Originally, considered a poor man's food in 16th century Naples, the pizza started with humble beginnings. With square shaped flatbreads, topped with nothing more than garlic, lard, and salt. Fast forward to the 21st century, pizza is a source of pride for Italians, not to mention enjoyed by the whole world!
Originally, pizza was considered peasant food and was only topped with cheese and basil. Over time, pizza became very popular in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
Americans eat an average of 46 slices of pizza per person each year, according to MayoClinic.com. While pizza can be healthy if you make it the right way, most of the pizza you buy counts as junk food because of the high amount of refined carbohydrates, fat and sodium it contains.
Pizza is a word not only known in many countries, but it is a food that is celebratory, comforting, or just plain tasty any time of the day or evening.
1. Sushi (Japan) Source Prepared with vinegared rice and a wide range of ingredients including seafood, vegetables, and sometimes fruits. Sushi tastes best when served with wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce.
Each day, approximately 1 million pizzas are consumed in Italy. Pizza here is popular both among locals and tourists who want to try a taste of authentic Italian cuisine. There are around 63,000 pizzerias in Italy, employing about 100,000 pizza makers.
Although low in total calories, a burger is higher in fat content than pizza slices. Regular intake of food rich in fats can lead to obesity increasing risk of lifestyle diseases such as heart conditions, diabetes and hypertension.
Pizza can help you absorb the antioxidant Lycopene. Lycopene is found in tomatoes, which are used to make the base sauce for pizzas. Lycopene helps to lower blood pressure and bring down high cholesterol. It's also more easily absorbed from cooked tomatoes as opposed to fresh tomatoes.
However, with highly refined dough, heavily processed meat and extremely high calories, pizza is one of the unhealthiest junk food in the world. So better avoid it or make one at your home with healthy ingredients.
Pizza Is Not a Fried Food
Fried food can lead to problems such as weight gain, increased blood pressure, developing diabetes, and increasing your risk for heart disease. Pizza, on the other hand, can protect your heart because of the nutrients that it provides.
Eating pizza once a week can be part of a healthy overall diet if done in moderation. Pizza, when eaten in moderation, can be a good source of protein, calcium, and other important vitamins and minerals.
Essentially, pizza is a savoury dish of Italian origin, consisting usually, of a round, flattened base of leavened wheat-based dough, topped with tomato sauce, cheese and a variety of other ingredients according to taste, baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven.
Pizza has a long history. Flatbreads with toppings were consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. (The latter ate a version with herbs and oil, similar to today's focaccia.) But the modern birthplace of pizza is southwestern Italy's Campania region, home to the city of Naples.
If you have two slices, it's not going to derail your progress, but swapping out one slice for a salad or other veggies could help stay satisfied longer — and save you extra fat and calories.
If you're relatively healthy, indulging in a slice of pepperoni pizza every once in a while will not (repeat: will NOT) kill you. It won't even affect your weight. In the short term, your weight will only increase by the actual weight of the pizza, according to Angelone.
While you can pick either when it comes to health, the type of pizza or pasta you are choosing to compare will determine which is healthier. A tomato based pasta is better than pizza or a cream based pasta. Thin crust, veggie-loaded pizzas are less flour, more veggies, which makes them a good choice.
McDonald's Big Macs tend to have highly saturated amounts of fat, carbs, sodium, cholesterol, and other harmful ingredients that pizza doesn't have as much of. Furthermore, we even did some research to find that Americans tend to prefer pizza to burgers, fries, and other foods found on McDonald's menus.
The most unhealthy type of typical doughnut averages about 360 to 500 calories each. The most unhealthy slice of pizza could be about 2300 calories, more than your daily value entirely.
The popularity of pepperoni pizza had only started to rise in the 1950s. Nowadays, beef pepperoni pizza is the most popular pizza variety, but there are also versions such as fish pepperoni pizza and port pepperoni pizza.
1. Norway. Norwegians consumes the most pizza in the world on a per-person ratio. This small nation has a population of about 5.5 million, and they eat about 5 kg (11 lbs) pizza each annually.