Photo courtesy of Articus of Flickr
Ahh, controversy! This week is Pizza Madness week, and this post will attempt to convince you that pizza is actually good for you!
A question was posed to WikiAnswers, “Is pizza bad for for health?”
The answer is enough to make my blood boil. Could it be from all that saturated fat and cholesterol that I would be eating? Nope, it seems that the CSPI people are at it again about pizza in this article.
Wait, I just went back and read the article. Am I reading that right? The best option for me would be to eat Pizza Hut’s Hand Tossed Veggie Lover? Seriously? Second best is Dominoes. Ughh.. nothing like cardboard and slick low fat mozzarella to get your heart pumping.
Seems the culprit here is the cheese. That bad, bad, evil saturated-fat laden ooey-gooey goodness. See, we should skip that, order pizza with a little pepperoni, skip the cheese, and sprinkle Parmesan on the pizza. Now, careful on the veggies, ’cause some of those come with cheese automatically.
Wait, did I hear that right? I have never seen a vegetable that grows with cheese… weird.
All in all, here is the deal: Pizza is not bad for you. Here is why:
If you make it, you know what is going into it. Seems logical. You control the amount of saturated fat, which flour you use, whether your wife’s hair accidentally ends up in the dough, and exactly how much you serve. You are connected to your food, not some soulless cardboard box.
Use good quality ingredients, local if possible. I know, I harp on that all the time. Thing is, do you really want to eat a tomato sauce that was created by produce picked by these a-hole companies? I know that it is hard in December when some places only have gravel, snow and salt as their seasonal ingredient. We need to try though.
Have your cheese. Go ahead. 2 kilos may be too much, so splurge on a good quality ingredient, and use less. Chances are you can’t afford huge amounts anyway. There, everyone wins. The local producers, and your belly! Think – chicken, spinach, arugula, pine nut and Gorgonzola. Yum!
You will save a lot of money. Okay, if you splurge, maybe not. Hey, at least you will get a better experience with your 20$ than giving to a pimply faced kid at Pizza Slut. “You want fries with that sir???”
Image Courtesy of emdot of Flickr fame
