Pizza and Health - Pizza Benefits
As one of the post popular dishes in the world, Pizza has found itself in the center of discussions about benefits and disadvantages of its consumption. Many scientists tested the impact and long term effects of pizza on our metabolism. One of the most common misconceptions about pizza is that they are the part of the so called "fast food" types of foods. In reality, pizza can actually be very nutritional meal that can provide adequate sustenance to our body and metabolism. This article will try to describe some of the most notable ingredients of pizza, and they positive and negative effects.
Tomato Sauce represent one of the basic and most used components of pizza toping. In its structure tomato contains Lycopene (tomatoes processed into sauce have more lycopene in it than unprocessed ones) which is known to be powerful antioxidant which helps in fight against many different types of cancer. Studies have shown that people who eat pizza at least once a week have a smaller chance to get ill for several forms of cancer (mouth, stomach, lung, prostate and more). Some of the other ingredients have positive effect on our metabolism - olive oil reduces bad cholesterol and increase good one and prevent heart diseases, Mozzarella cheese is rich with fats, protein, calcium and sodium, garlic is rich with selenium, manganese, vitamin C and other beneficial compounds, oregano is a good source of vitamin K, manganese, fiber and oils.
People who are on diet can found that vegetable pizza or one made from olives, olive oil and fish represent one of the best dietary meals on earth. They can be made in such way to have great taste and still have low amounts of fat and cholesterol that are normally associated with meals with meat and cheese. Cheese toppings on pizzas are also excellent source of calcium, which reduced the possibility of colon cancer. However, for healthier diet we recommend reducing the amount of cheese (it after all has high amount of fat), and instead using more tomato sauce. The good combination of crust, cheese, toppings can be used for creation of healthy pizza that will surely be good for everyone organism. Although many try to put pizza in the "fast food" group, pizza created in the proper way, with the quality ingredientscan definitely be classified as a "health food". The recipe for such pizza consist of using whole wheat crust, extra virgin olive oil, a limited amount of cheese, no extra salt, and top it with lean meat, anchovies, vegetable, and/ or fruit toppings.
Negative health issues can come if pizza is made with no regard for its end quality (poor quality ingredients, bad recipes, etc). Frozen pizzas and ones created in large pizza chains have in the past been criticized for their amounts high salt, fat and calories. One of the largest pizza chains on earth Pizza Hut in one period of time sold food that contained more than twice the daily recommended amount of salt for an adult.
