Though many people think a healthy diet means avoiding fast food completely, any restaurant's food can be part of a healthy diet if you know how to make the best choices for you. Pizza Hut, which serves Italian-style pasta meals as well as pizza, has many menu options, some of which can be part of a healthy diet and some of which can make for an occasional dietary indulgence.
History
Pizza Hut was one of the first fast-food companies to include calorie information on its menus, according to USA Today. Yum Brands -- the parent company of Pizza Hut as well as Taco Bell and KFC -- planned to have calorie information on all menus by 2011, according to Jonathan Blum, the Yum senior vice president in charge of coordinating Yum's U.S. nutrition policy.
Facts
The nutritional content of a Pizza Hut meal depends on what you order. According to Pizza Hut, with a smart order, you can eat all four major food groups in a Pizza Hut meal: grains, fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy products. That means a Pizza Hut meal can provide a mix of protein, vitamin A, calcium and complex carbohydrates.
Identification
Several factors affect the nutritional content of Pizza Hut menu options. The size of the pizza you order is a factor. A slice from a 12-inch medium pan pizza with just cheese contains approximately 240 calories, 4.5g of fat and 25mg of cholesterol, according to Pizza Hut's nutrition website. A slice of cheese-only pizza from a 14-inch large pan pizza has about 360 calories, 7g of saturated fat and 35mg of cholesterol. Crust choices also play a role. The Thin 'N Crispy crust has the lowest calorie count -- 65 calories for a cheese slice. Traditional pan pizza has the highest -- around 91 calories for a cheese slice. Topping also play an important role, with meats and cheese adding the most calories and vegetable options adding the fewest.
Considerations
A medium slice of Pizza Hut's hand-tossed pepperoni pizza has about 250 calories -- approximately the same number of calories as a small order of fast food fries, a regular-size chocolate bar or a cup of ice cream, according to Fitness magazine. For roughly the same calorie content, you could also eat a medium baked potato with a small scoop of sour cream, a dozen baby carrots with 1/2 cup of hummus or 3 oz. of broiled salmon with a 3 oz. serving of sweet potatoes.
Warning
If you're watching your calorie and fat intake, avoid cheese-stuffed crust options, according to O, The Oprah Magazine. Stuffed-crust pizza can wreak havoc on your diet, with a stuffed-crust slice almost doubling the amount of saturated fat and calories you'd get from a thin-crust slice.
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