Pizza comes in a variety of flavors, both healthy and harmful. You have the freedom to choose fresh and healthful ingredients for the dough and toppings when you make your handmade pizza. If you're out on the town and stop by a fast-casual pizza joint, though, your chances of ordering an unhealthy pizza are incredibly high.
Mia Syn, MS, RD, explains how your favorite pizza order could be jeopardizing your overall health.
"It's easy to exceed your recommended saturated fat intake limit of 10% of total daily calories if your pizza is laden with high-fat meat toppings like pepperoni and sausage," she says. "Saturated fat-containing diets may increase your risk of heart disease. To save money, eat a lot of vegetables as toppings."
"Moreover, if your pizza is produced with a standard refined white wheat crust, you may be deficient in fiber, which helps you feel full and is essential for digestive health," Syn adds.
With that said, many regional and national pizza restaurants offer healthier options, such as Oath Pizza's new Banza chickpea pizza dough, which is gluten-free, vegan, and high in fiber. Domino's thin crust pizza with light cheese and veggies is another healthier option among big franchises. Some chains and sit-down restaurants will even let you make crust adjustments, allowing you to skip the refined white flour in favor of a more fiber-rich alternative.
According to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, "a crust baked with whole-grain flour or even a cauliflower crust can help ensure you are adding fiber to your meal, a nutrient that an estimated 90% of women and 97 percent of men fall short on," writes Syn.
Another issue raised by restaurant pizzas and some frozen pizzas is sodium content. The certified dietician warns that overeating sodium regularly can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease.
"One slice of pepperoni pizza, for example, can contain up to 700 mg of salt. The American Dietary Guidelines for 2020-2025 prescribe that salt intake be limited to 2,300 mg per day "she explains. "Because salt is naturally prevalent in all foods, it's simple to go overboard when pizza is part of your daily meal plan."
Bottom line: if you eat pizza frequently, you may be consuming too much saturated fat and sodium, as well as not enough fiber, raising your risk of heart disease.