Pizza Hut Is Testing Out a New Plant-Based Pizza, But Is It Healthy?
Plant-based burgers are practically everywhere right now, but the trend is spreading to other foods. Pizza Hut just announced that its testing out a new plant-based pizza, complete with faux sausage.
It’s called the Garden Specialty Pizza, and it’s essentially a veggie pizza that’s topped with a type of plant-based sausage (hilariously) dubbed Incogmeato.
Pizza Hut announced in a press release that it's testing out the pizza for a limited time (and serving it in a round, compostable pizza box) at one Pizza Hut location in Phoenix. The new pizza will retail for $10 and it’ll be in the restaurant while supplies last.
What’s in the Garden Specialty Pizza?
The pizza features Pizza Hut’s typical hand-tossed dough, topped with whole milk mozzarella cheese, Incogmeato sausage, mushrooms, red onion, and banana peppers.
Garden Specialty Pizza Nutrition
Detailed nutrition isn’t available yet because this is a test pizza, a Pizza Hut publicist told Prevention.com. But she did share that the pizza is 290 calories per slice.
Is the Garden Specialty Pizza healthy?
It’s not bad, as far as pizza goes. “Pizza is still pizza. Even when it's plant-based, portion size still counts,” says Jessica Cording, MS, RD, author of The Little Book of Game-Changers: 50 Healthy Habits For Managing Stress & Anxiety.
That said, this is healthier than a standard Pizza Hut pizza, says Gina Keatley, a CDN practicing in New York City. “There is less calories, fat, and cholesterol than in a traditional slice and with the addition of the veggies, this pie has a more well rounded nutritional profile,” she says. “But if you're going to get the Incogmeato in place of traditional meat, then the nutritional improvement is going to be minimal and off-set by the lack of nutrients that meat contains versus the plant-based alternative.”
Plant-based meats are a “highly processed food,” points out Beth Warren, RDN, founder of Beth Warren Nutrition and author of Secrets of a Kosher Girl. “Although it’s an alternative for vegans who want to enjoy a sausage-like food, it shouldn’t be consumed because consumers feel it is automatically a healthier,” she says.
Still, the vegetable toppings get props from Cording. That’s “a great way to sneak in extra nutrients,” she says. What you eat with the pizza matters too. “A healthy hack my clients love is to pair a slice of pizza with a simple side salad,” says Cording. “This lets you enjoy pizza while also filling up on important vitamins and minerals and fiber.”
If you want to make the pizza healthier, Keatley recommends asking for a thin crust to save on calories. “With the thin crust, you can have more slices and those delicious toppings than with the hand-tossed or deep-dish,” she points out.
Again, this pizza is just being tested out at the moment. But, if it goes well, it could come to a Pizza Hut near you soon.
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