperoni.
Most pizzas have enough cheese to make a cardiologist order that second Jaguar. And, for many people, pizza isn’t pizza without cheese.
Playing the Numbers
If you take the time to contact the companies or check the Web sites, the nation’s largest pizza sellers—Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Little Caesars, and Papa John’s—will tell you how much saturated fat, sodium, and other nutrients their pizzas contain.
The companies seem to have a good handle on what’s between the crust and the mushrooms, especially considering that it’s often an 18-year-old who’s sprinkling on the shredded cheese and green peppers. The bad news is that they’re sprinkling a lot more cheese than peppers.
Just remember that what you get from a pizza depends on how much you eat.
What’s a Serving?
One slice is rarely enough, especially when chains like Pizza Hut cut their large pies into slices that measure only 3 1/2 inches at their widest.
A typical serving of pizza with topping weighs more than nine ounces, but it is assumed that if you’re a three- slice-eater, for example, you generally stick with three slices whether the pizza has toppings or not.
Within each category, pizzas are ranked from best to worst—from least to most saturated fat, then total fat, calories, and sodium.
These numbers show what you’d get if you ate a typical serving of each pizza. As you look through the list, always check the serving size. That way, you can adjust the number of slices—and the calories, sat fat, etc.—to match what you eat.
Chicken
Chicken on a pizza may not be traditional, but it can be delicious...and less fatty than most red-meat top- pings. Only pizzas topped with ham or veggies fall into the same sat-fat range as chicken-topped pizzas.
And if you order your chicken pizza with less cheese than usual, the chicken should help distract even die-hard cheese lovers.
A sign of chicken’s potential: California Pizza Kitchen’s two most popular pizzas are The Original BBQ Chicken and the Thai Chicken.
Half-the-Cheese & No-Cheese
The simple solution to fatty piz- zas: Order half the cheese. It’s not on the menu, but any pizze- ria should be happy to oblige, since it costs the kitchen less.
Just make sure that the harried order-taker understands that you want half the usual cheese on allof your pizza, not the usual amount of cheese on only halfof your pizza. Don’t expect precisely half the cheese, though. When we ordered “half-the-cheese” pizzas from Domino’s, for exam- ple, we got anywhere from 25 percent to 75 percent less cheese than the chain’s regular cheese pizza. Still, on aver- age, that meant that a half-cheese serving had a third less sat fat. You probably won’t even notice the difference in taste.
You can even try a pizza without any of the usual melted mozzarella. If the pizzeria offers Parmesan, order a cheese- less veggie or chicken pizza and ask to have some Parmesan sprinkled over the pie before it goes into the oven.
At some restaurants, creativity replaces cheese. California Pizza Kitchen’s Tricoloré Salad Pizza is smothered with arugula, radicchio, red-leaf lettuce, diced tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, and a vinaigrette dressing.
Bravissimo!
Veggie
When you order a veggie pizza at chains like Pizza Hut or Papa John’s, it typically comes with less cheese than a plain cheese pizza. It’s a win-win: You get more flavor, more fiber, more phytochemicals, and less fat.
But beware: At other chains, like Domino’s, you may get as much or more cheese on a veggie than on a regular cheese pizza. According to Domino’s brochures, its Vegi Pizza has extra cheese.
Cheese
A plain cheese pizza is the basic, stripped-down model. But don’t assume that it has the least amount of saturated fat. At Pizza Hut, for example, three slices of the Pan Cheese Pizza (Pan is the most popular crust) have 12 grams of sat fat—more than half a day’s worth. That’s in the same ballpark as three slices of Pan Pepperoni (13 grams) or Pan Ham (11 grams).
The same generally holds true at Domino’s, Little Caesars, Papa John’s, and most other chains. Just keep in mind that not all cheese pizzas are alike, even at the same chain. Take Pizza Hut.
You’ll get 12 grams of sat fat in a serving of Pan or Personal Pan, 14 grams in Thin n’ Crispy or Hand Tossed, 18 grams in The Big New Yorker, and 20 grams (a day’s worth) in the Stuffed Crust. The last two will also give you 750+ calories and close to a day’s worth of sodium.
Extra Cheese
Who would ever guess that two slices of Domino’s Hand Tossed Extra Cheese Pizza pose the same threat to your blood vessels as two slices of Hand Tossed Sausage or Pepperoni Pizza?
The same is probably true at most other chains, though Domino’s was the only company that has numbers for its extra-cheese pizza.
As if extra cheese on your pizza weren’t enough, the experts at Pizza Hut have come up with a brilliant way to work more cheese in to your pizza—Stuffed Crust.
You need cheese stuffed into a pizza crust like you need reverse liposuction to force more fat under your skin.
Pepperoni
Pepperoni is by far the most popular pizza topping. At Domino’s, those thin spicy slices add an extra two grams of saturated fat and 420 milligrams of sodium to two slices of Hand Tossed Cheese Pizza.
If you think that’s a bargain, remember that every slice of the Hand Tossed Pepperoni is nearly the equivalent of a McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. Things are no better over at Pizza Hut. A three-slice serv- ing of Pan Pepperoni Pizza—the most popular chain’s most popular pizza—is not much different than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.
The damage: 690 calories, 1,620 mg of sodium, and 33 grams of fat, 13 of them saturated. Of course, the sat fat climbs as you go to three slices of Pan Pepperoni Lover’s (19 grams) or two slices of Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Lover’s (25 grams—what you’d get from two Quarter Pounders with Cheese).
Sausage
At Domino’s, the sausage pizza has no more saturated fat than the pepperoni. But that’s nothing to crow about. How many of the 600 calories in a two-slice serving of the chain’s Hand Tossed Sausage Pizza are going to end up as a spare tire where you least need it?
