Cheese Pizza vs. Pepperoni Pizza – Which One Is Healthier for You?

Crunchy crust, bursting flavor, and cheesy goodness: pizza is favorite of all ages.

However, choosing the right pizza is always challenging when health is your main concern, especially between cheese and pepperoni pizza.

After all, on one side, there’s the classic goodness, and on the other, America’s fav.

So, “cheese pizza vs. pepperoni pizza” – which one is healthier for you?

Cheese pizza is healthier than pepperoni pizza as it’s low in calories, fat, and sodium. A medium-sized cheese pizza has 285 calories, 10.4g fat, and 640mg sodium, while pepperoni begets more – 313 calories, 13.2g fat, and 760mg sodium. Plus, cheese pizza has more protein and calcium than pepperoni.

However, cheese pizza lacks the essential manganese for digesting protein and less selenium,  unlike pepperoni pizza. 

But there is more to know about them. So, keep reading.

Cheese Pizza Vs. Pepperoni Pizza: Key Differences 

Although pepperoni pizza tastes better than cheese pizza, you would be surprised to know that cheese pizza is better for your health than pepperoni. Cheese pizza offers you more essential nutrients and less harmful ingredients than pepperoni.

However, other than that, these two pizzas have several other differences.

Amount Of Cheese

As the name makes it pretty obvious, cheese pizza contains more cheese than pepperoni. It is simply because pepperoni pizza and other combo pizzas have to make space for toppings by adding less cheese.

Crust

What type of crust a pizza has usually varies from restaurant to restaurant and individual orders. However, in most cases, cheese pizza has a thicker crust than pepperoni. A large amount of cheese used in thick cheese pizza makes it more delicious.

Whereas pepperoni pizza has a thinner crust helps consumers get more of the pepperoni taste. 

Taste

Cheese pizza is known for its salty, cheesy taste. With every bite, you get a bready and tangy tomato flavor. All added together results in a delicious combo of flavors that include saltiness, tanginess, and sweetness.

In contrast, the pizza also has a strong, meaty, slightly spicy taste alongside the mildly tangy and cheesy flavors. The tomato sauce is slightly sweeter to balance the spice from the pepperoni, resulting in a complimenting taste. Furthermore, pepperoni pizza has a slightly less bready taste. 

Texture

Both pizzas have more or less similar textures, but the notable difference would be that cheese pizza is more soft and stretchy, whereas pepperoni pizza is a bit tougher.

Cheese Pizza Vs. Pepperoni Pizza: People’s Choice

We just can’t decide which pizza is better based on our opinion because millions of people are eating it every day, and each individual has a different taste palette. So, we did some research to find out people’s opinions about both pizzas. 

For some people, it really depends on the restaurant. If it is a place you are going to for the first time, many foodies go for cheese pizza as it is harder to mess up. Some even said if a pizzeria makes cheese pizza properly, their other pizzas are bound to be good too.

Whereas in contrast, other food fans have claimed that it depends on whether it is homemade or from a fast food restaurant. According to them, homemade pepperoni tastes significantly better, so they choose pepperoni pizza if it’s homemade and cheese pizza if it’s from a restaurant.

As for the rest, it largely depends on the seasoning. If the pepperoni has too much seasoning, they opt for the cheese pizza. It is because, as per them, too much seasoning ruins the authentic taste of a pizza.

Cheese Pizza Vs. Pepperoni Pizza: Nutritional Values 

These are nutrients you can get from a slice of cheese pizza vs. a slice of Pepperoni Pizza.

Cheese Pizza vs Pepperoni Pizza: Which One Is Healthier?

To understand which of the two pizzas is superior, we need to look at how much benefit or harm cheese and pepperoni pizzas do to us.

Here are the details of which nutrients and how much of them you will intake by eating the two pizzas.

Protein 

Cheese pizza offers you 12 grams of protein, while pepperoni provides you 13 grams. Hence there’s no difference in this case. Both pizzas can give you almost the same amount of protein.

However, pepperoni pizza is better in this circumstance since it also has manganese, which is responsible for proper protein digestion. Both pizzas can fulfill your need for 23% of DVI protein each day.

Calories

Having a slice of cheese pizza means consuming 285 calories, while eating a slice of pepperoni pizza means providing your body with 313 calories.

The more calories you intake, the more harm you do to your body since the increased intake of calories can lead to obesity.

Consequently, obesity can lead to cancer risks and chronic issues.

Calcium 

If you are looking for a higher source of calcium than cheese, pizza is what you need. According to the daily value list, if you intake food that offers you 20% or more calcium, then it’s considered a high source of nutrients. 

Fortunately, cheese pizza can provide you with that 20% calcium of daily value. 

But if you want limited calcium and your pizza to be healthy, pepperoni pizza is better since it offers you 13% of calcium per day. Calcium keeps your bones and bone tissues healthy. 

Vitamins

With cheese pizza, you get 7.7% of vitamin A and 2.5% of vitamin C. On the other hand, pepperoni pizza can give you vitamin A, worth 8.1%, and 1.7% vitamin C. 

Both are good options for consuming these two vital vitamins. However, the amounts of vitamins A and C are not enough in both pizzas.

Selenium

Selenium works like an immune booster in our body.

Pepperoni pizza is counted better than cheese pizza since a 48-gram pepperoni pizza can give your body 15% of the selenium it requires daily.

Although pepperoni pizza has manganese that helps digest protein properly and selenium to enhance immunity, cheese pizza is better. It’s because you get less fat and calories but more calcium with cheese pizza. So cheese pizza is healthier than pepperoni pizza.

Is Cheese Or Pepperoni Pizza Good For Your Diet?

If you’re a pizza lover who often craves it but is also on a diet, eat cheese pizza. Yes, you can continue your diet and have cheese pizza sometimes because, unlike pepperoni pizza, it doesn’t have unhealthy ingredients. 

Pepperoni has salt and saturated fat that can increase your weight. Hence, it’s not a good idea to consume pepperoni pizza while you are on a diet. Also, avoid eating cheese pizza often if you are willing to lose weight quickly.

FAQs

Do people like cheese or pepperoni more? 

Pepperoni pizzas are more popular than cheese pizzas while not being healthier than them. Since the pepperoni is made of meat and has added chill papers or paprika, it tastes more and is liked more by most people.

 Is Cheese Pizza Healthy?

Cheese pizza is pretty unhealthy since it offers 18.5 grams of fat with 5 ounces of serving. It also has a high amount of saturated fat that can increase the chance of heart disease and cholesterol.

How often should you eat pizza? 

Eating pizza every day is not wise because pizzas have more unhealthy ingredients than healthy ones.

Hence it can harm not only the adults but also the kids. According to BBC News, people must not consume pizza more than twice or thrice a month.

Can you use parmesan cheese for pizza? 

Parmesan cheese is considered one of the healthiest cheeses to use as the topping of pizza. After the pizza is baked, parmesan cheese is grated over the pizza.

Final Words 

Both cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza are favorites globally. However, pepperoni pizza is more famous for being tastier. Of course, people are becoming more conscious of their well-being and preferring health benefits over tastes.

So if you are confused about cheese pizza vs. pepperoni pizza – here’s the catch.

1 slice of Cheese pizza has fewer calories and fat than pepperoni pizza. It’s also richer in calcium than the pepperoni one. However, pepperoni contains more protein and has manganese which helps in proper protein digestion.

Regarding health benefits, cheese pizza is ahead of pepperoni pizza, but when it comes to taste, pepperoni will always beat cheese pizzas.