2008 Woodie Awards
Have your pizza and be a healthy eater, too
by Brittany Talarico
Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: News
Pizza is a comfort food. Main Street offers a plethora of restaurants that feed college students' hunger for a hot slice. After a long night of partying, many students crave pizza, but may try to avoid it because of its reputation for being a fatty food. New research, however, is trying to discover ways to make this staple college food healthier.
Studies conducted at the University of Maryland are exploring ways to enhance the antioxidant content of whole-grain pizza dough through different baking techniques.
Jeffrey Moore, a researcher at Maryland, stated in an e-mail message that the overall goal of this research has been to pinpoint the health-promoting properties of food.
The study was undertaken to investigate whether changes in preparation techniques for whole-wheat foods, such as whole-wheat pizza crust, can influence their antioxidant content, Moore said.
"Under our experimental conditions, we found that increased baking time or temperature, or increased fermentation time has the potential to increase antioxidant properties," he said. "Our study was only on the crust component of pizza.
"Making healthy decisions for the toppings going on to the pizza, of course, are also important to make pizza part of a healthy diet."
Merlyn Bowen, marketing program manager for Dining Services, stated in an e-mail message the university prepares pizza with both traditional pizza dough and whole- grain dough.
"Dining services provides a variety of foods from each food groups allowing students to select a healthy and balanced diet," Bowen said. "Pizza can be part of a balanced and healthy diet if eaten in moderation."
Tomato sauce contains Vitamin C and lycopene, an antioxidant, she said. Other healthy ingredients of pizza include vegetable toppings and mozzarella cheese.
"Dining services uses 2 percent skim, shredded mozzarella cheese, which is lower in fat than whole-milk mozzarella cheese," Bowen said.
Studies conducted at the University of Maryland are exploring ways to enhance the antioxidant content of whole-grain pizza dough through different baking techniques.
Jeffrey Moore, a researcher at Maryland, stated in an e-mail message that the overall goal of this research has been to pinpoint the health-promoting properties of food.
The study was undertaken to investigate whether changes in preparation techniques for whole-wheat foods, such as whole-wheat pizza crust, can influence their antioxidant content, Moore said.
"Under our experimental conditions, we found that increased baking time or temperature, or increased fermentation time has the potential to increase antioxidant properties," he said. "Our study was only on the crust component of pizza.
"Making healthy decisions for the toppings going on to the pizza, of course, are also important to make pizza part of a healthy diet."
Merlyn Bowen, marketing program manager for Dining Services, stated in an e-mail message the university prepares pizza with both traditional pizza dough and whole- grain dough.
"Dining services provides a variety of foods from each food groups allowing students to select a healthy and balanced diet," Bowen said. "Pizza can be part of a balanced and healthy diet if eaten in moderation."
Tomato sauce contains Vitamin C and lycopene, an antioxidant, she said. Other healthy ingredients of pizza include vegetable toppings and mozzarella cheese.
"Dining services uses 2 percent skim, shredded mozzarella cheese, which is lower in fat than whole-milk mozzarella cheese," Bowen said.
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