| The way people eat pizza you would think this is the | | | | On the perfect diet book we have said that no food is |
| case, but surprise pizza isn't a food group. It comes | | | | to be avoided, so how do you eat pizza if you love it? |
| under junk food, and has a lot of the different food | | | | You have to learn about the consequences of what |
| groups included. Why is it so popular? | | | | you eat. You also need to decide between picking up |
| I remember my first pizza. I was on holiday in Riva Del | | | | the telephone and ordering pizza to making your own |
| Garda, Italy and of course it was pizza and pasta for | | | | which will be healthier. |
| many meals. But the thing was that the pizza was | | | | Make your own dough, and then you know exactly |
| nothing like you get today in many restaurants. It was | | | | what goes into it. Basic dough which will make more |
| not overloaded with cheese; it had lots of fresh | | | | than one pizza is a simple recipe. 16 oz strong flour |
| vegetables on it. We also had a pizza takeaway | | | | bread flour, 1 tsp yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and |
| where we used to live and again because the owner | | | | enough warm water to mix into dough. You can't |
| was Italian it was made as a traditional Italian pizza. | | | | reduce the sugar and salt as both are needed to |
| If you are like a lot of people you will love pizza, but | | | | cause the yeast to ferment but notice that you are |
| here is the problem. | | | | not putting in any fat, milk powder or added extra |
| * Can you eat just one slice or do you eat the whole | | | | sugar and salt. |
| pizza? | | | | Make your own tomato sauce, with tomato, garlic and |
| * What toppings do you have on that pizza? | | | | onions. No fat or sugar needs to be added. Low |
| * How many calories are you eating? | | | | calories and can be used as the basis for a tomato |
| * What food groups are in the pizza that you are | | | | soup or pasta sauce. |
| about to eat? | | | | Then load your pizza with plenty of fresh vegetables. |
| * How can you make the pizza healthier? | | | | What about meat? Take one piece of skinless chicken |
| Many people are not disciplined when it comes to | | | | and dice it, cook it with Cajun spices. You can dry fry it |
| pizza and how much they eat of it. They see that a | | | | if you have a good frying pan. Again no fat is needed |
| pizza doesn't look that large, maybe the size of a plate | | | | to be added. |
| and eat it without much thought to the calories being | | | | Finally to the cheese, mix together a low fat |
| consumed. | | | | mozzarella with parmesan. You don't need to put on |
| Let's take for our example a supreme 12" pan pizza. | | | | huge amounts of cheese as the cheese is there for |
| This is normally sliced into 8 portions. Are you ready | | | | one purpose to stop the other ingredients burning |
| for a reality check here? | | | | when the pizza is in the oven. Try it and see if your |
| One slice is 330 calories which means the whole pizza | | | | family prefer the home made pizza. |
| is 2640 calories. As you see if you are on 1400 | | | | But what if you can't resist picking up the phone or |
| calories that means if you eat the whole pizza in one | | | | eating a pizza in a restaurant? Is it failure because you |
| day you are left with -1240 calories for the rest of the | | | | eat badly? Not it you take responsibility for your |
| day. In other words you have overeaten in just one | | | | actions. You see you need to learn what to do |
| meal. | | | | because on the perfect diet book it is about learning to |
| But let's continue with the facts here. I am looking at | | | | live a healthy lifestyle. |
| one slice only if you eat more than one slice you need | | | | Consequence Time |
| to multiply it by the number of pieces eaten. | | | | To work off the 2640 calories eaten with the pizza |
| * Calories 330 | | | | means 11 hours of walking. You can eat your calorie |
| * Calories from fat 160 | | | | laden pizza if you want but are you prepared to walk |
| * Total fat 17g | | | | for 11 hours? Walking burns 240 calories per hour if |
| * % Daily Value 26% | | | | walked at a leisurely pace. |
| * * Saturated Fat 6g | | | | For many of you maybe you are thinking I don't eat a |
| * % Daily Value 30% | | | | whole pizza and that is great, but how many calories |
| * Cholesterol 35g | | | | are you consuming in a day? Remember all the |
| * * % Daily Value 12% | | | | snacks and those sugary drinks. You need |
| * * Sodium 850mg | | | | approximately 1300 calories to live if you are a woman |
| * % Daily Value 35% | | | | and 1600 calories for a man. That is if you are staying |
| * * Carbohydrates 29g | | | | in bed all day and not doing anything else. |
| * % Daily Value 10% | | | | If you keep a diary and find you have overeaten with |
| * * Dietary Fibre 2g | | | | 250 calories today then you need to do at least 1 |
| * % Daily Value 8% | | | | hours exercise to balance your food intake with the |
| * * Sugar 3% | | | | calories burned. |
| * Protein 14% | | | | Yes you can have pizza but are you now prepared to |
| When broken down like this it doesn't look too good, | | | | take the consequences of your action? |
| does it? | | | | |