Let's Have a Pizza

What's the harm?

The other night I decided to make a small pizza for myself. I had some left-over tomato sauce and some kalamata olives and just needed the mozzarella cheese to go with a crust I would make myself.

So, I got some part-skim mozzarella cheese and was ready to go, when I saw this Boboli "thin pizza crust." 

Only 170 calories, it screamed out on the wrapper. Thin, it said, so it can't be all bad. I decide to try it out and went home to make the pizza, which I intended to eat without paying attention to the calories, fat, etc. Just because.

How I made it

I brushed on about 1 tsp of olive oil, spread on about 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce, 3/4 cup of shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese and 6 (actually counted them) sliced kalamata olives.

It made a 13" pie, which I cut into four pieces, figuring that about 1/2 the pie would constitute one serving. After eating two slices, I went on to the third. Then, since the last slice was not really that big -- and wouldn't stay crisp if I saved it -- I ate that one, too. The pieces weren't all that large, after all:

I washed them all down with a nice glass of wine.

As it turned out, the pizza wasn't really all that good (and the crust wasn't all that thin, either). Even though I was a little full, I realized that what I ate represented about what I would have eaten if I had been dining out. Not a big deal. 

The damage

I decided to do the numbers, just to see what I really did eat. I display these not to suggest that you never eat pizza, but, rather, to help you face facts.

IF you eat like this, it has consequences, so decide wisely. I'm not sorry I ate the pizza (I really wish it had tasted better, though). But doing the numbers helped me realize that I don't want to blow so much of my daily calories this way in the future. There are many more delicious ways to stay within my "budget."

The first surprise is that the Boboli crust said 170 calories per serving, but they meant 1/5 of a pie. One fifth? WHO cuts a pizza into FIVE pieces?!! Talk about deceptive labeling!!

The second surprise is how very much fat there is in olives (12 grams in only 6 olives), although I don't know why it should have come as a surprise, since that's where we get olive oil!

Anyway, here's what I ate:

pizza crust:  850 calories, 17.5 g fat, 140 g carbs, 1750 mg sodium

1 tsp oive oil: 50 calories, 10 g fat

1/2 cup tomato sauce: 60 calories, 11 g carbs, 260 mg sodium

6 sliced kalamata olives: 80 calories, 12 g fat, 2 g carb, 380 mg sodium

3/4 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese:  240 calories, 16 g fat, 3 g carb, 420 mg sodium

wine: 150 calories, 6 g carb

Total calories: 1,430

Total fat: 55.5 g

Total sodium: 2,810 mg

That's about a full day's calories and twice as much as fat as I wanted to eat in an entire day!!! 

Imagine if I had also had a big breakfast and a regular lunch. Best to rethink.