Our Pie Takes the Prize

Did you know…the University of Houston serves a pretty good slice of pie? Pizza pie, that is. Pizza might be the first food that comes to mind when you think of college…late nights…junk food. You feel me, right? The good news is, if you eat your pizza right, it can be a part of a healthy, balanced diet and UH is helping you do just that.

A key to having a balanced diet is learning how to include things like pizza in a healthy way. A good place to start is to have only one slice and fill your plate up with fresh salad (light on the dressing!) and/or steamed veggies on the side. A second step would be to healthify your pie. Thanks to our wonderful culinary team, our pizza is officially healthified. Keep reading to see the truth behind students' thoughts about pizza.

The pizza on campus is so bad for you.

Fact: It isn’t sooo bad for you. Actually, our pizza is on average 51% lower in fat and 40% lower in calories than fast food pizza.

The pizza on campus is really processed.

Fact: Nope. We want our food to be good and good for you. It is "homemade" pizza. For the pizza sauce, we use a from scratch marinara or we use a fat free tomato sauce that is simply tomatoes, olive oil and spices. Both sauces have no added sugar and many of our pizzas have a house made dough. We use fresh vegetables and meats for toppings.

The pizza on campus is loaded with fat.

Fact: We use part skim mozzarella, low fat or fat free pizza sauce and low fat pizza dough. When we serve a taco pizza or hamburger pizza, we add ground chicken to the ground beef in order to lower the fat and calories.

The numbers don’t lie, so take a look at how our pizza measures up. If you still aren't convinced, stop by the Fresh Food Co or Cougar Woods for a slice.

	Calories	Total Fat	Saturated Fat
Cougar Woods Classic Cheese Pizza	167	4.5g	2g
*Fast Food Cheese Pizza	296	12g	5g
Cougar Woods Eggplant Pizza	180	5g	2g
Cougar Woods Margherita Pizza	162	4.5g	2g
Fresh Food Co Red Pepper & Mushroom Pesto Pizza	200	9g	2g
*Fast Food Veggie Pizza	290	11g	4.5g
Cougar Woods Pepperoni Pizza	185	6g	3g
Fresh Food Co Chicken Parmesan Pizza	190	6.5g	2g
*Fast Food Pepperoni Pizza	326	14g	6g

*Fast food pizza is an average of Papa John's, Pizza Hut, and Little Caesars.

Disclaimer: This blog has no intention of promoting the "every day every meal" consumption of pizza. Pizza is still pizza. Enjoy it in moderation and balance it out with some veggies.