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Pizza doesn't have to be a forbidden food for people who are watching
their fat intake.
Try these five tips and see how easy it is to make a pizza you
can eat without feeling guilty.
 START
WITH A SALAD
Order a salad, with low-fat dressing of course, to eat before the
pizza is served. It'll take the edge off your hunger, give you lots
of fiber, fill you up, and make you feel less inclined to pig out.
ADJUST
THE CRUST
Medium and deep dish varieties may have extra fat added to them.
And don't bother with that old dieter's trick of not eating the
crust. You're better off eating it, since the crust has hardly any
fat and lots of good carbohydrates.
TALLY
YOUR TOPPINGS
Toppings can be your friend or your enemy, so choose them well.
Let's say you're ordering from Pizza Hut. If you order one of their
basic "Medium Thin and Crispy" Pizzas with only cheese,
you'll end up downing 223 calories and ten grams of fat per slice.
Make that a "Meat Lover's" special, and you're up to nearly
300 calories a slice and a whopping 17 grams of fat. Uggh. On the
bright side, though, you could order the "Veggie Lover's"
special and take in a mere 192 calories per slice with only eight
grams of fat.
Moral of the story: Order Vegetable Toppings. Avoid the meat. (But
beware: Some chains may add extra cheese to vegetarian pizzas. Be
sure to ask.)
Go wild with these low-fat, low-calorie toppings: Mushrooms, onions,
peppers, black olives, broccoli, artichoke hearts, pineapple, garlic,
spinach, and tomato slices. Substitute lean and mean tuna, shrimp,
crab meat, turkey, and chicken for some of the cheese.
Pull in the reins on pepperoni, sausage, ham, meatballs, prosciutto,
and bacon. They all add fat and sodium. Go easy with anchovies to
avoid a sodium overload.
SAY "LESS
CHEESE, PLEASE"
Lots of takeout places put extra cheese on their pizzas because
they think that's what makes customers happy. Request that the chef
go light on the cheese and add a larger portion of toppers. Ask
for part skim mozzarella.
Order pizza topped with a sprinkle of feta cheese. Feta is slightly
lower in fat than whole milk mozzarella, BUT with its strong flavor,
a little goes a long way.
Eat pizza the way it was originally cooked -- without cheese.
SLICE
THE SLICES
- If you're worried about pigging out on pizza, here are a few
tricks.
Order a smaller pizza than usual. If you usually order the large,
order the medium. With your salad, you'll still be full.
- Figure out how many slices you want to eat before the pizza
arrives. Wrap extra slices and put them in the freezer before
you sit down to eat.
- Don't put the pizza box on the table. Instead, put each person's
portion on his or her plate. The sight and smell of the open box,
with its slowly congealing slices, often triggers the need for
that final (fatal) slice.
Related Articles:
- Low Fat Sandwhich Spreads
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