In a surprising comment made during a popular UK radio show, the founder of one of the largest Pizza chains in the United States and United Kingdom told listeners not to eat too much pizza!
In an interview with host Adam Shaw on BBC’s Radio Four program, John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John’s pizza, was asked whether he was concerned about the British government’s recent actions in the fast food restaurant business to help put the brakes on obesity.
Schnatter said, “Pizza is actually healthy for you if you don’t eat too much of it. You can’t eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices it’s very nutritious.”
Laughing, Shaw replied, “I’m not sure your investors would want to hear you tell people, ‘don’t eat too much of our pizzas!”‘
Across the web, bloggers and tweeters have been putting in their two cents. Some say he was a little TOO honest.” Others say this was either the worst PR screw up ever… or the best PR move ever (you know what they say about “bad” publicity).
Although I wouldn’t call pizza health food, I think his advice to eat pizza, but only in moderation was the responsible thing for a fast food owner to do at a time where obesity is reaching epidemic proportions, not just in the United States but in the U.K. and other countries as well.
Moreover, it was just plain good diet advice! One reason people are failing to control their weight is because of all-or-none thinking, i.e, “I can’t eat ANY pizza EVER again!” or, “I have to follow my diet 100% or not at all.”
In my experience, all or none thinking is one of the biggest causes of diet failure. It’s far better from a psychological perspective to eat your pizza; simply enjoy it infrequently and in small quantities.
Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat, the more the steam pressure builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release value on that thing, eventually the pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later.
Well, in the beginning, you might think your willpower is made of steel and that you’re bolted tigher than a submarine hatch, but the longer you’re on a diet with no relief, the greater the pressure builds up until YOU blow your top… and that means massive bingeing.
But if you let off a little steam in the form of a “free meal” (or two) and enjoy that slice of pizza (or whatever is your favorite ‘poison’) on occasion, that relieves the pressure. Alas, you never even feel the urge to binge… because you HAD your pizza and the urge was satisfied. Since the meal was planned and you kept the calories under control, it had little or no effect on your fat loss results.
This topic of conversation was prompted on the BBC radio show during a discussion about how the Pizza business was doing during the recession and about efforts to stem the growing obesity crisis in the UK.
Earlier last month, The Food Standards Agency in the UK started negotiating with UK food, pub and sandwich chains to display calories on their menus to try to provide education about healthier options for consumers who eat out frequently.
The move is similar to one made in New York City last year, where restaurant chains that have more than 15 locations must print calories on the menus. According to an article in the British Medical Journal, this has resulted in an average reduction of 50-100 calories for each food order. Not much, but at least it’s something.
In the case of pizza, a 2.2 ounce thin-crusted slice of cheese pizza could have as little as 190 calories. One slice of “meat lover’s” pizza, on the other hand, could set you back almost 500 calories! If you knew the difference, would it change what kind and how much you ate?
I’m totally in favor of posting calories on menus, despite the critics who say it won’t make a difference. I think anything that raises calorie awareness is going to affect behavior in a positive way and help make for better food decisions. Whether it should be mandatory by law is debatable. I say, let the restaurants decide and then let the marketplace sort itself out.
I would be more likely to recommend or support the restaurants who opted to post calories, increase their range of healthy choices… and on that rare occasion, have a CEO who actually says, “Eat my food, but not too much!!”
Now, if we can only get those Mcdonalds’s execs to say the same thing!
Train hard and expect success,
Your friend and coach,
Tom Venuto
(no relation to Venuto’s pizza, hahaha)
About Tom
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models( e-book) and The Body Fat Solution (Hardcover, Avery/Penguin Books). Tom is also the founder and CEO of the Internet’s premier fat loss support community, the: Burn The Fat Inner Circle.
Copyright 2009 by Tom Venuto and Burn The Fat Blog.
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Hi Tom,Thanks for this timely post! I myself have fallen victim to the all-or-nothing mindset with regards to my diet AND training on numerous occasions! In theory, moderation makes perfect sense, but the application is much more difficult. When I am frazzled or stressed out, pizza does wonders to “soothe” whats alling me LOL. It”s the perfect anodyne IMO. Just last night I ate three medium pizzas from Dominos in ONE SITTING. You can imagine how bloated and wracked with guilt I must feel today. I had went six months without a slice, then last night, I caved big time! I’m going to take your advice and have planned cheat meals featuring a slice of pizza or two in the future. Hopefully that will ward off my cravings and keep my weight in check. Thank you for stating the obvious in your own eloquent manner.Scott
For a while Ruby Tuesday’s posted calories on the menu. It was pretty shocking, and very much limited my selections there (which I guess was the point!). Eventually they stopped doing it, and I went back to eating the full menu.Uno’s has calories by a computer kiosk in the restaurant. So it’s there if you want it, but not staring right at you. Like Ruby Tuesday’s the numbers are shocking.Once I started biking 150 miles a week however, it didn’t matter too much what I ate. Not that I will ever be ripped that way!
I definitely agree with this post! Moderation is key to a healthy relationship with food. I really do think that posting calories make a difference especially after you realize how many calories are on restaurant menu items.I love Papa John’s Pizza and I like the fact that he was honest. No matter what he says, people will still eat pizza whether in moderation or not because most of them are already aware of the negative health consequences anyway.
Most people have no idea how many calories they are really eating. I was in a Chilies the other day and I was looking at their “guiltless” menu and noticed the statement that all items classified as “guiltless” were under 770 calories. That is a lot of calories for most poeple to consume in just one meal. I am sure many a person thinks they are doing the right thing and having no idea how many calories they are really eating.
I am amazed and proud of this guy. To put his own business “at risk” by saying “don’t overuse my product” is so responsible. It makes me want to run out and buy his pizza! I wonder if there’s a big enough niche for a market position for a pizza place where the pizza is healthy… It *is* possible to have healthier pizza of course, but not sure the mass market would tolerate the different taste.A few of the above comments talk about nutrition info at restaurants: check outhttp://worldfitnessnetwork.com/2009/01/nutrition-data/Thanks for sharing this Tom!
Balance is a good thing. I just realised how much I loved falafels. The truth is when you eat them in moderation, they can be nutritious food with the whole wheat bread and the amount of vegetables. It’s definitely not bad to eat fast food once or twice a week.Also, I never eat fast food menus, I always take just one snack. A menu can add up pretty quickly in calories if you add fries, a condement, soda, ice cream.
Hello Tom!I just wanted to say that I was relieved to read this aticle about eating pizza. My husband and me went to a Little Ceasures and got one of them $5.00 pizzas, half extra cheese and the other half pepporoni. I ate no more than two or three pieces and had two slices leftover. I ate the two slices left over this morning, one slice being extra cheese and the other pepporoni. I felt like OMG, it’s only Monday and I’m cheating…already! I know that eating pizza in big portions and/or frequently can be a bad thing. But, this was the first time I ate pizza in a very good while. I don’t plan to eat anymore for another good while. But, thanks for posting this article about eating pizza. It really brought a sense of ease to my mind and now I don’t think that I just totally blowed my diet. Thanks! Course, I’m going to be watching a little more closey at food and calories I eat for the rest of the day.