A Healthier Way to Look at Pizza

Sometimes pizza gets a bad rap for being ‘junk food.’ But when you carefully select the toppings or make it yourself, pizza can be a very healthy option for a snack or a meal. Pizza can contain all of the food groups in a single slice. It can contain whole grains, vegetables, fruit, lean meat and low fat cheese.

Make Healthy Choices

Just as adults, children love to make choices about their food. Be sure to include children in the making of homemade pizza. Instead of making one or two large pizzas for the family, divide the dough into smaller pieces. Let everyone in the family create their own custom pizza(s).

Dough: Whole grain crust can be hard to find in restaurants or at the store so you may need to make your own. With a whole wheat recipe you can have pizza dough ready in 45 minutes and serve fresh, home baked pizza in about 1 hour. It is more work to make your own dough, but the benefit of being able to control the salt and increase the fiber can be worth the effort. And the flavor is incredible.

Sauce: Store-bought tomato based pizza sauces are loaded with great nutrition, are low in fat, and packed with flavor, but can be high in sodium. Look at the nutrition label and select ones with lower sodium. Better yet, make your own with low sodium tomato sauce using dried or fresh herbs and spices like, garlic, oregano, basil, etc. Other sauces could include, salsa thickened with a little tomato paste, olive oil with your choice of herbs and spices mixed in, pesto sauce or a little low-fat white (Alfredo) sauce.

Toppings: Get creative with your topping combinations. Don’t just think of traditional Italian combinations. Borrow flavors from Mexican, African, Mediterranean or Asian dishes to develop a great tasting pizza.

• Vegetables:
  • Consider onions, peppers, chili, zucchini, fresh thinly sliced tomatoes, fresh spinach, olives, mushrooms, asparagus, green peas, green beans, artichokes, just to name a few. Vegetables add flavor, fiber and nutrients to pizza. Some vegetables should be cooked (artichoke, green beans) or partially cooked (asparagus) before added to pizza. Precooking some vegetables might be needed because the short baking time would not be enough time to soften them. Another reason to precook them is because the water they release during cooking could make the pizza soggy.
• Fruit:
  • Most people are familiar with pineapple on the classic Hawaiian pizza, so why not try, chopped figs, thinly sliced peaches, pears or apricots. A little sweet fruit in combination with a slightly salty meat or cheese is appetizing.
• Herbs and spices:
  • Experiment with herbs and spices to find the perfect combination to enhance the flavor of other ingredients.
• Meat:
  • Look for low fat meat options, such as turkey pepperoni or sausage. Cook sausage and ground meats, draining well to remove as much fat as possible. Shred, dice or thinly slice cooked chicken, turkey, shrimp, Canadian bacon or lean ham.
• Cheese:
  • Most children prefer the mild taste of mozzarella or mild cheddar cheese. Many adults like to kick it up a notch. Look for lower fat cheese options such as part skim mozzarella, cheese made with part skim milk or 2% milk fat. Use less of a strong flavored or sharp cheese, such as feta, Parmesan or blue cheese.