Pizza is a healthy food right?

[God Tweeter]

It has dairy, veggie, fruit, meat, and bread food groups built in. I get my daily total from all the food pyramid blocks from eating it, correct?

[xHaZxMaTx]

Don't forget the 8 pounds of dripping fat/grease.

[God Tweeter]

The body needs a little bit of fat to use as fuel anyways!

[Dakata]

Fat/Grease makes everything taste good. Even if it isn't healthy.

[Faerie Alex]

Even if it isn't healthy.

Naw, you need fats for your cell membranes.

[Alondro]

*Charles biologizes!*  Pizza IS a healthy food!  It turns out that the lycopene in tomatoes is more easily uptaken by the intestinal lumen when in the presence of a fat for co-absorption, lycopene being a fat-soluble compound.  Thus, the cheese allows you to absorb lycopene at levels several fold higher than if you simply ate bread and tomato sauce.  

And since lycopene has been shown to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer, males should eat as much pizza as possible!  And a single beer to wash it down is good too, because several antioxidant compounds have been found in beer, plus low levels of ethanol are vasodilative and thus can actuallly reduce blood pressure while opening up capillaries!  

[DigitalMan]

Going by that logic? ... Yeah, frighteningly enough. You get the right toppings and it'll go for every food group... including the one at the tip of the pyramid, unfortunately.

And Alondro, what if I can't drink beer? I'm diabetic!

[Alondro]

Going by that logic? ... Yeah, frighteningly enough. You get the right toppings and it'll go for every food group... including the one at the tip of the pyramid, unfortunately.

And Alondro, what if I can't drink beer? I'm diabetic! D:

*Shakes head sadly*  Oh dear. then I'm afraid you're doomed.  Poor Digital Man, we hardly knew ye.   

[God Tweeter]

I can't drink beer either, I'm a teetotaler. But AWESOME that I'm never gonna have prostate cancer. Sweet, pizza really IS good for me! 

[thegayhare]

Now I know this probably isn't healthy but mind if I ask this?

Som days Iwhen I get up I make about 3 cups of rice, brown some hamburger (cooking in low soduim soysauce) mix it all together with some honey terryaki bbq sauce.

On those days I don't have a meal I just snack on that all day.

[Vidar]

It has dairy, veggie, fruit, meat, and bread food groups built in. I get my daily total from all the food pyramid blocks from eating it, correct?

Only if you make your own, from scratch, and I mean from scratch. No pre-processed stuff goes into a proper pizza. That means no store-bought pre-made pizza-bottoms, no store-bought tomato sauce. Everything must be made from scratch. Only then, is the pizza worth eating.
Once you make a truly good pizza by yourself (with quite a bit of effort) you will denounce the deep-frozen palate-deadening discs of doom and destruction available in the supermarket, and you will also turn away from the take-out pizza surrogate "genuine mobsterItalian pizza-parlors" try to push on you. Also, pizza-hut pizzas are of the devil, The DEVIL I SAY!

recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_13823,00.html

Now go bake a pizza.

[Alondro]

*Charles nods*  I only get my pizza from Family Pizza in Browns Mills.  The owners first names are Johnny and Vito and they make everything themselves, even the dough and sauce.  Well... they don't make the cheese, but that's kinda hard to do on site, if you know anything about making cheese.   

[Aridas]

Pizza will NEVER go uneaten by me. It's the perfect food, and the teenage mutant ninja turtles even know it. It's funny when I see people refer to it as junk food, since there isn't all that much junky about it. grease is the last thing people should be worrying about in a food item. A fully loaded pizza, although i'd never have one myself, covers every base anyway... Besides, even a plain cheese/pepperoni pizza does a good job of keeping me alive. That's all I care about o.o

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

It depends on the make, really.

Had some pizza the other day that was literally swimming in grease. Now, *I* don't mind that too much, since my metabolism eats it and keeps going, but the taste isn't great, so...

A decently made pizza should be fine, though.

[Elader Arkon]

See, I've always known it was good for me. I just thought about it differently (If a food tasts this good, theres bound to be something healthy somewhere in there...).

Even if it was incredibly evil for my system I'd still eat it, 'cause its PIZZA. I'd willingly give a few years of my life for some of its tasty goodness.   

[Suwako]

I'm addicted to pizza D-:

Formagi... and fish... I won't put anything on it except cheese.....
XD unhealthy is my second name.

[Gabi]

I think it all depends on what you put on it. The kind of cheese you use and the toppings, you know. And how thick the crust is. And, of course, how much of it you eat.

[thegayhare]

It's always fun to play with the flavors of a pizza  so much can be done just with cheeses

I've made pizza with everything from plain american to habanero cheese

And I've put anything on a pizza as a topping from left over chinese food to imported chocolates

[TheDXM]

Pizza's not any worse than the turkey dinner half of you ate recently. It's probably even a little better for you.

People get too jumpy about what they eat. Seriously, the human body has an incredible ability to metabolise just about anything that isn't pure toxin (fast food) anyways. The main element in your health is EXERCISE, and most people don't even need to do much of that.

[Zorro]

  That means no store-bought tomato sauce.    

Actually canned tomatoes are superior to fresh almost every time.

Because of the perishable nature of Tomatoes RARELY do truly good tomatoes make it to the store.

So unless you grew it yourself you are better off doing what the Italians do.  Buy high quality canned tomatoes, the more expensive ones higher up on the shelf.

[Alondro]

I do grow my own tomatoes, and my own plum tomatoes for making tomato sauce from my great grandmother's recipe (Piperno, a Sicilian ancestry!)

Yes indeed, nothing but real Italian cooking.   

[Vidar]

I do grow my own tomatoes, and my own plum tomatoes for making tomato sauce from my great grandmother's recipe (Piperno, a Sicilian ancestry!)

Yes indeed, nothing but real Italian cooking.   

You WIll Post That Recipe Here Now!


...


please?

Also: tomato sauce from canned tomatoes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_10743,00.html?rsrc=search

tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_20175,00.html?rsrc=search

[thegayhare]

But you should be careful

some times tomatoes will turn you into aliens

[Alondro]

*Charles disavows any knowledge of alien myootant tomatoes*   

The recipe... boil tomatoes, peel tomatoes, then either squish tomatoes or puree them in a blender, begin to simmer in a big pot with fresh or dried basil (fresh is the best for flavor, I also grow that) and ground fennel seed, gently brown some sliced and diced onions and finely chopped garlic in olive oil (extra virgin), then add several cans of tomato paste (essential for thickening) to the frying pan and stir in the onions and garlic while frying the mixture on the lowest heat for several minutes (stir constantly), then mix all the mass into the tomato puree in the pot.  Let this mxture simmer on low for several hours (You want just barely a boil), stirring every now and then.  When the time is up, then stir in some oregano and parsley (these are added last, because extended boiling of these herbs makes the taste bitter) and finally allow the hot sauce to sit for another hour with several bay leaves stuck in the top (which you must then remove as they are too tough to eat!).  After a final stirring to mix in the bay leaf flavor, the sauce is ready to use.  Fried ground beef or whatever can be added, or meatballs can be made for use with it. 

Note:  If your tomatoes are not from New Jersey, your sauce is doomed.  Cuz everyone knows Jersey's are the best!  Hah!   

[bill]

I can only eat pizza if it has good sauce. If that condition is properly satisfied, I get it with sausage and/or pineapple.

[Vidar]

I can only eat pizza if it has good sauce.

Same for crust. bad crust == bad pizza. Commercial crust == bad crust. Homemade crust might be good crust, depending on recipe and cook.