This week I reached out for The Natural, Pizza Hut's first step toward offering all-natural ingredients on all of its pizzas. I had no problem polishing off the whole pie. Eating pizza sort of, you know, comes naturally to me. Unfortunately, scrounging for dessert after eating a whole pizza also comes naturally to me.

Pizza Hut calls its new pizza The Natural simply because it is made with all-natural ingredients. There are no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Good for Pizza Hut. Good for us.

Although, what is this world coming to when you can dive into a fast-food pizza that's loaded with lots of ingredients in Latin, sprinkled with nitrites and nitrates, and the mozzarella is barely a "cheese food product" that glows in the dark? You know, I've sort of grown fond of sodium benzoate. And yellow dye No. 4 actually tastes pretty good.

You can get The Natural with one topping (Magic 8 Ball says "pepperoni") or ask for it Rustica — piled high with extra goodies for a couple bucks more.

Here's the blueprint for The Natural, Rustica-style: all-natural sausage, fire-roasted red peppers, marinated Roma tomatoes, and sauce made from vine-ripened tomatoes with no added high-fructose corn syrup on a multigrain crust. Tomato slices or chunks as a pizza topping — very underrated.

Total calories: 240 (per slice). Fat grams: 10. Dietary fiber: 3 grams. Carbs: 27 grams. Manufacturer's suggested retail price: $11.99 for a medium Rustica. A regular version of The Natural with one topping is $9.99.

The Natural comes only in medium. I guess the Hut doesn't want us to have too much of a good thing.

Here's the deal. I am all in favor of top-quality, all-natural whatever … as long as it tastes good. It's not easy to be healthy and happy at the same time. I've had some bad experiences with tofu.

But Pizza Hut has pulled off the trick. The Natural tastes different — better, to me — than the regular pizzas from Pizza Hut. Maybe the sauce is a little edgier without the corn syrup. The crust definitely is different. The Natural's multigrain crust has 8 grams of whole grains per slice. The Natural has earned a seal of approval from the Whole Grains Council.

That's nice, but I'm just a little uncomfortable with something called the Whole Grains Council sticking its nose in my pizza. They can stay away from my doughnut shop, too. Don't even think about my street-vendor hot dogs. Some things, you just don't want to know.

Other all-natural toppings for The Natural include pepperoni, beef with no fillers and the usual array of meats and cheeses. Most of the veggie toppings, plus pineapple, have been all-natural for some time at Pizza Hut.

Basically, the big differences between The Natural and everything else at Pizza Hut are the crust and the sauce. When you order a regular pizza, like Hand Tossed or Personal Pan, you'll get all-natural toppings. Only the crust will be "fortified." This is not a bad thing. Pizza Hut, with 10,000 restaurants all over the world, has sold maybe a trillion pizzas with the old crust.

But get used to The Natural. Pizza Hut is committed to switching every ingredient on all of its pizzas to all-natural. It's like your mother saying: "Eat your vegetables! They're good for you!" Mom was right.

Ken Hoffman's syndicated column appears Wednesdays.