Why does pizza have such a bad reputation?

Why don't we just put cookies on the pizza too..

They do that, yanno. And it's glorious.

That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen

Pizza has a bad reputation because we like simple solutions without nuance and context. It's much easier to just say "pizza is bad" than to take into account things like ingredients, quantity, etc. That's hard thinking, and might even require math. "Pizza bad" I can remember.

it has both grains and dairy, a recipe for obesity

I want to remain in denial :grumble:

I did come across this "CARBS + FAT = BAD" So it must be true :sad:

it has both grains and dairy, a recipe for obesity

I was thinking along similar lines...!

I eat grains but not wheat. I avoid cheese. I would bet the bread base from pizza hut has more than just flour, yeast, water and salt?

pretty sure the tomato sauce is more than just tomatoes seasoned with herbs?

therefore, I'm out.

Pizza dough should be made with oil, not water.

Well, whatevs...I've never made pizza dough before so excuse my ignorance.

Wiling to bet it has sugar and all sorts of artificial preservatives and unnecessary stuff in it!

it has both grains and dairy, a recipe for obesity

I was thinking along similar lines...!

I eat grains but not wheat. I avoid cheese. I would bet the bread base from pizza hut has more than just flour, yeast, water and salt?

pretty sure the tomato sauce is more than just tomatoes seasoned with herbs?

therefore, I'm out.

Pizza dough should be made with oil, not water.

Flour, yeast, water, salt

Is the key components of any bread.

Adding fat to the dough will add chewy and mouth feel and a different texture, but without water, you cannot hydrate the wheat proteins to form gluten, the key to risen yeast breads.

I've never understood the pizza= bad mentality. We make homemade pizza about once a week. As long as I stick to two slices, I lose weight just fine. Depending on the toppings we have lying around, some of our pizza's are healthier than others, but I don't think any of them are terrible in terms of nutritional value.

I love pizza whether I make it or get it from our favorite local place. We don't eat it often so I don't care if it has "too much cheese" (is that even possible?!) or anything else that's not supposed to be good for me. And I always keep it to two slices along with salad.

Because it tastes good and if it tastes good it has to be bad...Kidding of course.

Pizza is a weakness of mine. I always thought pizza was my down fall but ever since I started counting calories I realized its inst as bad as some of the other things I was eating. I am comfortable eating just two slices and fits well with in my calories.

I seriously think it gets a bad rap because people usually drink soda with it and in my opinion soda=poison. Soda is what packs on the calories. I now drink water with my pizza and I still see weight loss.

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I do make my own pizza. Yes, starting from flour and yeast. And I've done the calorie calculations for it on MFP. And, since there are two of us a serving is half a pizza. I don't make us pizza very often because sadly, it is relatively calorie dense.

Even a plain pizza is chiefly two calorie-dense categories of food: starch and fat. The crust is just a great big hunk of white bread and the topping is a bunch of cheese. Yes, a pizza has some vegetables on it, but we are really talking about "decorations" not servings. A slice of pizza is "servings" of bread and cheese but only a smidgen of veggies. Add a bit of sausage and olives?

To make them tasty, many processed chain pizzas are loaded with sugar and extra fat. Take a look at the crust ingredients in Pizza Hut crusts at www.pizzahut.com/files/pdf/ph_ingredients.pdf. Included in the various doughs are things like partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

My pizza crust is flour, water, salt and yeast -- perhaps with a little olive oil if I'm feeling expansive.

I love the ingredients list for the beef topping on that Pizza Hut list. Think it's straight ground beef?

"Beef, water, textured soy protein concentrate, soy protein concentrate, hydrolyzed soy protein, hydrolyzed corn and wheat gluten, salt, maltodextrin, sodium phosphate, autolyzed yeast extract, dextrose, grill flavor from partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, natural and artificial flavors, bha, bht, citric acid, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate."

Yum!

One of the big issues is that "pizza" is actually a pretty vague concept. Quality can vary between sources. I remember the cafeteria pizza in college having so much oil on it we'd go through a handful of napkins to get it off. (Even then you still had enough left on there to do basic maintenance on a light truck.) Then you can have different styles of pizza, from thin crust to regular crust to deep-dish, all with different toppings, and it really leaves a wide range of nutritional possibilities.

There was actually someone locally who took on a "live on pizza" challenge and he ate only pizza for a while and doctors said he was no worse for wear. BUT... he was making healthier choices and he was careful about the calories and nutrient makeup on the pizza, so it was still a pretty balanced diet. He was able to do things like a whole grain crust, fresh vegetables, and lean meats. He didn't live off of the Little Caesar's $5 hot-and-ready pepperoni pizza.

When I have pizza, I usually opt for thin-crust, light cheese, and extra sauce and I try to have more plants on top than meats. Then, because I'm single, I usually stetech one pie out over a weekend or more.

OP it's simple. because the pizza they're referring to when they say low nutritional content is not made from whole wheat dough or ANY high quality ingredients.

when people refer to pizza as a "bad" food, they're talking about typical store bought, refined white flour crust, HFCS sauce, and heavily processed cheese product - which is nutritionally inferior to the pizza you described.

a pizza can be incredibly healthy or incredibly unhealthy depending on how it's made and from what ingredients.

Because per slice it's usually high in calories and fat, and hardly anyone can stop eating at one slice. I know I won't, but I ALWAYS compensate for the calories with more exercise. Sucks, but I like pizza occasionally.

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Because most people order a pizza, and ordered pizza doesn't come on multigrain bread with lean meats.

Why does pizza have such a bad rep?

Because if you're like me, you can never eat just one slice... And I happen to love the extra cheese, meat lovers, deep dish or stuffed crust that ISN'T good for you!!

That's it, in a nutshell!!!

I only indulge every couple of months now... When I crave pizza, which is often, I choose Lean Cuisine's Deep Dish, Spinach & Mushroom pizza...I love it, it's only 340 calories and it fixes my craving. I eat it at least once a week