Pizza as Health Food?!..It's about time!!
 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- It's the junk food junkie's wildest dream come true -- pizza as health food.

University of Maryland food chemists said Monday that they had found ways to enhance the antioxidant content of whole-grain wheat pizza dough by baking it longer at higher temperatures and giving the dough lots of time to rise.

Antioxidants are substances that protect cells from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Some experts believe antioxidants can lower the risk of cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

Liangli Lucy Yu, a food chemistry professor, said the findings arose from broader research into ways to improve health-promoting properties of wheat-based food products.

"The reason that we chose pizza is just because it is a very popular food product, not only in the U.S. but worldwide," researcher Jeffrey Moore added.

"So we thought if we could find ways to improve (its antioxidant) properties, doing this for such a product could have a larger impact on public health," Moore added.

But Moore had a slice of advice for pizza aficionados who might want to cover their crust with mounds of fatty toppings such as extra cheese, pepperoni, sausage and ground beef.

"If you're adding back all these other things that have potential negative health consequences, then you're negating anything that you're adding in terms of (health) value," Moore said.

The research was served up at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago, a mecca for deep-dish, thick-crust pizza.

The researchers experimented with baking temperatures, baking time and fermentation time -- the time the pizza dough is given to rise.

A hotter oven
Antioxidant levels rose by up to 60 percent with longer baking times and up to 82 percent with higher baking temperatures, depending on the type of wheat flour and the antioxidant test used, they said. The precise mechanisms involved are unclear, they said.

Baking time and temperature can be increased together without burning the pizza when done carefully, the researchers said. They used oven temperatures from 400 to 550 degrees Fahrenheit (204 to 287 degrees Celsius), and baking times from 7 to 14 minutes.

They looked at fermentation times up to two full days, and found that longer periods in some cases doubled the dough's antioxidant levels. This probably stemmed from chemical reactions caused by yeasts in the dough that had more time to release the antioxidant components, Moore said.

A common fermentation time is about 18 hours, Moore said.

The study used only whole wheat dough. Most of the antioxidants in wheat are in the bran and endosperm components that are generally removed in refined flour, Moore said. Thus, longer and hotter baking and longer fermentation likely would be less effective in making more healthful pizza with refined flour, he said.

The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and grain organizations, but not by the pizza industry.


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Interesting....

Here's a recipe for a truly healthy pizza and delicious too!

One Food For Life Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Tortilla, spray with a little olive oil spray, bake on foil in a baking tray or pan in a pre-heated oven at 375 for about five minutes until it gets a little crispy. Take out and add about 1/4 cup Ragu 100% natural (low fat) pizza sauce to the tortilla with a spoon and add in about 1/4 cup of chopped red bell pepper pieces and some chopped tomato pieces from a small plum tomato. Shake on a little bit of spices like dry parlsey flakes, and a little salt, pepper, Italian Seasoning and garlic powder. Then spread a 1/4 cup of shredded fat free mozarella cheese (Kraft) on top of that to make the cheese layer. For meat I added about 75 grams of pre-cooked extra lean ground turkey spiced with low sodium taco seasoning that I usually use for tacos on the very top. Then back in the oven to cook for about ten minutes at 375 until the cheese is melted nicely, take out, let cool for a few minutes, then eat.

This was my first attempt at making a home made pizza and it was DELICIOUS! The pizza was really crispy and held together real nicely even when I picked up up and ate it with my hands.

Here is the nutrition breakdown: 278 calories, 3 g of fat, 31 carbs, 32 g of protein.

http://exclusiverealitycontent.com/images/Pizza.jpg

Home made? What did you make? You chopped the bellpepper and tomatoes?
If that's the definition of home made these days...well, it's just sad.

Bah whole wheat pizza doesnt taste the same..

I miss eating a nice fatty bit of Pizza now and then. These days once slice would be almost my entire fat allotment for the day.

Ah, Pizza, nature's worst food. Loaded with fat, and white flour carbs. Sure does taste good though.

WTF, pizza has always been healthy... what kind of pizzas do you guys eat??
O_o

haha, no shit

last time I made homemade pizza it started with fresh yeast, and I actually had to pull the buffalo mozzarella apart myself

mmm pizza, chicken and sweetcorn is the future :winkwink:

You guys are ridiculous. I cooked it myself from all healthy ingredients in my fridge as described in the recipe. The point is to contrast this HOME MADE pizza from fatty, greasy store bought crap.

One doesn't have to milk the cow and tend the farm that grows the wheat to call something home made. You wanna compare cooking skills, I have a lot more healthy recipes where this came from, he he.