Building A Better Pizza
Carolyn Classick-Kohn,MS,RD 

This is a comment I overheard recently: "you really have to watch eating onions, they are loaded with sugar". This is the kind of lame advice that people take to heart, leading them off the track of common sense and scaring people into avoiding great foods for no good reason. A lot of this has to do with the current fear of carbohydrates,  and a misunderstanding of the glycemic index. Seems like the more bizarre it sounds, the more likely people are to believe it!

Historically, people's intake of fat rose in the first half of the 20th century, and replaced their intake of starchy carbohydrates. At the same time, sugar intake increased, replacing fruits and vegetables. Then, in the most recent 25 years, fat intake leveled off and even decreased some. Meanwhile, obesity was on the rise, and more recently, obesity has become an epidemic. Many people point to the fact that the incidence of obesity has risen while fat intake decreased, so it must be because carbohydrates are what make people fat. So, now, we hear warnings of avoiding even high nutrient foods like onions and carrots because they have a higher starch content than green vegetables. This is just as ridiculous as people thinking that all they had to do was stop eating fat and they would lose weight. Here's what's missing in these lines of reasoning and why it's so important to get your diet facts straight if you want to achieve your goals.

1. Extra body fat (obesity if you have a large supply of fat) is on the increase because the total calories available to each person increased in the 20th century by about 500 calories per day. Extra calories are what make people (and other animals) store body fat.
   

2. The food sources have become more dense in calories. More highly processed foods, in the form of "refined" carbohydrates - white bread, white flour, sugar, corn syrup, high sugar beverages, and coupled with fat in desserts, baked goods, candy bars, etc. have made it very easy to eat more calories. These foods taste good and they contain more calories in a smaller unit of food, and that means "high caloric density." It's great to eat this way if you're storing body fat for an upcoming famine, but for most people in industrialized countries, the famine never came. 
   

3. Weight loss occurs whenever a person consumes fewer calories than they need to sustain their current weight. High fat diets, low fat diets, high protein diets - it really doesn't matter, if the total calories are reduced, weight loss occurs. The trick is that weight maintenance and prevention of weight gain is associated with a high carbohydrate, low fat eating style, and this eating style is also recommended for good heart health. But high carbohydrate doesn't mean high sugar and refined carbohydrates. A healthy high carbohydrate eating style must be composed of mostly high nutrient, high fiber carbohydrates - fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans. Less than 10% of those carbohydrates should be in the form of "sugar" - that's about 1/2 of the typical amount of sugar most people consume now!
   

So, the typical diet of the western world is too high in refined carbohydrates, still too in fat and animal foods, too high in calories, and too low in high fiber, nutrient rich carbohydrates like vegetables. Making the move to this more optimal way of eating takes several steps. To simplify this, let's "build a better pizza".

Current Western world diet:  Order a large combination pizza (with sausage, pepperoni, cheese, and a small amount of vegetables like olives, onions). Eat 1/2 or more of the pizza yourself, and wash it down with a liter of soda pop or beer.

Better:  Order a large combination pizza. Eat 2 pieces. Have a green salad with low calorie dressing, and wash it down with no sugar ice tea, diet soda, or better yet, skim milk.

Still Better:  Order a large pizza with mostly vegetables, maybe some chicken, but no processed, cured meats. Ask that 1/2 of the cheese be omitted. Eat 2 pieces. Have the salad with low calorie dressing and low calorie beverage.

Best! :  Order a large pizza with extra vegetables, half the cheese (low fat cheese if possible), and no meat. Order for a whole wheat crust. Eat 1 or 2 pieces. Eat a larger green salad with various vegetables, beans and seeds, with low calorie dressing. Choose a no sugar beverage, preferably water or skim milk.

And, after your pizza meal has properly digested, take a brisk walk, run, or whatever exercise you enjoy doing. Take the dog, too - he probably got your pizza scraps and could use the exercise!