Among the dairy products, cheese is one of the most favorite due to its delicious taste and its nutrients package. Moreover, there are a lot of types of cheese with different taste and unique texture. Due to some fast food chains that are adding cheese pizza as one of their menu options makes cheese pizza earns its bad reputation as part of junk food when the fact is far from it.
What Is Cheese Pizza?
It is a common knowledge that pizza is one of the signatures culinary from Italy and cheese pizza is among the varieties. When talking about the health benefits of cheese pizza is depending on the type of cheeses used in the pizza. However, not all types of cheeses are suitable for pizza and below is the list of cheese commonly used in pizza:
- Mozzarella
- Cheddar
- Parmesan
- Provolone
More types of cheeses like ricotta, Romano and Emmental are usually used as topping only. The best thing about cheese pizza is homemade because they are using fresh products only while processed, frozen or manufactured pizza is something you should avoid because it may contain preservative even cheese pizza from fast food chain is not as healthy as you think.
Nutritional Values of Cheese Pizza
When talking about the health benefits of cheese pizza, the first thing that may crosses your mind is what kind of nutritional values you will get from a slice of cheese pizza. Well, cheese pizza is all about dairy products, so you could get all the health benefits of dairy products such as milk and cheese. It is an excellent source of protein and calories. To learn more about the benefits for human health the list below will tell you the details.
- Number One Source of Calories
Those who are currently in intensive weight loss diet program may find cheese pizza as the horror they should avoid. However, in this world not everyone is struggling with weight loss, some people are struggling with weight gain as well. Eating pizza regularly which is packed with calories is like a shortcut to weight gain. However, still there are some consideration you should aware of like the sodium content in the pizza. In other words, you are not only be able to focus on weight gain and calories but forget about some other important facts and cautions about cheese pizza.
- Packed with Calcium
One of the main ingredients used in cheese pizza is dairy products and they are packed with calcium. There are a lot of health benefits of calcium but the most essentials are to support the optimal bone health, strengthening the bones structure and also supporting the development of the bones especially in children in development stage.
- Supports Optimal Children Development
As mentioned in the previous point, the calcium found in cheese pizza is excellent for children because during development children needs calcium in quite high amount compared to the adults. Calcium is not only good for bones but also for the development of oral organs especially teeth and enamel.
- Source of Vitamin E
Most people don’t know that cheese pizza is also excellent source of vitamin E. Vitamin E is one of the important and potent antioxidants. Vitamin E support the optimal cell regeneration especially it is good for skin cells.
- Excellent Source of Protein
What do you know about the health benefits of protein? Protein is essential to produce amino acids and the lack of protein will disturb the metabolism process such as the regeneration cells in the organ and tissue. A single slice of cheese pizza may be able to cover up to 23% daily intake of protein.
- Rich of Fiber
You need flour to make pizza and whole wheat contains fiber that is essential for human body metabolism. From the list of health benefits of fiber, you could see that fiber is essential in maintaining the health of digestion system and at the same time has prominent function to bind some not so important properties like cholesterol to be washed out from the system.
- Source of Sodium
Due to its ability in increasing the level of blood pressure and has negative contribution to cardiovascular system, a lot of people are forgetting about the health benefits of sodium. In the right amount sodium has important role in protecting your muscles and also has prominent function in balancing fluid. Because sodium is one of the electrolytes which has benefits as important as the health benefits of potassium.
- Where You Should Go for Selenium
When it comes to minerals, calcium and iron are probably the most popular ones. However, selenium is also very essential in human body metabolism. Enough daily intake of selenium may help reducing the risk of cancerous cells development. Selenium when combined with potassium is great to maintain healthy heart and reduce the risk of some cardiovascular diseases such as the symptoms of high blood pressure that could lead to stroke and heart attack.
- Source of Phosphorus
One more mineral found in cheese pizza is phosphorus. Together with calcium phosphorus has prominent function in maintaining the bone strength and act as the main regulator for energy metabolism in the cells.
Cautions of Cheese Pizza
It is cheese and it is pizza. Yes, the combination is not only tasty but also healthy. The problem is cheese pizza is packed with calories and it is not vegan. So, some cautions below may tell you more about why you should consume cheese pizza in moderate amount only.
- The dense and sticky cheese of the cheese pizza is the reason why this food is so delicious. However, the ticker the cheese the higher calories you should deal with. If you are currently in a serious weight loss diet avoiding cheese pizza is mandatory.
- For those who are currently suffering lactose intolerance should avoid cheese pizza as well because this kind of food is not for you.
- Homemade pizza always the best but sometimes people just cannot avoid the temptation of frozen or manufactured pizza. Well, be careful with the expiration date especially the frozen ones.
Pizza could be one of the favorite foods for children. Parents should be really careful in choosing the products for the homemade pizza especially the choice of cheese. Some cheeses are so thick with calories and children are easily exposed by obesity. Adding cheese pizza to children diet sometime is highly recommended but it is not supposed to be added to daily menu.