FOR PIZZA SAKE...IT'S MORE THAN CRUST THEY'RE STUFFING by John McGran,
Managing Editor E-Diets on February 7, 2001
When the moon hits your eye like a big cheese-stuffed crusted pizza pie that’s, uh, more than enough already! It seems to Mr. Bad Food that the Big 3 of pizza makers – Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s – will stop at nothing to get you to part with your hard-earned dough.
Due to an impending flight, I'm under pressure to deliver this column in 30 minutes of less. I hope this triggers the infamous Domino effect -- a piping hot, fresh feature that'll leave you plenty of nutritional info to chew on!
Pssst.... but Mr. Bad Food... it's your conscience speaking. Uh, you are writing about Pizza Hut, not Domino's -- remember the last time you mixed info about two different fast food franchises?
Yikes, I surely do. It was my column on Schlotszky's Original Deluxe sandwich. I was submarined by a few readers who couldn't get past the fact my Subway diet lead-in was simply a segue and not a slam!
And by the way, the click is ticking... your readers knead -- uh, make that need -- to know the numbers on the Stuffed Crust concoction...
Ok, inner mind o'mine. Then let's quickly cut to the cheese... er, chase... and serve up some unappetizing numbers while the Penn & Teller ad campaign for the cheese-stuffed crust pizzas is still hot.
Surely you've seen the TV commercials featuring the oddly disturbing duo of Penn & Teller. The magicians' sick-humor schtick revolves around wordy Penn wreaking havoc on his counterpart, the silent Harpo Marx-like minion Teller.
Since the ad campaign for the Stuffed Crust concoction had buyers eating their pizza "backwards" -- starting at the crust and munching your way to the tip of the triangle -- Penn instructs Teller to do the very thing. The obedient sidekick turns around and then spins his head so it's now facing the same direction as his butt... at the camera. The silly video trickery is about as unsettling as the nutrition numbers I've picked up from the Pizza Hut website.
By the way, there's no charge for this pick-up; you too can check out what your belly's getting into by going to
www.pizzahut.com.
We'll start with your basic plain cheese stuffed crust pizza. , A 5.78-ounce serving (the equivalent of one slice of a medium pizza) packs 445 calories, 19 grams of fat (9.9g saturated), 24mg cholesterol, 1,090mg sodium, 46 grams of carbs (2.7g fiber), and 22 grams of protein.
Remember, that's for ONE slice of a MEDIUM cheese pizza. Have you seen a medium recently? Maybe my eyes are bigger than my belly -- and that's very doubtful -- however I swear today's medium was yesterday's small! And you know darn well that Mr. Bad Food is gonna eat a minimum of two slices in one sitting.
Of the 12 stuffed crust varieties offered by Pizza Hut, only the Veggie Lover's comes in with less calories and fat... barely!
[b]So what's the worst? Glad you asked: One slice (again, we're talking medium here) of the Meat Lover's will sock you with 543 calories, 29 grams of fat (12.5g saturated), 48mg cholesterol, 1,427mg sodium, 46 grams of carbs and 26 grams of proteins.[b]
In order of caloric content (from most to least) the rest of the stuffed crust roster reads: Pepperoni Lover's, Super Supreme, Supreme, Italian Sausage, Beef Topping, Pork Topping, Pepperoni, Chicken Supreme, and Ham. For complete nutritional values go to the above-mentioned Pizza Hut website.
Use your head and choose wisely. You can have one -- or even two -- three-ounce slice of Thin Crust cheese. It's a lot easier to swallow at 200 calories, 9 grams of fat (5g saturated), 10mg cholesterol, 590mg sodium, 22 grams of carbs and 10 grams of protein.
[This message has been edited by Kelly_S (edited 02-07-2001).]
scary numbers 
