Five Ways To Make Your Pizza Healthier
Posted on: 5 July 2022
If you're like most people, you enjoy an occasional pizza night in your home — but you might also be feeling slightly guilty when you do so because of pizza's reputation as not being among the healthiest of foods. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to lighten up the fat and calorie content of pizza that don't involve sacrificing taste. Following are five of them.
Start With a Salad
Most of the time, pizza night means pizza and a beverage, but adding a salad to the mix not only increases the nutritional value of the meal, but it also makes it likely that you'll consume less pizza. Salads are also easy — because one of the main attractions of pizza night is that you get a break from meal preparation, choosing a premade salad means you won't have to do any extra work. Many pizzerias these days are responding to consumer preferences for healthier fare by adding a salad to their menus.
Request a Whole Grain Crust
Even though most of the calories from pizza come from the ingredients on top of the crust rather than from the crust itself, requesting a whole grain crust rather than its traditional counterpart does have some health benefits. A slice of whole-wheat pizza, for instance, contains an average of four grams of fiber, five grams of protein, B vitamins, and core minerals such as magnesium and iron.
Choose Lighter Cheeses
If you're among those who believe that pizza just isn't pizza without the cheese, you can request that the regular cheese be replaced by low-calorie counterparts such as skim mozzarella, provolone, and fresh parmesan. You'll get the same cheesy taste and texture with significantly less fat and calories.
Choose Leaner Meats
Choosing leaner meats is another good way to keep the calorie count and fat content as low as possible. Traditional pizza meats, such as pepperoni, sausage, and Canadian bacon are typically laden with fat, so consider alternatives such as turkey bacon, white meat chicken, lean steak pieces, thinly sliced salami, and even seafood such as shrimp and salmon.
Add an Extra Vegetable or Two
Roasted vegetables take on a deeper flavor than their fresh or steamed counterparts that blends particularly well with pizza toppings and sauces. Try adding roasted squash, mushrooms, spinach, or even corn to your pizza for an extra layer of taste and nutrition.
Your local pizzeria can provide you with more advice on choosing healthy pizza toppings.
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