Calories in Papa John's Pizza
About Papa John's Pizza
Papa John’s Pizza is an American pizza chain founded in 1984 by John Schnatter. The company’s headquarters is in Louisville, Kentucky, with over 5,000 locations worldwide in 49 countries. It prides itself as offering the freshest ingredients of all the big chain pizza brands.
Papa John’s Pizza offers wide variety of pizzas on their Original Crust, Thin Crust and Epic Stuffed Crust options. The calories in Papa John’s Pizza varies significantly depending on the type of crust and the toppings.
To help you find the calories in Papa Jon’s Pizza we have created the Papa John’s Nutrition Calculator below for your convenience.
Papa Johns Nutrition Calculator
Which is the healthiest pizza to get at Papa John’s Pizza?
When determining the healthiest type of pizza, we looked at the total calories, Sodium (salt), and sugar content for a large pizza slice. So we’ve looked at the numbers, and the verdict is in!
According to the figures published on the Papa John’s website, gluten-free crust pizzas are by far the lowest in calories. These include the Fiery Buffalo Chicken, Philly cheesesteak, Super Hawaiian, Extra Cheesy Alfredo, Meat Ball Pepperoni, and Ultimate Pepperoni.
Papa John’s claims that these pizzas have between 160-180 calories per slice for a Large Gluten Free crust. The low-calorie count has left us scratching our heads a bit because the French Spinach and Tomato Alfredo and Garden Fresh gluten-free pizzas have 280 calories per slice. It’s hard to fathom how an Extra Cheesy Alfredo (180 cal) can have a third fewer calories than the same size, same crust French Spinach and Tomato Alfredo(280 cal). Therefore, we suggest that Papa John’s nutrition facts for the gluten-free option may be erroneous for the first six pizzas mentioned above.
So, ignoring those six gluten-free crust pizzas, the healthiest large pizza slice is the Thin Crust option. The top three Large Thin Crust pizzas per slice are:
- Cheese Only pizza – 210 Calories, 490 mg of Sodium, 2 grams of sugar
- Fresh Spinach & Tomato Alfredo – 210 Calories, unknown Sodium, 3 grams of sugar
- Garden Fresh – 210 Calories, 460 mg Sodium, 3 grams of sugar
Which is the unhealthiest pizza at Papa John's Pizza?
Papa John’s unhealthiest pizza is the Large Epic Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Sausage and Six Cheese, with 480 calories, 1220 mg of Sodium, and 5g of sugar. The Hawaiian BBQ chicken comes in second because of its high sugar content, with 410 calories, 1110 mg of Sodium, and a whopping 19g of sugar.
It’s worth noting that the Epic Stuffed Crust has between 40 to 90 more calories per slice than the Original Crust. Additionally it has 120 to 160 more Calories per slice than the Thin Crust with the same toppings.
While pizza is one of the tastiest foods around, too much of it can be problematic for your waistline. A whole large Epic Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Sausage and Six Cheese contains around 3840 calories, almost twice the daily recommended calorie intake of an average adult (2000 calories)
Tips for choosing low calorie pizza
If the number of calories is a significant factor in your selection of Papa John’s Pizza, we recommend the following:
Crust: Go for the Thin crust option if ordering a large pizza (unless you need gluten-free)
Size: If ordering Original Crust, the small pizza size has the least calories per slice
Toppings: Avoid pizzas with the most meat or processed meat. Garden Fresh and Fresh Spinach & Tomato Alfredo are the best options.
Servings: Limit your pizza intake to 1-2 slices
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