A Redditor's Striking Observation About Costco's Food Court Pizzas
If you were to choose between a pepperoni pizza and a cheese one based on which one was healthier, you probably wouldn't be picking a pizza in the first place. But let's presume you had to pick the lesser of the two evils, it would only logically make sense for a plain, topping-less cheese pizza to have a lower calorie count than the meat-based pepperoni one, right? Wrong.
One Redditor had a shocking revelation when they glanced at the Costco food court pizza menu. According to the menu, a slice of pepperoni pizza contains 650 calories as compared to a slice of cheese pizza which contains a whopping 710 calories in comparison — 60 calories more than its meaty cousin. An 18-inch pie of cheese pizza has 4,260 calories whereas the pepperoni one of the same size has a considerably lower 3,880.
While the news might come as a shock to many Costco shoppers and pizza lovers across the country, it's hardly the first time Reddit has observed the calorie-loaded difference between Costco food court's cheese and pepperoni pizzas. Discussions from as far back as six years ago indicate that Costco's cheese pizza has always been the more calorie-packed pie on the menu.
Reddit has theories about the cheese pizza's high calorie count
According to the Reddit thread, the culprit behind the cheese pizza's higher calorie count is, well, the cheese. The cheese pizza, comments say, likely contains way more cheese than the pepperoni one in order to make up for the lack of another topping which also accounts for the pizza's higher calorie count. Fans speculate having heard that the entire pepperoni pizza at a Costco food court comes with 14 oz of cheese whereas the cheese pizza has a massive 26 oz in comparison. Some have even observed that the difference isn't exclusive to Costco and that other pizza chains' cheese pizzas also tend to have higher calorie counts than their pepperoni ones of the same size.
A former pizza place employee on a separate thread also explains that "cheese has most of the fat and calories, pepperoni has some but is more protein and sodium." Pizza does get most of its fat from cheeses like mozzarella and cheddar, per VeryWell Fit, and these fats contain twice as many calories as carbs or proteins do per gram (via Cleveland Clinic). So, when you're ordering a cheese pizza, you're getting more cheese (and more fat and calories) than a pepperoni one. This perhaps explains why that slice of cheese pizza from the Costco food court makes up for far more calories than the pepperoni one does.