Pizza Is Good At Actual Disease Recovery

To be clear, the latest research is not saying pizza is actually healthy across the board. For those concerned with cholesterol and sodium, pizza is probably still not a great option to indulge in. However, specifically for people afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, it was found that consuming pizza semi-regularly was able to provide some relief from the symptoms.

The study looked at participants’ pizza consumption frequency and found that while eating pizza less than two times a month had no benefit, eating half a pizza more than once a week was arguably healthy. Those who ate pizza regularly reported feeling more relief from their rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.

Naturally, this study was conducted in Italy, so residents are probably quite happy to hear that their country’s signature food has some health benefits. Three hundred sixty-five people from Italy with rheumatoid arthritis participated in the study, and as many as 80 percent who ate pizza more frequently reported improvements, meaning it was, in a sense, healthy for them.

There are other drawbacks to eating too much pizza that people would have to bear in mind before any reputable researcher would declare pizza as being healthy. However, some researchers say not depriving yourself of your comfort foods every once in a while can also be linked to mental wellness.

Lindsay Wengler is a registered dietitian at Olive Branch Nutrition in New York City, and she made the case for why foods like pizza can actually be healthy despite matters like calorie counts. “Some foods get a bad rap as being ‘unhealthy’ or ‘bad,’ yet we overlook the simple fact that each food provides some type of nutritional, cultural or social component that shouldn’t be ignored.”

Wengler also emphasized that the basic ingredients of pizza can indeed be healthy, but it is often many of the additions people make that can dial up the grease and sodium. “When we start to break down pizza for what it really is—dough/bread, tomatoes, cheese, and olive oil—we can see how it doesn’t deserve the stigma. When we analyze those ingredients even further, we can see the nutrition and health benefits that pizza actually provides.”

So, while these findings do not indicate that pizza is healthy enough to make it a daily part of your diet, they do reveal that for some people, it can provide some unforeseen benefits. Perhaps further research can inform us as to what the balance is between including decadent ingredients that will make the pizza more tasty versus turning it into something more healthy specifically for reducing inflammation.

For a lucky few, the good news is that enjoying more pizza to determine how healthy it looks like will be necessary. Researchers want to repeat this study to try and confirm the results. However, the advice of Lindsay Wengler does hold merit regardless of the results of the study.

Some foods can just make you feel better due to what they mean to you based on tradition, like a turkey at Thanksgiving. Even the most ardent health enthusiast would not advocate avoiding ever treating yourself.

Source: Pub Med