Pizza! Is Pizza Gut Healthy?

Pizza! Pizza!

We love pizza! Who thinks this is the “best food ever”? We don’t know anyone who doesn’t like it! In Coach Bunny’s home, cheat meals occasionally comprise of store-bought pizzas, beer, and chips. Pizzas can be the easiest and more convenient fast-food that everyone enjoys. There are a good number of types of pizzas. If you’re wondering if they’re healthy enough, then that’ll depend on how it’s made. Coach Mia also shares a wonderfully healthy Pizza that everyone in the family can enjoy.  For this article, we discuss and find out is Pizza Gut healthy?

Let’s take pizza apart

Let’s take pizza into parts to make things easier to ‘digest’ (pun intended). Furthermore, let’s stick to talking about Store-Bought/Fast-food chain pizzas. For most families that are quite busy, ordering a pizza for delivery or from freezer-to-oven can be a savior.

Let’s agree with our basic pizza ingredients.

1. Pepperoni / Salami – You got to admit, these make Pizza worth eating. The saltiness in these processed meats definitely puts that flavor in. Not to mention topping with Anchovies!
2. Cheese!! – Most kids prefer to stick to Cheese Pizzas — the simplest form of added flavor without those complicated peppery, spicy taste of salami/pepperonis. Cheeses are usually cheddar and mozzarella.
3. Pizza Crust/base dough – Definitely NOT a pizza if there isn’t a pizza base/crust to it, right? A variety of pizza doughs are used — those that are flakey (just like a pie crust – Boston’s Pan Pizza!), thin crust, stuffed crust, thick pan crust, etc. Generally, these doughs are made with white refined flours.
4. Tomato Sauce / Pizza Sauce – Generally these sauces are tomato-based. However, there are that are ‘cream’ or ‘white’ based. Pizza sauces are made differently. However, most store-bought/fast-food pizzas contain higher amounts of salt and sugar.

Image from Unsplash.com

Pizza, what are you hiding?

Before anything, we’d like to share info from an article on Healthline.com written by Jillian Kubala, MS, RD, “Is Pizza Healthy? Nutrition Tips for Pizza Lovers”

This doesn’t seem so bad, does it? But who can stop eating just ONE SLICE?!

Is Pizza gut healthy?

If you were to ask your gut/ digestive system what the basic pizza ingredients are,  we’re certain it wouldn’t know the difference in terms of taste. But what it can tell you is how these ingredients affect it.

How our gut sees pizza

1. Processed and preserved meats (and other ingredients). You’ve probably gotten the news that processed meats and highly processed cheeses have become the main culprit to poor digestive health. It’s been one of the foods that have been put on the ‘limit and avoid’ list, especially for metabolic syndrome diseases.  Non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, high cholesterol have placed processed and ultra-processed foods as No. 1 to avoid.

 2. High-Salt.  Yup! #1 Processed and ultra-processed meats are high in sodium. We’re sure you knew this. That’s the flavor we enjoy! But did you know that consuming or having a diet high in salt not only gives you kidney stones, it directly affects the health of your gut microbiome?

Food high in sodium leads to the decline of healthy gut microbes. Not only does blood pressure rise, but people who have salty meals have a higher risk of poor gut lining, and heightened levels of gut inflammation.

3. High-Fat. Okay, okay… it’s that Salami/ Pepperoni again. And that Cheese topping!! Cheese is mostly fat — it’s the fat of the milk that has been aged and processed. Plus, cheese is also considered part of the salt intake. Saturated fat –fat from animal (meat and dairy) consumption — has been found to diminish the strength of the digestive lining, also caused by increased bile acids.

High-Fat Processed food (sorry, pepperoni/salami, and cheese) enhances the permeability of the intestinal wall, which promotes inflammation and damages gut structures. We know what that means. It means celiac disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrom (IBS), and other inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD).

But wait.. there’s more!

4. Sugar. Wait..What? What Sugar? The pizza dough/crust is mainly made with salt (yet again!) and flour. Generally, store-bought/fast-food chain pizza doughs are made with bleached, white refined flours. And we know what refined flours can negatively affect our blood sugar and insulin. But how can this be bad for our gut? Refined flours are processed so finely that they are completely stripped of their natural fibers. Not exactly good food for our gut microbiome, as we need fiber to promote the good bacteria.  Is your tomato sauce on the sweet side? Most likely it is. Therefore expect that to have high sugar content as well.

Sugar has been studied as one of the primary causes of inflammation in many illnesses. A diet high in sugar greatly affects the health of the gut microbiome. Bad bacteria thrive in sugar and refined flours and carbs. The imbalance of bad bacteria over the good leads to increased sugar cravings, which leads to further imbalance. Sugar also affects how our intestinal wall absorbs nutrients. For instance, sugar blocks our intestines from absorbing the calcium needed for our bone health.

So how can we enjoy pizza?  Healthy Pizza Recipe Here!!! Coach Mia shows how her Pizza is gut healthy!

Gut Healthy Pizza Recipe

We have another pizza recipe in our ebook!   Go check it out.

Imagine if

Have we made you see a Pizza in a different light? Imagine enjoying a healthier version of your regular store-bought/fast-food chain pizza–it can be a good thing! We’re not saying you can’t ever eat your favorite fast-food chain pizza. That ain’t real! Coach Bunny still indulges (20%indulgence, remember!) on her favorite Domino’s Thin-Crust-Pepperoni on an occasional cheat meal.

We want you to enjoy your pizza – as we do too! However, consider taking this ‘best food ever” only on special occasions! Making it a regular on your weekly choice of menu 3x a week isn’t advisable, like all fast-food chain food. Keeping away from processed food, food that is high in salt, sugar, and fat will greatly improve your health, beginning with your gut. Your gut is one of your front-liners, that carries so much information to your entire body systems. Protect it! You can put that 3rd slice of pizza down now.

If you’re looking for more healthy recipes, download our e-recipe book! We welcome your comments, too! Schedule a free 1-on-1 call with us if you want to know more about our FYFG programs that aim at better gut health