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Food
Police' Crack Down On Pizza Study:
Even Cheese Pizza Delivers Loads Of Fat POSTED: 4:29
p.m. EDT May 17, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Just when you thought it was safe to go back to eating your
favorite foods, the so-called food police are cracking down again, this time on
pizza. The nutrition
group Center for Science in the Public Interest pointed out that that most
everyone knows pizza can be fattening if you load it up with extra cheese and
meat toppings. However, the group said even plain cheese pizza can do some
serious damage. The CPSI said that a plain cheese pizza packs a half-day's worth
of saturated fat in a quarter of a large pie. "More
cheese on your pizza means more crust in your arteries. Adding fatty meats just
makes it worse," CSPI nutritionist Jane Hurley said. The nutrition
group studied the calorie and fat content of different kinds of pizzas from
national chains, including Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Papa John's. It found that
one slice of Pizza Hut's Big New Yorker Sausage pizza has nearly 600 calories
and 33 grams of total fat, which is equivalent to a McDonald's Big Mac. "While
many people stop at one Big Mac, many people reach for a second slice of
pizza," Hurley said. CSPI said that
it's not trying to scare people from eating pizza. It just wants people to know
that there are ways to make pizza healthier. The group
recommended ordering pizza pies with half the cheese and avoid stuffed crust
pizzas. The CSPI said that veggies obviously have the lowest calories. It said
as far as meats, getting pepperoni is better fat- and calorie-wise than beef,
pork and sausage, which the group said are the absolute worst. But Pizza Hut
said that Americans can make their own decisions about what to eat. "We give
them choices. And if they want healthier options, we've got those options with
veggie-lovers pizza and thin and crispy pizzas," Pizza Hut's Michael
Rawlings said. The CSPI said that pizzerias should print nutritional information on their menus so people can see what the pizza delivers in fat and calories before they even take a bite. More
on this from the Center for Science in the
Public Interest
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