There's an obvious way to save calories each time you eat pizza

Blotting the grease off of your pizza is a helpful move.

Primarily, it can save even the neatest eaters the nightmare of dripping oil down the front of their clothing. But it also has a health benefit as well - sifting out the excess grease on a slice of pizza can save you a not-totally-insignificant number of calories. About 35-40, if a bunch of stories on the subject are to be believed.

Cosmopolitan today published a graphic from LabDoor that was created last year.

Here's the meat of the graphic (but you can see the whole thing here.)

LabDoor

The graphic alleges you can save about 40 calories per blotted slice. LabDoor says the average American eats around 23 pounds of pizza a year, and that blotting each slice would save that average eater 20 slices of pizza a year when you add up all of the saved greasy calories that end up on your napkin. (Four percent of the total calories consumed by Americans come from pizza.)

The math behind this infographic is a little foggy, and the ingredients (and sizes) of pizza slices vary tremendously. But it's partially common sense: One teaspoon of soybean oil has almost 40 calories. So while it's not much of a diet plan, blotting some oil off is bound to take off some calories, too.

The quest to make unhealthy food a little bit more nutritionally reasonable is hardly a new concept. Swapping whole milk out for soy or skim can save the average grande Pumpkin Spice Latte drinker over 100 calories (hold the whip). And that's great. But blotting your pizza just makes for a better pizza eating experience anyway, so it's nice that it ends up being the "healthier" option.

Here's another healthy option - swap two slices of pizza for one. You'll save a lot of calories that way, too.