
From
Yahoo! Health By
David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding of
Men's Health: Somewhere
between the brick ovens of Italy and the delivery cars of America
something went horribly wrong. The traditional pizza, made with just
bread, cheese and tomatoes, is now tricked out with inflated crusts,
four-cheese toppings, and a surplus of pepperoni, all of which
contribute to its quadrupled caloric count. And man, do we love it.
With 69,000 pizza joints scattered across the U.S., it's no wonder that
each man, woman and child devours an average of 46 slices a year.
That's the equivalent of 23 pounds of pie!
Any
way you slice it, we're taking in a lot more fat than our slimmer
friends in Italy, where only 9 percent of the population is obese
compared to our 34 percent . Their secret: Thin crust, half the
formaggio, and extra vegetables. That's why we've included Best and
Worst pizzas in our new book: Eat This, Not That! The Best (& Worst!) Foods in America! The following 7 problematic pies are pulled straight from the book: Avoid them at all costs, and see how, with the help of the Eat This, Not That! series, you can lose 10 pounds or more of belly fat--while still eating all of your favorite foods!
7. WORST SEAFOOD PIZZA
Red Lobster Lobster Pizza
720 calories
30 g fat (13 g saturated)
1,390 mg sodium
69 g carbs
It's
a cool concept (certainly more appetizing than your grandfather's old
anchovies habit), but it makes for a heavy meal that's stuffed with
more sodium than you should eat in one sitting. Fare from the sea is
one of the best ways to go, but sprinkled over a bed of starchy dough
and fatty cheese and you've got a different story altogether. Billed as
a starter, this Lobster Pizza is the only pizza on Red Lobster's menu.
Luckily it shares space with one of the world's greatest
appetizers--shrimp cocktail--and the chain restaurant is among the
healthiest chain restaurants in the land, so you'll have no problem
finding better options.
6. WORST VEGGIE PIZZA
Papa John's Pan Crust Garden Fresh Pizza (2 slices)
740 calories
38 g fat (12 g saturated)
1,320 mg sodium
78 g carbs
Just
because it's topped with veggies doesn't make it healthy. The real
problem here isn't the toppings, though; it's the excessively thick,
greasy pan crust that sinks this veggie-strewn ship. Two slices of this
garden fresh pie will set you back the caloric equivalent of 7 ½
Rice Krispies Treats, and it'll stuff your belly with as much salt as
you'll find in nearly 4 large orders of McDonald's French Fries. Save
over 300 calories by switching to a larger pie (14") with a thinner
crust. Just another example of why crust is king when trying to find a
healthy pie.
5. WORST STUFFED PIZZA
Sbarro Stuffed Pepperoni Pizza
960 calories
(Sbarro doesn't offer other nutritional information)
Sbarro's
individual pizza slices are oversized to begin with, but throw in the
stuffed factor and you're looking at this single worst slice of pizza
in America--the equivalent of almost 4 pepperoni slices from Pizza Hut.
A rule of thumb for ordering pizza in general (and it's especially
applicable at Sbarro) is to always choose the thinnest crust possible,
and to always avoid any "stuffed" options, which indicate at least
double the toppings. Downsize this massive wedge for a Fresh Tomato
Pizza--and be sure to limit yourself to just one.
4. WORST PIZZA LUNCH COMBO
Romano's Macaroni Grill Sicilian Mio Pizza and Insalata Blu
1,010 calories
58 g fat (22 g saturated)
2,755 mg sodium
71 g carbs
Consuming
over half your daily calories at lunch is asking for energy trouble in
the afternoon (not to mention difficulties with your belt buckle).
Macaroni Grill boasts about their perfect sized lunch combos as if
super-sized individual pizzas and high-calorie "side" salads are a good
thing. Even more disturbing is the fact that recent research found that
people tend to underestimate portion sizes when their meals have more
variety in them, so you're bound to eat more when you have more pieces
to your meal. All the more reason to skip the Mac Grill combo meals and
choose a simpler lunch, instead. (But beware: Healthy doesn't come easy
at this restaurant, especially with pasta. Canneloni or Pasta Pomodoro
are the only two bowls with less than 1,000 calories.)
3. WORST CALZONE
Pizza Hut Meaty P'Zone Pizza
1,480 calories
66 g fat (30 g saturated, 2 g trans)
3,680 mg sodium
152 g carbs
The
word "calzone" alone should spell trouble, but this Pizza Hut Meaty
P'Zone takes bad pizza pockets to a completely different level. The
worst part is that Pizza Hut brags about their massive P'Zone like it's
something to be proud of: The website reads "Over 1 LB of pizza
goodness." Why is it over a pound? Because it's a regular-sized 12"
pizza folded over onto itself and stuffed with meat and cheese. There's
nothing impressive about eating an entire pizza by yourself.
2. WORST PIZZA APPETIZER
Uno Chicago Grill Pizza Skins
2,400 calories
155 g fat (45 g saturated)
3,600 mg sodium
195 g carbs
How
are pizza skins different from an actual pizza? Well, they're not--they
just come topped with crumbly processed bacon bits and a big fat dollop
of sour cream. The only reason this monstrous dish didn't make it to
our number one worst pizza spot is because it's supposed to be an
appetizer, which means that some of the damage is mitigated by the fact
that multiple people are digging in (or should be, at least). But even
if you're traveling with a party of 5, it makes no sense to order
what's essentially a family-sized pizza before your meal. To put it in
perspective, a medium 12" pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut only racks up
1,840 calories. That's nearly 600 fewer calories than you'll find in
this one appetizer! Disgusting.
1. WORST PIZZA IN AMERICA
Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Individual Pizza
2,310 calories
165 g fat (54 g saturated)
4,920 mg sodium
120 g carbs
This
individual pizza has been named Worst Pizza in America three years in a
row now, but Uno Chicago Grill doesn't seem to care--all they've done
to minimize the epic impact of this monstrous meal is to change the
nutrition labels on their website to reflect the calories "per
serving," instead of the total calories per dish as a whole. What's
revealing about that slight of hand is that it shows that Uno knowingly
sells an individual pizza that actually has three servings' worth of
calories, fat, sodium, and carbs. This one individual pizza has more
calories than you should eat in a day and more than two days' worth of
sodium. (That's as much salt as you'll find in 27 small bags of Frito
Lays Potato Chips!) The only way to go at Uno is to steer away from the
infamous deep dish Chicago-style pizzas and opt for a flatbread pie
instead.
HALL OF FAME
THE BEST PIZZAS IN AMERICA
Next time you're hankering for a pie, grab a slice from one of these premium pizzas.
BEST VEGGIE PIZZA
Pizza Hut 12" Fit and Delicious Diced Red Tomato, Mushroom and Jalapeno (2 slices)
300 calories
16 g fat (7 g saturated)
1,220 mg sodium
46 g carbs
BEST HAWAIIAN PIZZA
Domino's Thin Crust Ham and Pineapple Pizza (2 slices)
294 calories
14 g fat (5 g saturated)
790 mg sodium
30 g carbs
BEST INDIVIDUAL PIZZA
Chuck E. Cheese Individual Cheese
540 calories
19 g fat (8 g saturated)
1,255 mg sodium
69 g carbs
BEST MEAT-LOVER'S PIZZA
Pizza Hut Meat Lover's 12" Pan Pizza (1 slice)
330 calories
18 g fat (7 g saturated, 0 g trans)
820 mg sodium
27 g carbs
Full Article on Yahoo! Health