The country music star and "The Voice" judge Blake Shelton seems so sincere when he looks into the camera and says in his charming Southern drawl, "You won’t believe how much good stuff is in the Pizza Hut dinner box” on a recent commercial. That got us wondering: Just how much “good stuff” do the pies actually contain?
From a nutritional perspective, not much. A look at the numbers on the chain’s new Shelton-inspired cheddar crust BBQ pizzas reveals that a single slice from a large (14-inch) Blake’s Smokehouse BBQ pie has 370 calories and 790 milligrams of sodium. That's one-third to one-half the amount of sodium you should have in a day. (A slice from a medium pie has 270 calories and 560 milligrams of sodium.) A slightly better choice is the Hawaiian BBQ; a large slice has 290 calories and 600 milligrams of sodium.
If just a slice would satisfy you, it might not be so bad, but realistically wouldn’t you have two—or more? Do the math, and two large Smokehouse slices add up to 740 calories and 1,580 milligrams of sodium. Split a large pie with a friend (four slices each) and you’d get nearly all the calories and more sodium than you should have in a day. Women should get 1,600 to 1,800 calories a day and men 2,000 to 2,200.
What about the cinnamon sticks that come with the dinner box? Tack on 160 calories per two-piece serving.
Find more information on making healthy choices when dining out in our fast-food restaurants buying guide.
But we don’t want to pick on Blake. There are plenty of dietary offenders on Pizza Hut’s menu. Among the large varieties, 21 of them have 350 calories or more per slice. Those with the most tend to be topped with meat. A slice of the Meat Lover’s pan pizza is 470 calories, the Pepperoni Lover’s is 440, and the Super Supreme (which has ham, beef, pepperoni, and sausage) is 430. Perhaps not surprising, all contain an alarmingly high amount of sodium—more than 1,000 grams per slice.
If you want to make a pit-stop at Pizza Hut, skip the meat pies and opt for the Thin ‘N Crispy crust to save calories. For example, a slice from a large Veggie Lover’s pizza has 240 calories, the Chicken Supreme has 250, and the cheese has 260. The sodium still hovers between 770 and 800 milligrams. Order a medium pizza (12 inches) and you can shave off 40 to 50 calories and about 200 milligrams of sodium per slice. And think of the pizza as a side dish, not the main course: Try to limit yourself to two slices, and have a big salad with your meal.
—Deborah Pike Olsen
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