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why is pizza considered junk food?

 
Leigh Tate
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homemade pizza


I've seen junk food lists with pizza on them and had discussions with people who insist it's junk food, but I don't get that. Pizza is an almost perfect complete food! It has grain, veggies, meat (or other protein of choice), and cheese. I couldn't ask for a better meal!

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Michael Cox
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I think it very much depends on how they are prepared.

Classic italian style - thin crispy base, prepared with superb quality fresh ingredients? Definitely not junk food.

Pizza Hut style - thick base, dripping with greasy fat that is soaked into the breadlike base, highly processed toppings? Definitely junk.

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I consider white flour to be junk food and even most whole-wheat flour is fake whole wheat. And I feel like the evidence on dairy is pretty mixed, so people mostly choose to accept whatever their preference tells them to.

I love pizza, but it's a guilty pleasure unless I make it all scratch, and I don't usually.
 
Anne Miller
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Interesting subject.

To me, food items that are sold as fast food are very often considered junk food.

I agree that most fast foods and pizzas contain a lot of carbohydrates, fat, and salt.

Though when pizza is made at home it can be made from healthy ingredients and lots of veggies that fast food pizza may not have.

Years ago when I first started looking into how much salt aka sodium was in fast food I was shocked.

I ask Mr. Google who gave me this:

verywellfit said, "In this large size, a single slice provides 500 calories, 23g fat, 10g saturated fat, 51g carbohydrate, 22g protein, and 1,100mg sodium



When I make pizza I don't use any salt so the only sodium would is from the ingredients.

This pizza recipe does not call for any salt:

https://permies.com/wiki/103081/pep-food-prep-preservation/Bake-pizza-PEP-BB-food#862266

This recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of salt for the crust of two 12" pizzas:

https://permies.com/t/73896/kitchen/Pizza-Crust

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Kaarina Kreus
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I often cooked for kids I was babysitting. Many were quite picky about eating.
So I made pizza, but with a tomato sauce containing onions, kohlrabi, carrots, rutabagas, celeriac, leeks... some chicken or meat and covered in cheese. Perfect meal.
As veggies taste so good everyone loved my pizzas.
Especially the moms after hearing that they contain about ten different vegetables. 😄

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K Kaba
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Pizza is like tacos, there's so many different foods under the name.

The cheap frozen pizzas in the freezer section have a glycemic index of pancake syrup ( white flour, sugary sauce, etc. ) They have lots of salt. And the serving size is 1/8, but many people are going to eat half or more in a sitting. It's often a binge food. At least one famous brand of fast food pizza has a spray oil they hit it with after it leaves the oven to give it that shine.

Scratch homemade pizza, the crust may be half or more whole grain, the sauce can be veggie rich and free of added sugars, you control the salt. Assembled homemade pizza depends on your choices.
 
Trace Oswald
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As others have alluded to, define "pizza".  I could just as well say cheeseburgers are junk food because I only get them from McDonalds.  When I make them at home, I use no bun, grass fed beef, cheese from the local cheese house, olives, fresh onion, and real ground mustard.  Viola, no longer junk food.

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Mike Barkley
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I think pizza, like so many other things, follows the GIGO rule. Garbage in, garbage out.

Yesterday I made pizza for dinner. Here's a pic of the leftovers. Quality organic flour was used to make a sourdough crust. All the veggies & some of the spices came from my garden. Tomatoes, garlic, bell peppers, basil, & onions. I made the mozzarella cheese yesterday too. The Italian sausage came from an excellent meat market. Very little grease & no preservative crap used in that.

Many years ago I worked for a large well known pizza chain. They're not even in the same ball park as home grown quality pizza.
IMG_20230203_101017.jpg
[Thumbnail for IMG_20230203_101017.jpg]

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Anne Miller wrote: I agree that most fast foods and pizzas contain a lot of carbohydrates, fat, and salt.

And commercial ones have relatively little quality vegetables. I'm like Kaarina  who uses things like pizza to hide good stuff in!

This recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of salt for the crust of two 12" pizzas:

https://permies.com/t/73896/kitchen/Pizza-Crust

I was told years ago, that adding salt to "bread" recipes was important to the whole "get it to rise and be bread" process. Can anyone confirm that?

Same with a little sugar - the yeast eat it to poop out CO2, and I think will respond faster to sugar than carbs. I add milk powder to my bread machine bread and it has the same effect as lactose is a sugar. My homemade sourdough doesn't get sugar but it rises for 10 to 12 hours (overnight), so that give them plenty of time to get energy from the flours.

However, I'm always shocked with how much salt and sugar are added to things like, "pasta sauce" and have tried to teach my family to read the labels! The tomato paste hubby bought contains tomatoes and citric acid - no salt, no sugar - Yes!! (My guess is that the citric acid is lowering the pH which makes it easier to can it safely - safe food is good too!)

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Anne Miller
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Kaarina Kreus wrote:I often cooked for kids I was babysitting. Many were quite picky about eating.
So I made pizza, but with a tomato sauce containing onions, kohlrabi, carrots, rutabagas, celeriac, leeks... some chicken or meat and covered in cheese. Perfect meal.
As veggies taste so good everyone loved my pizzas.
Especially the moms after hearing that they contain about ten different vegetables. 😄



That pizza sounds delicious.  I bet I would love your pizza too.

I would like a slice of Leigh's and Mike's pizza, too.

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Dc Stewart
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I believe that pizza obtained junk food status on the day that "sausage" was replaced with the legalistically-vague "pork topping".

Fast-food burgers earned their status when people started doing these types of experiments:

Look What Happens When You Leave A McDonald’s Hamburger Out On A Counter For A Year

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Cristobal Cristo
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I would categorize it this way: good ingredients, baked not in microwave - not junk. Processed ingredients, additives - junk.
 
John Weiland
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Never would have thought "pizza dough throwing" had it's own sport following!



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Pizza in north America was introduced to the general public as fast or takeaway food.  30 min or less was fast food in those days.

By the 1980s All fast food equals junk food.

Therefore pizza is junk food.

Logically consistent,  but both premises are false, so unsound myth caused by over generalisations.

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r ranson
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Now I want to eat pizza.

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Jay Angler
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r ranson wrote:Now I want to eat pizza.

Only eat it? You don't want to emulate the expert in the video John Weiland posted above, and become a Pizza dough athlete? Maybe I'm just uncoordinated, but me and pizza dough are generally a recipe for a mess!

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Leigh Tate
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Jay Angler wrote:Maybe I'm just uncoordinated, but me and pizza dough are generally a recipe for a mess!


I'm lucky if I can get it rolled out to a decent looking circle.

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Joel Bercardin
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It was only a few years ago that the medical-research people published studies and media releases to the effect that the "Mediterranean diet" was the best among those of modern, developed nations, or at least offered an outstanding model for guiding our North American diet. I can say from having travelled in Italy & France (including the south) that pizza is very much a part of  the Mediterranean diet.

In Italy, you see people of the full range of economic classes enjoying pizza. And I'm not referring to people in fast-food outlets -- quality restaurants &cafés.

i agree that if you make your own, or are given some by a friend who you know is conscientious about how they make it, it's good food. If you're concerned about carbs, you can make thin-crust pizza.

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