I copied this from a recent Global Health & Fitness e-newsletter. Great tips.
Pizza can be a healthy choice, filled with complex carbohydrates, B-vitamins, calcium, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin C. However, if you're not careful, it will end up being jam-packed with saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. Whether you're ordering from a pizzeria, or making your own, these tips can help make it much healthier.
Choose Your Crust Wisely
Crust is the foundation of your pizza, so be creative and open your mind to new crust possibilities, such as lower calorie versions. Keep in mind that whole-grain breads or crusts add fiber and additional nutrients to your pizza as well. Try homemade or store-bought whole grain crusts, pita pockets, or evn tortillas. And avoid deep-dish pizzas whereby the crust is baked with butter.
Load Up On The Sauce
Pizza sauce is loaded with healthy nutrients, such as lycopene, an antioxidant carotenoid thought to protect against several cancers, heart disease, and possibly bone loss. Many tasty, low-sodium versions are now available. Avoid the white creamy sauces, which are loaded with fat and calories.
Add Lots Of Veggies
Pile on the vegetable and fruit toppings, such as mushrooms, olives, green peppers, broccoli, onions, spinach, pineapple, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers. This decreases the ratio of fat and calories and adds more fiber and more vitamins A and C.
Limit The Meat
Avoid pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, and prosciutto. If you just have to have meat on your pizza, select leaner meats such as ground turkey, extra lean ground beef, or white meat chicken. And cooking meats first and draining the excess fat will save a lot of fat and calories. Seafood lovers can try water-packed shrimp, tuna, or crab.
Go Light On The Cheese
Use part-skim mozzarella, part-skim ricotta, a little Parmesan, or reduced-fat varieties. When ordering, ask for them to go "light on the cheese please," and when unpacking a frozen delight, pick off some of the excess cheese before baking.
The key to a healthy diet, is to strike a good balance between effective, so you get good results, and enjoyable so that you'll stick with it in the long-run. Hopefully these tips were helpful so that you can take steps towards reach your goals, while enjoying it along the way!
