Pizza is a savory dish of Italian origin, consisting of a usually round, flattened base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven. A small pizza is sometimes called a pizzetta.

Nutrition Facts of pizza dish

Calories 266
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 10 g	15%
Saturated fat 4.5 g	22%
Polyunsaturated fat 1.7 g
Monounsaturated fat 2.6 g
Trans fat 0.2 g
Cholesterol 17 mg	5%
Sodium 598 mg	24%
Potassium 172 mg	4%
Total Carbohydrate 33 g	11%
Dietary fiber 2.3 g	9%
Sugar 3.6 g
Protein 11 g	22%

Vitamin A	7%	Vitamin C	2%
Calcium	18%	Iron	13%
Vitamin D	0%	Vitamin B-6	5%
Cobalamin	6%	Magnesium	6%

Positive Benefits to our Health

Pizza can be part of a nutritious meal.

Pizza is one of the more popular options for fast food, with each American eating an average 46 slices in a year. Although pizza is a good source of some essential nutrients, it can be high in sodium, fat and calories. The healthiest take-out option is thin-crust pizza without a lot cheese that is topped with extra vegetables and no meat.

Calcium

Pizzas is a good way to increase your calcium intake for the day. Cheese is one of the better sources of calcium but not the only source in pizza, since tomato sauce also contains calcium. One slice from a 14-inch cheese pizza contains about 219 milligrams of calcium, or 22 percent of your daily value. Top your pizza with spinach, artichoke, broccoli or seafood and you will increase its calcium content even further, since these also contain the mineral. Calcium helps you keep your bones strong and also helps your blood vessels, nerves and muscles function correctly.

Protein

Eating pizza will also help you get the protein you need for building muscle and other tissues in your body. While cheese is a good source of protein, choosing a pizza with meat will boost your pizza’s protein content, but it can also greatly increase the fat if you choose pepperoni, sausage or hamburger. Chicken and seafood are healthier high-protein toppings. A slice of a 10-inch pizza topped with turkey pepperoni and mushrooms contains 11 grams of protein.

Vegetables

You should eat 2 to 3 cups of vegetables each day, and ordering a pizza loaded with vegetables is a delicious way to add to your day’s vegetable intake. You can add your favorite vegetables to the top of a frozen cheese pizza for a quick meal if you don’t have time to make your own pizza. Add broccoli, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms or any other vegetable you like. Try to eat a mix of different-colored vegetables for the greatest health benefits.

Whole Grains

If you eat a pizza with a whole-grain crust, it will also help you meet your recommended intake of at least three servings of whole grains per day. This means you’ll get more fiber for the day, since whole-wheat crusts have at least twice as much fiber as regular crusts, with each slice from a 10-inch pizza containing 4 grams of fiber versus the 1.5 grams in slice of a regular-crust pizza. This fiber can lower your risk for health problems such as high cholesterol and constipation and help fill you up so you don’t overeat.

Negative Benefit of Pizza Dish

1. Bad for acidity:

The contents of pizza like the cheese, sauce and also the crust does not go down well with your stomach, especially if you suffer from acidity. Most of the pizzas contain tomato sauce which is considered not safe for people who suffer from acid reflux due to its high acidic content. The major cause of acidity due to pizza is that people tend to eat it more, replacing either lunch or dinner with it. If you have 1-2 pizza slices with regular food, the ill effects will be reduced to a great extent.

2. High Glycemic Index:

The base of pizza is made of white flour which has a high glycemic index, meaning there will be quick rise in blood sugar levels following its consumption. Follow it with coke which you often do for complete destruction of your health. White flour is low in nutrient content unlike the whole grains flour. The effects of white flour consumption is similar to that of sugar, which contribute to weight gain, high blood sugar levels and low nutrition; in addition, white flour is full of gluten.

3. Incompatible combination of foods:

Trying to make pizza attractive, innovative and creative has led to the incompatible combinations of food going into it, which can play havoc on your digestive tract. The combination of meat, cheese and white flour itself requires three types of different digestive juices and the mixture does not has a healthy outcome. To have a competitive edge over their counterparts, pizzerias are adding more bizarre and crazy combinations of ingredients to pizza, ignoring the ill effects it will have on your health.

4. High in fat, salt and calories:

While trying to make their pizzas tasty, the mass producers of pizzas have ignored the nutritional balance of this much desired food. Today, most of the pizzas you eat are high in salt, fat and calories, much more than what you should intake. In fact, research conducted on some brand names of pizzas have shown that they contain nearly twice the amount of salt than that recommended for an adult.  Two slices of pizzas typically contain 600 calories besides the high fat content.

5. Made up of unhealthy processed food:

The flour, cheese, meat, mushrooms and many other ingredients that go into the making of pizza are processed and unhealthy. The tomato sauce is made of up lot many ingredients and may never have seen real fresh tomato at all. Preservatives are another harmful ingredient found in pizzas which can have quite some adverse effects on your health. The very popular pepperoni toppings have nitrate and other harmful fillers.

6. Makes you miss healthy meal:

Think what would you eat if you had not ordered pizza? Maybe you would be eating some fresh vegetables, fruits, sea-food or some other dish which may give you less fat and calorie while providing all essential nutrients to your body. If you would spend time and cook a healthy pizza out of whole grain flour, vegetable topping, fresh cheese and olive oil, it would be one healthy meal for you. It is what goes into the pizza and how much of pizza goes into you that makes it harmful for your health.