Diet pizza has less fat, and less taste

* Item: Lean Cuisine French Bread Pizza

* What you get: 1 serving

* Cost: About $2.30

* Preparation time: About 3 minutes in microwave, about 30 minutes in conventional oven.

* Review: This product begs the question, Is it better to have a reduced-calorie slab of pizza or limit one's self to a smidgen of the real thing? I vote for the latter, having found these frozen, diet pizzas offensively bland. Cardboard came to mind as I sawed my way through the cheese pizza. The pepperoni version was marginally better. Only the deluxe recipe -- which featured pepperoni, bell peppers and sausage -- had sufficient taste to sustain my interest. Even so, I won't reach for these any time soon.

Pub Date: 4/01/98