And how many of the ten grams of saturated fat will take up residence in your arteries? At Pizza Hut, the Pan Italian Sausage Pizza is fattier than the Pan Pepperoni. And three slices of the Hand Tossed Italian Sausage approach the 1,000-calorie mark.
They’ve also got more than a day’s worth of saturated fat (22 grams) and sodium (2,480 mg). That’s what happens when you layer a fatty meat over fatty cheese. You might as well pol- ish off five Beef Soft Tacos at Taco Bell.
But even the Hand Tossed looks good compared to Pizza Hut’s Big New Yorker Sausage Pizza. The Big NY manages to cram 1,140 calories, 3,240 mg of sodium, and 66 grams of fat (28 of them saturated) into two slices. That’s not a serving of pizza—it’s a T-bone steak dinner with salad and a baked potato sprinkled with a teaspoon of salt.
Beef
Add beef to your pizza at your own risk. At Domino’s, the beef pizzas range from 11 grams of sat fat (for two slices of Hand Tossed) to 18 grams (for five squares of Thin Crust).
Three slices of Pizza Hut’s Hand Tossed or two slices of The Big New Yorker Beef hit 22 grams. Those numbers should come as no surprise.
After all, we’re talking ground beef, not sirloin steak. You also get ground beef and cheese on a Burger King Whopper with Cheese, but three slices of Pizza Hut’s Pan Beef Pizza have an extra 120 calories and 500 mg of sodium.
Bacon or Pork
Domino’s offers fatty bacon pizzas; Pizza Hut goes with fatty ground pork instead. The numbers on either should qualify you for a time-share at the cardiac care unit (make sure it has a functioning blood pressure gauge). At Pizza Hut, the Hand Tossed or Stuffed Crust Pork is as fatty as the Hand Tossed or Stuffed Crust Meat Lover’s.
Combos
Pepperoni or sausage or ham or beef was enough to satisfy customers for decades...until the pizza chains ratcheted up the stakes. Why stop with just one meat when you can drown a pizza in pepperoni, sausage, ham, bacon, beef, andpork toppings?
Domino’s Meatzza, Little Caesars Meatsa, Papa John’s All the Meats, Pizza Hut Meat Lover’s or Super Supreme. Some of them can give you more than a day’s saturated fat and sodium and 800-or-so calories. Talk about piling on.
You’d be smart to avoid the entire Pizza Hut “Lover’s” line except the Veggie Lover’s. “Our Lover’s Line pizzas pack on more of your favorite toppings!” boasts Pizza Hut’s menu. They pack it on, all right—just where you need it least.
But the Big Daddy of the combo pizzas is Pizzeria Uno’s Chicago Classic—the worst pizza we found. It’s “the pizza that made us famous,” proclaims Pizzeria Uno. “Extra sausage, extra cheese, extra tomato, extra crisp crust, and extra delicious.”
A “regular” pizza serves two, according to Pizzeria Uno’s Web site.
Two teenage football players, maybe. How many people can shovel 1,500 calories and 11/2days’ saturated fat into their mouths and still stay upright?
Best Choices
Cheese
✔✔Domino’s Hand Tossed Cheese, with half the cheese (2 slices—7 oz.)
✔✔Domino’s Hand Tossed Cheese (2 slices—7 oz.)
Extra Cheese
✔✔Pizza Hut Hand Tossed Veggie Lover’s (3 slices—9 oz.) 540 calories.
✔✔Papa John’s Original Crust Garden Special (2 slices—11 oz.) 560 calories.
Pepperoni
Domino’s Hand Tossed Pepperoni (2 slices—7 oz.) 580 calories
PIZZA STRATEGIES
Pick the right toppings
Vegetables are lowest in calories and richest in nutrients. Chicken and ham are second best. Meat toppings vary from chain to chain, but in general, pepperoni is leaner than pork, sausage, and beef.
Order a half-the-cheese or no-cheese pizza
Half the cheese works with almost any pizza. No- cheese works best with creative toppings like California Pizza Kitchen’s Tricoloré Salad Pizza. If the pizzeria offers Parmesan, order a cheese-less veggie or chicken pizza and ask to have some Parmesan sprinkled over the pie before it goes into the oven.
Skip the hidden cheese
When you order a vegetable pizza, make sure it doesn’t come with the extra cheese that some chains automatically add. And don’t forget: That’s cheese in those stuffed crust pizzas too.
Steer clear of multi-meat pizzas
With these extravagantly unhealthy pizzas, moreclearly means much more. Watch out for names like Meat Lover’s, Meatzza, All the Meats, and Super Supreme.
Get it with a salad
You’ll escape with far less damage if you don’t have a pizza-only meal. If you’re calling Little Casears, order a salad to go with your pizza and cut down on the number of slices you eat.
At Pizza Hut and most of the other big delivery chains, you probably won’t find anything green on the menu. So fill in by serving baby carrots or sliced red or green peppers or cucumbers with light ranch dressing. Or slice up some honeydew, cantaloupe, or watermelon.
Don’t take sides
Once you go beyond salad, pizzeria side dishes get pretty dicey. With few exceptions, you’re in the land of Buffalo wings, bread sticks, and cheesy bread. Just what you need to go with pizza crust and cheese.
Each piece of Double Cheesy Bread from Domino’s, for example, means another 140 calories and two grams of saturated fat. A typical order has eight pieces. Bread sticks aren’t as fatty, but they still run more than 100 calories apiece. Wings are 50 calories a pop.
But that’s for less than an ounce of chicken, so the wings—and the numbers— add up quickly. It’s fruits and vegetables, not bread or fried chicken, that should round out a pizza meal.
