The way children eat pizza you would think that pizza was a new food group, but of course it isn’t a food group. Pizza is generally a junk food. Pizza includes many of the different food groups. But why is it so popular?

I remember my first pizza. Dad bought it from the local pizza take away. But that pizza was nothing like the junk available in restaurants today. It wasn’t overloaded with cheese and had heaps of fresh vegetables. Of course, in those days Pizza joints were generally owned and run by Italians so the pizza was made according to the traditional Italian pizza recipes.

If you are like many people you love pizza, but there are potential problems.

• Do you eat one or two slices or the whole pizza?
• What pizza toppings do you use?
• Do you have any idea of the calorie content?
• What food groups are represented on the pizza you eat?
• How can you make the pizza healthier?

Many people are insufficiently disciplined when it comes to eating pizza. They will scoff down a whole pizza without considering the calories being consumed.

As an example, lets examine a supreme 12” pan pizza. This is usually sliced into 8 portions. Are you ready for a reality check here?

One slice can contain as much as 330 calories which means the whole pizza is 2640 calories. If you are trying to restrict your calorie intake in order to lose weight and you eat the whole pizza in one sitting then you have blown your calorie intake for the WHOLE DAY.

But let’s examine the nutritional facts here. The figures below apply to ONE SLICE of pizza, The figures need to be multiplied by the number of pieces you consume.

	Calories	Quantity (g)	% Daily recommended
Calories per slice	330
Calories from Fat	160	17g	26%
Saturated Fat	N/A	6g	30%
Cholesterol	N/A	35g	12%
Sodium	N/A	850mg	35%
Carbohydrate	N/A	29g	10%
Dietary Fiber	N/A	2g	8%
Sugar	N/A	N/A	3%
Protein	N/A	N/A	14%

When seen this way it doesn’t look healthy, does it?

How often do you eat pizza? You need to understand the consequences of what you eat. You also need to decide whether to order pizza to make your own which is healthier an more fun, especially when you allow each family member to add their own toppings.

Try making your own dough so you understand exactly what goes in it. Basic dough to make more than one pizza is a simple recipe. 16 oz (450g) white flour (or wholemeal flour if you want to make it healthier), 1 tsp yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and sufficient warm water to create a dough. Note: sugar and salt can’t be reduced as both are required to cause the yeast to ferment. Notice that you are not adding any fat, milk powder or extra sugar and salt.

Make your own tomato sauce, with tomato, garlic and onions. You don’t need fat or sugar either. It’s low in calories and can be used as the base for tomato soup or pasta sauce.

Load your pizza with lots of fresh vegetables.

What about meat? Take a piece of skinless chicken and dice it, cook with garlic or spices. You can dry fry if you have a non stick frying pan. Again no fat required.

But what about the cheese, mix together some low fat mozzarella and parmesan. You don’t need a large quantity of cheese. Try it and see if your family prefer the home made pizza.

If you eat a whole pizza (2640 calories) you would need to walk for 11 hours to burn off all those calories. You can eat your calorie laden pizza if you want but are you prepared to walk for 11 hours? A leisurely walk burns approximately 240 calories per hour.

But maybe you don’t eat a whole pizza, that is great, but how many calories do you consume in a day? Don’t forget to take into account your snacks and sugary drinks, a can of regular soda contains up to 160 calories, so four cans of regular soda means 640 calories. Yeouch, theres 25% of your daily energy needs right there. You need approximately 2000 calories to live if you are a woman and 2200 calories for a man. This is based on average activity levels.

Yes you can eat pizza but keep in mind the consequences!

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