Healthy Dish

For this part of the assignment, I made pizza:)

Pizza is known to be unhealthy, and before I started on the assignment, I studied the ingredients used, so as to tackle the problem more effectively:)

1) Oily

2) High levels of salt and msg

3) Cheese is very fattening and pizza uses a lot of it

The difference between the homemade pizza and the stuffed crust pizza hut pizza is:

1) I used olive oil instead of normal oil, and I barely used any:) Usually, after the pizza is removed from the box, you can tell where the pizza was from the circle of oil on the cardboard box. I Think they have used so much oil as they do not want it to stick to the pan and also for it to cook faster(since pizza delivery is about speed). However, by making it at home, I can take as much time as I need, and to prevent it from sticking to the pan, I used aluminium foil. In other words, only 1 teaspoon of olive oil was added into the dough, in contrast to those made outside, since no oil was used at all the oil the baking tray. After its baked, any excess oil is wiped away using kitchen towels.

2) I used lightly salted cheese. Cheese has incredibly high levels of sodium as it spoils easily and needs to be preserved with salt. Although lightly salted cheese can be found easily on shelves, it is not the alternative chosen by pizza hut due to 1) taste 2) shorter shelve life and 3)higher cost.

3) I used fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste. Tomato paste is canned and although convenient, is unhealthy as it is also preserved and contains msg. This problem is solved using fresh tomatoes.

Although this is not part of the recipe for the pizza, but I would just like to adopt this healthy tip in future. Next time, before I eat unhealthy food, I will eat a fruit first as I will feel more satisfied with the fibre so I will not over eat, and also drink a glass of water as water fills up stomach space easily too. After I eat the pizza, I will drink another glass of water to "wash away" the sodium and msg.

To make the pizza a meal, I suggest that 1 serving of fruit be eaten(as suggested above) and the beverage be milk/water. Although soft drink is often chosen to go with pizza, it is extremely unhealthy, as it's all empty calories that do not provide any nutrition. Although some "zero sugar added" or "zero-calories" options may seem like a good alternative, but in reality, they may be just as unhealthy. For example, although it may be lower in sugar content or calories, more msg or preservatives or transfat may have been added. It is tedious to check the food label for every single type of nutrition to ensure that you don't fall into the trap, plus, people will think that you are a nutcase if you order a coke and stare at it for 2 mins and then order another drink instead and stare at it for some more time. Therefore, water is the best alternative, and milk too(depending on the brand and whether its skimmed and low fat) if you want to grow taller:)