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| Healthy | 58% | 387 votes | Total: 666 votes | |
| Unhealthy | 42% | 279 votes |
Healthy
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Add to FavoritesPizza is as healthy as you make it. Prepare it at home and you have more control over the ingredients. Buy it in a supermarket or in a pizza parlor and you can't be certain of the nutritional value, but you can have some say in the final product that goes on your table and into your family's mouth..
Most over-the-counter pizzas and frozen pizzas are made with "white" wheat crusts. Some will be advertised as wheat, but check to see if that means processed wheat flour was used. If your supermarket has a health foods section, you may be able to find pizza made with healthy 100% whole wheat, preferably stone-ground.
A basic pizza crust recipe calls for flour, water, yeast, sugar, oil and salt. It's similar to making homemade bread except that it requires only a minute or two of kneading. Using 100% whole-wheat flour does not mean you're going to use only whole wheat. You will want to use some white flour (try "unbleached"). Using all whole wheat makes very heavy dough.
Honey works well in place of granulated sugar. It has more calories but people tend to use less of it since it is sweeter. One source stated: "Some nutrition experts say honey, unlike table sugar, contains small amounts of vitamins and minerals and that honey can aid in digestion."
Store-bought pizza sauces may contain sugar and too much salt. If you want to make your own sauce, start from scratch with fresh or canned tomatoes, or even tomato sauce or puree. If you buy a canned product, check the ingredients label, again looking for the addition of sugar or salt.
Make your own sauce with the tomato product of your choice, adding basil, oregano, garlic and other fresh herbs. Cook over a low heat until as it reaches the thickness you want. Make extra and freeze it in small batches for future pizzas.
If you buy a pizza, don't be fooled into thinking that you can get nutrition every time just by carefully choosing added ingredients. Your local pizza parlor may be using frozen, processed broccoli and canned mushrooms. Even when fresh vegetables are used, they may be sparsely scattered over the crust. If you don't want to make the crust yourself, buy a crust. Or just buy a basic pizza with sauce (with or without cheese).
Cheese is wonderful. Cheese tastes so good. Mozzarella. Cheddar. Processed cheese. Any one, or any mixture, that melts easily. That's what you'll find on most pizzas. Your biggest concern is going to be the fat content in the cheeses.
Pizzas without cheese can be just as tasty if the toppings are well seasoned. If, however, you choose an alternative to the cheesy flavor, such as some type of white sauce, beware. It, too, can be highly fatty, depend on the ingredients.
Your best bet for a healthier pizza is in the toppings. If your family insists on pepperoni or sausage, don't deny them. Just reduce the amounts used on each pizza. Also, be sure to drain all the grease off the sausage or other meats and pat them dry with a paper towel. In addition to the traditional meat toppings, offer chicken or turkey shredded or cut in small pieces.
Start introducing them to small amounts of vegetables. Depending on what your family prefers, you can cut up their favorite vegetables finely, saute slightly and season, then add them to the unbaked pizza; or, if they want to see what they're getting, cut their favorites into larger chunks.
For those who absolutely refuse to partake of vegetables, shred a small amount and place in a blender with some of the sauce. Blend them together. Always start small. You can add more as your family gets used to it.
Your choices of toppings are endless: broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, onions, garlic, chopped spinach or other cooked greens, zucchini, yellow summer squash. You can even shred turnips, white or sweet potatoes, yams, or parsnips. One of my all-time favorite pizzas was topped with dozens of roasted garlic cloves.
Making the pizza at home gives you more control over the type and amount of cheese. If your family is used to lots of greasy cheese and you'd like to promote something healthier, take small steps in the transition. Replace part of the traditional cheeses with low-fat or fat-free cheese. At the very least, reduce the amount of cheese used. It's not necessary to cover every inch of space with cheese. Just top your well-seasoned, yummy vegetables with a scattering of cheese.
Like I said, pizza can be healthy... just as healthy as you make it.
Learn more about this author, Kathleen Richardson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Unhealthy
When it comes to healthy food choices, you will never see pizza on the list. Pizza is not a healthy food choice. It is actually the opposite of healthy. Most pizzas are unhealthy and with so many other healthy food choices, it is unreasonable to pick pizza as a healthy choice.
Pizza is only eaten on special occasions or once or twice a month with friends or just enjoying the taste. This doesn't make pizza a healthy choice. If you eat something once a month just for the taste of it then that clearly proves that pizza is not a healthy choice or you would be eating it everyday.
A healthy food is the one that provides nutrition in the right amounts with a positive calorie ratio. This means that the nutrition vs. calories ratio is positive meaning that the food contains high nutrition value and low amount of calories from fat. Here are some facts and points that clearly prove that pizza is not healthy.
1.) No healthy heart check: Canada and U.S.A provide a health check for items which qualify through their health standards. These items are then given a health check which is posted right on the product and is visible to the customer. There are no pizzas out there which qualified through their standards meaning that pizza is not considered to be healthy for your heart. This is just one fact that proves pizza is not a healthy choice for the heart.
2.) Nutrition information: It is good to know the amount of calories, saturated fats, Tran's fats and cholesterol levels in foods before you eat them. Here is some nutrition value of an average sized pizza. Calories in your pizza can be higher or lower, but on average come to the same amount
350 calories/slice: You can usually eat 3 slices very easily, counting upto 1050 calories.
10 grams of saturated fat, 15 grams of fat, and 35 mg cholesterol. In addition to that a medium slice provides upto 22% of your daily sodium value.
These are the nutrition values taken from a leading pizza selling restaurant. Note that they are only based on one slice. Most people can easily eat upto 4 slices of pizza with drinks which comes upto around 1500 calories. That is your whole day's worth of calories in one meal.
3.) Comparison with healthy foods: Before you decide to list pizza in your "healthy foods" list, consider a comparison with the "real" healthy foods.
8 carrots have 40 calories with 0g fat, 0g saturated fat, 0% sodium, 100% Vitamin A, 4% iron, 4% Vitamin C, and 60% of the carrot is water.
Pizza is no where near the nutrition value and has 10 times more calories with grams of fats. When you compare pizza with healthy foods, one can easily see the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods.
4.) Making of a pizza: Making a pizza requires loads of cheese, beef, tomato sauce, pepperoni, chicken, and veggies. You might think that veggie pizza is healthy, but don't forget that it still contains loads of cheese with less veggies. I want to clear a misconception that even a vegetarian pizza has 300 calories/slice with slight more nutrition value, but still lots of fat.
One of the key ingredients of a pizza is cheese, and you should know that cheese contains saturated fats.
Most of us enjoy eating pizza, but it still shouldn't be eaten on regular basis. It could be hard for someone to adjust to the facts stated above, but truth is always bitter. You can live in an imaginary world thinking that pizza is healthy, but look at it from a real world perspective and adjust to the facts! Pizza is not a healthy choice compared to other foods, fruits and vegetables. It contains a lot of calories with very less nutrition value and on top that it is not recognized from any health perspective.
Learn more about this author, Arjun Wadhwa.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
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