When it comes to mall food courts or other fast foods, Wetzel's Pretzels is often one of the healthiest choices. This only works, however, if you keep it simple. Add pretzel toppings like cinnamon sugar and glaze or go for a baked-cheese Wetzel's pretzel with pepperoni and jalapenos and you're adding calories along with a few other detriments.
Calories and Fat
Wetzel's Pretzels original pretzel has a very low fat content, as long as you say to hold the butter. The original pretzel without butter has 280 calories, with only 4 of those calories from fat and a fat content of 0.5 g, according to Diet Facts. Add butter to the original pretzel and you get 320 calories, 36 calories from fat and a total fat count of 4 g.
Cholesterol and Fiber
Cholesterol is also low for a Wetzel's Pretzels, with absolutely none for the unbuttered pretzel, Diet Facts notes. The buttered pretzel has 10 mg of cholesterol, all thanks to the butter, which counts for 3 percent of your daily recommended cholesterol intake. Any version of a Wetzel's pretzel contains at least 2 g of fiber, according to a Wetzel's Pretzels product information fact sheet at Weight4Me.com.
Sodium
An unsalted original Wetzel's pretzel clocks in with fewer than 500 mg of sodium, the Wetzel's fact sheet notes. Add the large, highly visible grains of salt common on most soft pretzels and you're adding as many 1,615 mg of sodium for a medium pretzel, Nutrition Data warns. The 1,615 mg of sodium makes up more than half of your daily recommended dose of sodium at 67 percent.
Variations
Add any of Wetzel's toppings or pick a variation of the original pretzel and you are definitely adding calories. In some cases you're also adding fat, cholesterol and sugar. Topping choices described on the Wetzel's website include Sinful Cinnamon topped with cinnamon and sugar, Cin-A-Yum topped with cinnamon butter and a sweetened glaze, a sweetened pretzel topped with almonds called Almond Crunch, and a sweet onion and sour cream flavor for Sour Cream and Onion. Adding another ounce of butter adds 142 calories and 15 g of fat, 10 g of which are saturated, Nutrition Data notes. Add 1 oz. of sugar and you're adding 110 calories with basically no additional nutrition, Calorie King adds.
Baked-Cheese Versions
Go for any of Wetzel's baked-cheese pretzels and you may as well throw your diet out the window. All choices are topped with melted cheese and include the Cheese Meltdown, Grateful Garlic, Pepperoni Twist, Jalapeno Cheese Melt and Jalaroni, which combines the jalapeno peppers with pepperoni. Cheese is notoriously high in both calories and fat, with Nutrition Data noting that 1 oz. of cheddar weighs in with 113 calories and 9 g of fat, 6 g of which are saturated fat. Pepperoni comes with 138 calories and 12 g of fat, 4 g of which are saturated. Jalapenos are the least damaging ingredient in the baked pretzels, with only 8 calories and no fat for a 1-oz. serving of the canned peppers; but they still clock in with 468 mg of sodium.
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