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Seven Ways To Cut Down On Pizza Calories

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pizza-pie“Let’s order pizza.”  Have you heard those words recently?  Have you had “a slice” recently?  Take comfort that you fit the stats:

  • American men, women, and children eat, on average 46 slices of pizza a year.
  • 94% of Americans eat pizza regularly
  • In the US, 61% prefer regular thin crust, 14% prefer deep-dish, and 11% prefer extra thin crust
  • 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings; 38% prefer vegetables
  • 36% order pizza topped with pepperoni

What’s Good, What’s Not-So-Good?

It’s difficult to estimate the number of calories and fat grams in a slice of pizza because the size and depth of the pies and the amount of cheese, meat, or other toppings vary enormously.

Here’s the good news: pizza can be a healthy food choice filled with complex carbs, B-vitamins, calcium, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C and calorically okay if you choose wisely and don’t eat more than your fair share.

The not so good news:  the amount of fat, calories, and portion size. If your mouth starts to water at the thought of golden brown crust and cheesy goodness — here’s the downer:  that luscious slice of pizza that should be about the size of two dollar bills – not the size of a small frying pan or a quarter of a 12” circle.

7 Ways To Build a Better Slice of Pizza

  1. Order thin crust rather than a thick crust or deep dish.
  2. Resist the urge to ask for double cheese — better yet, go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese (if they have it).
  3. Ask for a pizza without cheese but topped with veggies and a little olive oil. You can always sprinkle on a little grated parmesan for flavor; one tablespoon has only 22 calories.
  4. Instead of cheese go for big flavors like onion, garlic, olives but use them somewhat sparingly because of the oil.  And don’t forget anchovies  – a lot of flavor for minimal calories – but you have to like them!
  5. Choose vegetable toppings instead of meat (think about the fat content in sausage, pepperoni, and meatballs) and you might shave 100 calories from your meal. Pile on veggies like mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, spinach, and asparagus. Some places have salad pizza – great if it’s not loaded with oil.
  6. Order a side salad (careful with the dressing) and cut down on the amount of pizza.  Salad takes longer to eat, too.
  7. If you’re willing (and not embarrassed or grossed out), try blotting up the free-floating oil that sits on top of a greasy slice with a napkin. Blotting (it’s easy to do this on the kind of hot slice where the oil runs down your arm when you pick it up) can soak up a teaspoon of oil worth 40 calories and 5 grams of fat.

Domino’s:

Check out the difference in calories for the same size slice (1/8th of a pie) between the classic hand-tossed pizza, the deep dish, and the crunchy thin crust for the same toppings.  Then check out the difference in calories for the toppings.

Domino’s 14 inch large classic hand-tossed pizza

  • America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage, 1/8 of pizza):  390 calories
  • Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  420 calories
  • Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese, 1/8 of pizza):  340 calories

Domino’s 14 inch large ultimate deep dish pizza

  • America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage), 1/8 of pizza:  400 calories
  • Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  430 calories
  • Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  350 calories

Domino’s 14 inch large crunchy thin crust pizza

  • America’s Favorite (Peperoni, mushroom, sausage, 1/8 of pizza:  280 calories)
  • Bacon Cheeseburger (Beef, bacon, cheddar cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  310 calories
  • Vegi Feast (Green pepper, onion, mushroom, black olive, extra cheese), 1/8 of pizza:  230 calories

Mall Pizza:  There’s A Range

  • A slice of Sbarro’s Low Carb Cheese Pizza has 310 calories and 14 grams of fat.
  • A slice of Sbarro’s Low Carb Sausage/Pepperoni Pizza has 560 calories and 35 grams of fat.
  • A slice of Sbarro’s Fresh Tomato Pizza clocks in at 450 calories with 14 grams of fat.
  • Any of Sbarro’s “Gourmet” pizzas have between 610 and 780 calories a slice and more than 20 grams of fat.
  • A slice of Costco Food Court Pepperoni Pizza has 620 calories and 30 grams of fat.
  • “Stuffed” pizzas are even worse—790 calories minimum and over 33 grams of fat per slice.

Leftover Dilemma: Can I Eat It Or Should I Toss It?

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You know the feeling:  you’re standing in front of your open refrigerator. There’s a mess of containers in there. Move ‘em around. Discovery: A mystery plastic container all the way in the back; a couple of Chinese food take-out containers; some oddly shaped tin-foil packages. Don’t you wonder what’s in them?

With some trepidation you take a peek. Container #1: the leftover take-out chicken fried rice from five days ago. Container #2: the rest of your lasagna you brought home last night from a huge restaurant portion. Then there’s some of Mom’s really delicious stuffing from last weekend in that plastic container.  The tin-foil packages: grayish looking stuff that doesn’t smell so great.

Big question: Will you end up writhing in pain and spending the next day in the bathroom if you eat any of it?

How Long Can Prepared Food Safely Stay  Unrefrigerated?

According to the FDA, when you buy hot, cooked food, you should get it home quickly and eat it right away.  It shouldn’t sit out at room temperature. If the food is cold – not hot — and sitting out, it should be eaten within two hours of when it was prepared.  Otherwise, store it in the fridge, or freeze it.

Take-Out Food

When take-out food is delivered, you want to prevent any lurking potentially nasty and harmful bacteria from multiplying, so eat the food within two hours after it arrives. If you aren’t going to eat it within two hours keep it hot in an oven set at or above 200° F (93° C). Side dishes also should to be kept hot in the oven. Cover the food to keep it moist while you’re keeping it warm. Don’t guess at the temperature of the food. Use a food thermometer to check that the food is kept at an internal temperature of 140° F (60° C).

The Food Temperature “Danger Zone”

The FDA defines the “danger zone” as the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow. It is usually between 40° and 140° F (4° and 60° C). To keep food safe, it’s important to keep it below or above the “danger zone.”

The 2 Hour Rule For Leftovers

There is a 2 Hour Rule: toss any perishable food (the kind that can spoil or become contaminated by bacteria if left unrefrigerated) that has been left out at room temperature for more than two hours. When the environmental temperature is above 90° F (32° C), throw out the food after one hour.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Action Healthletter, expands on the Rules For Leftovers with what they call:

2 hours – 2 inches – 4 days

2 hours from oven to refrigerator: any leftovers should be refrigerated or frozen within 2 hours of cooking or they should be thrown away.

2 Inches thick to cool it quick: food should be stored in containers at a shallow depth of about 2 inches or less, to speed the chilling time.

4 days in the refrigerator or freeze it: use refrigerated leftovers within 4 days — with the exception of stuffing and gravy which should be used within 2 days. Solid leftovers should be reheated to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Whatever you don’t finish, throw out.

What About The Doggie Bag?

If you leave a restaurant with a doggie bag – or a prepared food store with a container of food – and you’re not going to get home within two hours of having the order served to you, scrap the food. If you do leave with doggie bag or food container in hand, keep in mind that the inside of your car can get very toasty and bacteria can multiply very quickly. So, if the doggie bag contains tomorrow’s lunch or a late night snack, it’s a good idea to go directly home and get those still identifiable leftovers in the refrigerator right away.

Do You Eat Out As Much As The Average Person In The US?

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The average adult in the US eats 4.8 meals in restaurants each week.

An online survey of 4000 consumers’ behavior found:

  • The most popular restaurant meal is lunch
  • 2.6 lunch meals are eaten out, on average, each week
  • The lunch meals are both take-out and restaurant dining
  • 1.4 sit down dinners each week are in restaurants
  • 0.8 brunch or breakfast meals are eaten out each week

How People Label Their “Eating Out” Preferences

  • Nearly 50% of the people responding to the survey call themselves “meat lovers”
  • 22% have a “sweet tooth”
  • 19% call themselves “fast food junkies”
  • 18% call themselves “health nuts”
  • 5% are self-described “vegetarians or vegans”
  • 35% describe themselves as “experimental eaters”
  • 25% call themselves “foodies”
  • 11% refer to themselves as “locavores,” or lovers of local food

Takeaways

It’s important to remember that this is a survey of 4000 people – done online — which makes it a survey of people who spend time online, who are willing to take a survey, and who eat out quite a bit.

That said – it seems that a lot of people are eating out a lot of the time.  If you are, too, consider building eating out into an overall eating plan so that you can continue to eat out, eat well and healthfully, and still manage your weight.

Is Chinese Food Diet Friendly Or A Diet Buster? Nine Tips To Help You Make Good Choices

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Chinese take-out can be a friend to your diet – or the devil in disguise.  Commercial Chinese food – or what you usually get for take-out – can be extremely high in fat (a caloric nightmare) and very high in sodium (a water retention nightmare).  And then there’s portion size:  those little white boxes hold a lot – and how often do you eat right out of the box – or refill your plate because it’s too little to really save – and why throw it away?

Nine Tips

To keep the gauge pointing more toward healthy than unhealthy:

1.   Interpret the menu and look for foods that are:

  • Steamed
  • Jum (poached)
  • Chu (broiled)
  • Kow (roasted)
  • Shu (barbecued)

2.    Aim for a plate filled with more veggies than meat and ask for them to be lightly stir fried rather than battered or deep fried (crispy means fried) but don’t think that all vegetable dishes are high on the best list. A serving of eggplant in garlic sauce (eggplant soaks up oil)  has 1000 calories; 13g saturated fat; 2000mg sodium.  Mu shu pork (without pancakes) has 1000 calories and 2600 mg sodium  Although there are a lot of veggies, there’s a bunch of fat and sodium. 8 inch pancakes add about 90 calories;  6 inch pancakes add 60 calories. Mu shu chicken is a better choice with about 5g less fat less and 200 fewer calories per serving.

3.    Eat with chopsticks:  it takes longer to eat and you can’t scoop up as much of the sauce or oil as you can with a fork.

4.    Don’t let the fried noodles near your table – or out of the delivery bag – one package has about 180 calories; 8g fat; 420mg sodium.

5.    Soup – like hot and sour, egg drop, or wonton soup is a good lower calorie choice (around 100 calories per cup) to fill you up – but is usually loaded with sodium. One cup of hot and sour soup has 91 cal, 3g fat, 876 sodium.

6.    Be careful with the thick sweet sauces like sweet and sour.  They are often made with flour, cornstarch, sugar, corn syrup.  Better choices are hoison, oyster, and hot mustard.

7.    Beware the rice:  there are around 200 calories in a cup of white or brown rice.  A takeout container often contains two cups.  Basic fried rice – without additions — is about 230 calories per cup — 1 cup of chicken fried rice has 329 calories; 11.96g fat; 598mg sodium.

8.    Lay off the barbecued spare ribs – four can have around 600 calories. One-half slice of fried shrimp toast has 148 calories; 9.27g fat; 447mg sodium.

9.    Try steamed dumplings instead of egg rolls or fried wontons which are both loaded with fat. One egg roll has 220 calories; 11g fat; 412mg sodium. A spring roll, with its thinner wrapper and smaller size, is a better choice at about 100 calories and 300 mg sodium. One meat filled fried wonton has 54 calories; 2.52g fat; 111mg sodium. A steamed dumpling filled with meat, poultry, or seafood is probably the best choice clocking in at 41 calories; 0.98g fat; 161mg sodium.