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Pizza and Health

Pizza can be considered the queen of the Mediterranean diet and no doubt its most reknowned dish.

The ingredients of Pizza Margherita, for example, the kind of pizza most known, are those typical of the Mediterranean diet: cereal flour, olive oil, tomato and mozzarella. These ingredients may increase or vary according to the different kinds of pizza we decide to eat.

Pizza has always been considered a single course (and still is), at least by the lower classes for those a pizza was often the only and sufficient supper or dinner.

But let's go on to examine one by one the ingredients necessary to the making of a Pizza Margherita.

Cereals:the complex carbohydrates given by flour satiate and provide constant energy without affecting the increase of glucose. Therefore the cereals cloy the appetite and limit the demand for further food allowing the lose of weight. Like meat, the dough of pizza contains aminoacids.

Olive oil: the most noble and wholesome of fats, mediterranean par excellence. It is rich in HDL (cholesterol that helps the cleaning of arteries) and vitamines A, D, E, K.

Mozzarella: mozzarella (as all kinds of cheese) abounds in lysine and methionine, that's to say animal proteins contained in cheese.

Tomato: an important source of vitamins that contributes in a fair measure to the vitaminic contribution of a good pizza.

Let's now briefly examine some properties of the herbs inseparable companions of the pizza: basil, with his distinctive scent and flavour well known by those who love pizza, has antidyspeptic and antiseptic properties. It is also an antinflammatory and helps the digestion.

The beneficial properties of garlic are known and scientifically recognized: we remember here that it is an intestinal antiseptic, a cardiotonic and that it has diuretic and antisclerotic properties.

And lastly origan, another most important herb in the making of neapolitan pizza. It is an expectorant: good against bronchitis and tracheitis. A most versatile herb, it whets the appetite e acts as an antidolorific for torticollis and rheumatisms.

The benefits for the health given by the mediterranean diet are well known: we remember here that this kind of diet helps to fight numerous diseases typical of our age as arteriosclerosis, infarction and hypertension.

Besides pizza contains a high quantity of iron and vitamins B1 and PP. It avoids the formation of uric acid, doesn't fatten andthanks to the action of amids it is more digestible than other foods.

Therefore pizza is an alternative to meat eating and a fit single course which, integrated with fruits and fresh vegetables, can nearly satisfy the daily needs of the organism thanks to its vitaminic and proteic contribution.

Pizza's Colorful History

By far pizza has become America's favorite food over the past 50 years. Million of pizza pies are eaten daily, but how often do the people eating the food stop to consider the history. The true origins of this fine cuisine are as colorful as any good pizza pie heaping with toppings.
The common belief is that Italians invented the pizza, however the origins go back to the ancient times. Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians and other ancient Middle Eastern cultures were eating flat, un-leaven bread that had been cooked in mud ovens. The bread was much like a pita, which is still common in Greece and the Middle East today. Further it is known that ancient Mediterranean people such as the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were eating the bread, topped seasoned with olive oil and native spices.
The lower class of the Naples, Italy is believed to have created pizza in a more familiar fashion. In the late 1800s a Italian baker named Raffaele Esposito, was believed to have created a dish for visiting royalty. According to the story, the Italian monarch King Umberto and his consort, Queen Margherita were touring the area. In order to impress them and to show his patriotic fervor Raffaele chose to top flat bread with food that would best represent the colors of Italy: red tomato, white mozzarella cheese and green basil. The king and queen were so impressed that word quickly reached the masses. The end results were that the dish was well received to the extent that others began to copy it.
By the beginning of the 1900's pizza made it's way to the inner cities United States, thanks to Italian immigrants, most notably New York and Chicago, due to those cities having large Italian populations. Small cafes began offering the Italian favorite. American soldiers further prompted the dish to become very popular at the end of World War II, having been exposed to it while serving on the Italian front.
Today pizza has become just as American as baseball and apple pie. Only because of its most recent origins is it considered an Italian dish. Huge U.S. based multi-billion dollar corporations should be thankful for the development along with poor college students who can appreciate the fine dining experience pizza has given them.