Go Easy, Not Cheesy, On Pizza

It's not the pizza crust or the sauce that are bad for you so much as the cheese, says the Center for Science In The Public Interest. CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss reports the same group that issued warnings about Chinese take-out food and movie popcorn has now passed judgment on pizza.

"More cheese on your pizza means more crust in your arteries," said CSPI nutritionist Jayne Hurley, adding that two slices of a plain cheese pizza has half the saturated fat you should eat in a day.

Add pepperoni and still more cheese in the "stuffed" crust, and kiss your cholesterol levels good-bye, she warned.

"You need cheese stuffed into a pizza crust like you need reverse liposuction to force more fat under your skin," the center warned in its newsletter, when discussing Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust pizzas.

And multi-meat pizzas were predictably panned.

"These Meat Lover's pizzas with a stuffed crust — if you eat four or five slices, you will have that stuffed feeling and so will your arteries," said the center's executive director, Michael Jacobson.

But Pizza Hut president Michael Rawlings said people love that stuff.

"Stuffed crust pizza, meat lovers pizza are fabulous pizzas," he proclaimed to CBS News. "We're proud of our cheese."

Hurley said she's not telling people not to eat pizza, just to know what it is they're eating.

The nutrition watchdog group did find one American restaurant chain dish that rates a "bravissimo."

"Creativity replaces cheese," the center said in its Nutrition Action Healthletter. "California Pizza Kitchen's Tricolore Salad Pizza is smothered with arugula, radicchio, red-leaf lettuce, diced tomatoes, shaved Parmesan and a vinaigrette dressing. Bravissimo!"

In a nation where obesity is an increasing problem, one in six restaurants is a pizzeria, prompting the non-profit, Washington-based watchdog to compare the nutrition in various offerings of the Italian-style meal.

Typically, a slice of pizza with pepperoni or sausage has about the same amount of salt and calories as a large burger or breakfast egg sandwich from a fast-food chain, said the center,

Cutting back on cheese, loading up on vegetables and having salads or fruit on the side instead of breadsticks or cheese-bread can help.

One solution, that's not on most menus but is widely available, is to order pizza with half the regular amount of cheese, the center said. Another possibility is to ask for no cheese except a sprinkle of Parmesan before the pizza is baked.

Ordering two slices of Domino's Hand Tossed Cheese pizza with half the cheese makes this a "best bite," the center said. Other "best bites" are three slices of Hand Tossed Veggie Lover's pizza from Pizza Hut, owned by Yum! Brands Inc., and two slices of Papa John's Original Crust Garden Special.

The serving size varies from restaurant to restaurant, the center found, so that three slices of Pizza Hut's vegetable version were comparable in calories, total fat, saturated fat and sodium to two slices of the Papa John's equivalent.

The increasingly popular chicken pizza was seen as being tasty and less fatty than most red-meat toppings. Only pizzas topped with ham or vegetables had the same relatively low saturated fat as chicken pizza.

Pepperoni and sausage were seen as dietary no-nos, but researchers at the center were surprised to find that pepperoni did not add significantly to the saturated fat total.

Jacobson said the center took aim at pizza because of its popularity.

"It's such a popular dish and we found some good news, some bad news and some terrible news," he said by telephone.

Jacobson himself generally orders pizza with half the cheese with vegetables — "spinach, mushrooms, green pepper, whatever I'm in the mood for" — or makes his own at home.