Pizza the health food
by Matt Giwer, © 2004 [Nov]

Not exactly a health food but now that I have your attention give a read.

Pizza is commonly viewed as junk food for no good reason. Look at what it is made off. The pie itself is high gluten wheat bread. And without Reagan jokes, the sauce is tomato plus seasonings and the tomato is a fruit. Next, cheese made from milk, high in calcium and likely keeps cows contented.

So far we have a high carb item which is out of fashion these days. So we make it more fashionable by starting with a meat topping. Pepperoni has perhaps the most fat but at least it balances out the carbs. The other meats tend to have lower fats content down to none at all for some chains which shall remain nameless use smoked turkey in place of ham. From there on it is veggie heaven. And the veggies are not boiled to death they are roasted. Vitamin filled juices stay on the pie.

Without getting into some fad/popular diet idea there isn't a much more complete meal than a pizza. While it takes a bit of selection to consider it "balanced" by any definition it is about as far from the empty calories as you can get in this life. Yes, it is high in fat no matter how you look at it because of the cheese but consider just how little cheese you eat with a "works" pizza. A couple pizza slices is not much more than 2-3 slices of cheese.

So if there is a choice, is a big Mac and fries or couple slices of pizza?

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