Healthy Pizza? Yes, Of Course!

Firstly, apologies for the humorous title. Being a small blog gives us the creativity to try out new things, so there we go. Anyway, you know how we have always been told that pizza is unhealthy, right? Turns out it might not be. This is good because it is the “weakness” of many people, myself included. I think I have pizza weekly or bi-weekly on average. How about you?

While researching this topic on the internet, I came across a candid statement, which many of us can resonate with. Here goes “I love pizza- always have. I make sure I eat it in moderation, but it is still one of my favourite foods.” I think this resonates with many of us.

Well, according to an article published by Men’s Health magazine (USA) some time ago, pizza can be good for us. The first disclaimer they put down is that it has to be “real” pizza, not the type that we usually think of, i.e. from from Pizza Hut, Dominoes or the frozen food section of your supermarket. By real, I mean pizza made with real crust, real tomato sauce and pure olive oil. Sometimes in the west, we call it “gourmet pizza”.

From that article in Men’s Health, I was led to a journal article published by the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which postulated that eating pizza was linked to a reduced risk of heart attack. This was done as part of a four-year study in almost a thousand Italian people. Of course it had to be Italians, right? I was slightly amused by this as well.

Anyways, how they conducted the research was by asking people how often they ate pizza. They then grouped it several ways, one of the ways being splitting everyone into two groups – one who ate pizza once a week (not sure if it includes those who ate it more) and another group consisting of people who didn’t.

The main finding from this article was that those who ate pizza at least once a week were 30 percent less likely to experience a heart attack than the folks who didn’t partake. If this is indeed true, then wow. But of course, being a scientist myself, I had my fair share of suspicion too. Can’t blame me, right?

Now, what was the explanation for this phenomenon? After all, correlation does not represent causation, as is commonly said. Well, the researchers reckon that this was because of pizza’s cardio protective ingredients, including olive oil and tomato sauce. Even the common person knows that these ingredients are known to be healthy.

So now, back to gourmet pizzas. Now, I’ll be the first to declare that I’m much more likely to get Dominos than gourmet, but that’s because I’m thinking from a price point standpoint. In my city, gourmet pizzas are waaaay more expensive. Another option you might have, which I can’t due to facility restrictions would be to make your own pizza. Try it if you have an oven – it can be fun!

Speaking of nutrition, did you know that I have written a book about it? We first released it a few years ago and it has helped many people in their fitness journey. It doesn’t have all the answers (no books have), but it will be good for you. It’s called the Strategic Nutrition Guide. Definitely check it out. And check out the following links too: