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MyFitnessPal Community

Cauliflower - fad or fabulous?

djbomstad

I’m enjoying cauliflower pizza crust but wonder if it’s healthy for me as I try to lose weight. Carbs are my biggest problem to control so I think cauliflower is a good option for me.
Cauliflower vs wheat flour - any opinions on nutritional differences?

Replies

autumnblade75

Nutritional differences would be FACTS, rather than opinions. If you're looking to reduce carbs, it might be a useful substitution for you. FLAVOR is a opinion. I love cauliflower as a vegetable, but I am not open to the idea of making a pizza crust from it. I recognize your right to do what you want to your own food. My opinion is that I'd rather eat pizza toppings baked on top of a mushroom cap than on cauliflower. I wouldn't try to convince anyone that it's pizza crust, though.

AnnPT77

Nutrition isn't really about single foods or food types. It's about your overall way of eating.

Cauliflower pizza crust has certain nutritional characteristics, and so does wheat pizza crust. If one or the other fits in better with other things you eat over a day or few, to give you well-rounded nutrition on average, then eat that one (if you enjoy eating it). You can compare them by looking at nutrition labels and the MFP food database, among other information sources.

Also, what's filling or enjoyable is individual, subjective. If a person tries, by force of will, to eat in a way they don't enjoy, or that leaves them feeling crave-y or hungry, they're unlikely to stick with that way of eating long term, realistically.

IMO, what we ought be be trying to do is find a total way of eating that's satisfying to us personally, involves eating foods we enjoy (or at least tolerate well), that are practical and affordable for us to buy/cook/eat, and that gives us adequate nutrition at reasonable calories. It's about balance, personalized balance.

With the exception of things that are poisons, allergens for us as individuals, or contraindicated by a disease we have or a medication we take, there aren't "bad foods" or "unhealthy foods" at an individual food level, IMO. There are foods that in any given situation that can better balance out our day better, maybe - eating meat instead of cookies if we're short on protein today, say.

On the flip side of that, no matter what clickbait internet sites tell us, there aren't magical "diet foods" that are required for weight loss, specific "superfoods" that will supercharge our health or weight loss. Sure, some foods are more nutrient dense, some are more calorie dense, and how we mix them matters. But once I have my nutritional boxes checked for the day, it's fine to have a more calorie-dense, less nutritious treat food, when I have calories left, as long as I don't have trouble eating a sensible portion of that food. A cookie doesn't cancel out the day's nutrition, y'know?

On top of that, weight management is purely about calories, in a direct sense. Yes, food choice can have an indirect effect: If we aren't feeling sated, we may eat over our calorie goal . . . the effect on weight is from the calories. If we don't eat enough or get adequate nutrition, we may feel fatigued, rest more, drag through the day, burn fewer calories, so lose weight more slowly than we expect . . . but the effect on weight is still directly via calories.

If you like the cauliflower crust (I like it sometimes), and it fits in your day; and your day adds up to pretty good nutrition at reasonable calories for your goals; and you're satisfied with your eating, not crave-y . . . then it's good.

paperpudding

I like cauliflower - it is a vegetable I eat quite often.

havent tried it, nor do I intend to, as a pizza base.

However if you like it that way and it helps you reduce your carbs/calories, then, sure, perfectly good option for you.

BirdieBee1968

I had tried to make cauliflower crust 10 years ago when all the rage. It turned out terrible. So the next attempt I just cut the cauliflower into thick steaks and added the pizza toppings to the top. The taste wasn't terrible. I tried to convince myself I could do this for a low calorie dough replacement. I think I made it twice.

You can now buy cauliflower crust in the store and I have never tried it. I think that speaks for itself.
Someone may actually like it. But I could not convince my taste buds this was a "great" pizza.

BTW I love cauliflower steamed and raw and I eat it often.

Xellercin

How often are you eating pizza that you feel the need to swap out the crust in an attempt to make it "healthier?"

I love cauliflower, I make many dishes with it, but I don't use it as a substitute for anything.

Walkywalkerson

There's no way I'm swapping pizza crust for cauliflower- just no 🤣
I like cauliflower though - as it is not as a substitute for anything.
I like to swap out pasta sometimes for veggies - but I have them in their whole form.

paints5555

I tried cauliflower pizza once. Never again. I'll eat less of the regular stuff.

ciaoder

The cauliflower crust works out okay as a gluten free option when my daughter in law is over. Never occurred to me that people would choose it as their low carb alternative.

The idea of a”cauliflower fad” is fun to me.

xrj22

IMO cauliflower stuff is usually better for you than white flour. Just about anything is better than white flour. BUT if getting prepared foods that are cauliflower based, be sure to read the label. They often have a lot more fat, calories, and chemical additives than you would guess from the name. I rarely get prepared cauliflower pizza, etc. However, I do eat it raw, steamed, mashed, or roasted with a variety of healthy home-made dips and sauces.

paperpudding

White flour is fine for you - unless, as poster above mentioned, gluten issues.

People substituting cauliflower crust usually just doing so to save calories - is less calorie dense than flour crusts, that's all.
Although a few people may be doing it to avoid gluten.

I did not know you could buy ready made caulifower pizzas or pizza bases - haven't seen or heard of them here in Australia.

AnnPT77

paperpudding wrote: »

White flour is fine for you - unless, as poster above mentioned, gluten issues.

People substituting cauliflower crust usually just doing so to save calories - is less calorie dense than flour crusts, that's all.
Although a few people may be doing it to avoid gluten.

I did not know you could buy ready made caulifower pizzas or pizza bases - haven't seen or heard of them here in Australia.

Actually, IME, most commercial grocery-store cauliflower-crust pizza isn't dramatically lower in calories than flour-crust pizza, especially thin-crust flour-crust pizza, maybe not lower at all. They're mostly marketed as gluten free, and or somehow vaguely "healthier".

To make the crust, the cauliflower needs to have a good bit of the water pressed out (which makes it more calorie dense per volume, of course). Other things also need to be added to the cauliflower to get it to hold together. The more whole-foods-y versions seem to use eggs and cheese to do that, which also adds some calorie density.

A 12" plain Caulipower brand pizza base has 4 servings at 180 calories each. A Great Value (Walmart store brand) 12" plain pizza crust has 4 servings at 150 calories each, so lower calories, but not what I'd call dramatically lower. (I think the latter are not frozen, but one of those store-shelf things.)

I read labels a lot, do eat the cauliflower crust pizza sometimes as I mentioned. With equal toppings, some of the brands have maybe a bit more of other things that increase nutrient density in small/moderate ways, but the differences don't seem to be huge in practice. To me, most frozen pizza crust isn't that fabulous anyway, so getting one that's cauliflower crust is equally convenient, equally palatable, and has marginally more nutritional value. If I'm buying mediocre frozen pizza, which I do on the rare occasion, I'm going to read labels, prefer the one with relatively fewer calories (per same-sized pizza, not arbitrary package serving size), relatively better protein per calorie level while still vegetarian, and with toppings/ingredients I want. Sometimes, that's the cauliflower crust one.

OP, read the labels. Think about what matters to you. The two brands I just mentioned above, per 1/4 crust, the cauliflower crust has 30g of carbs (1g of which is fiber), and the wheat crust has 25g of carbs (0g of which is fiber). 😆

P.S. I didn't cherry-pick these two brands as examples to set that up. I just looked at a plain cauliflower crust brand whose pizzas I've bought before, and web-searched to find a same-sized wheat flour crust that would be widely available.

Bluebirdday72

I am a big fan of cauliflower rice these days, especially since I can now buy it in the frozen food section of my grocery store, which save a ton of time rather then making it from scratch. I use it instead of rice when eating things like curries, or whatever recipes I normally serve over rice, that benefit from having something “grainy” to soak up a sauce.

In these situations, I find it does cut out a lot of calories that I would have eaten if I had used rice. Regular rice tends to stop me up, so I don’t miss it.

I cook it by first microwaving it in a bowl for about a minute (from frozen). Stir to break up any clumps, then toss it into a hot non-stick pan, add a sprinkle of salt/pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, cooking over med heat, stirring often, to kind of dry it out so it feels more “ricey.”

JBanx256

Bluebirdday72 wrote: »

I am a big fan of cauliflower rice these days, especially since I can now buy it in the frozen food section of my grocery store,”

ESPECIALLY when I'm on a cut, I eat a LOT of cauli-rice. there are a couple of brands (Del Monte & Birdeye, that I can think of offhand) that make some that are already seasoned, for example a teriyaki-style that I'll use with stir-fry, or Southwestern-style I'll use with Mexican-inspired dishes using bell peppers etc.

THAT SAID, I don't know that I've ever eaten cauli-crust pizza. Not necessarily opposed to it, just haven't gone down that road.

yirara

AnnPT77 wrote: »

A 12" plain Caulipower brand pizza base has 4 servings at 180 calories each. A Great Value (Walmart store brand) 12" plain pizza crust has 4 servings at 150 calories each, so lower calories, but not what I'd call dramatically lower. (I think the latter are not frozen, but one of those store-shelf things.)

What? I just have to jump in here now, because a pizza crust of at least 600 calories?!? Ok, admittedly, the pizzas I buy are smaller at 25cm, but they come in at 650-730 calories loaded, with either tuna or salami

ritzvin

I can only handle so much gluten (and pizza dough is particularly high in it), so cauliflower pizza is something I occasionally get if at a restaurant that has it. Personally, I like it. Someone that doesn't like thin crust pizza probably wouldn't.

If cooking at home, you definitely do need to make sure there is good air flow underneath (I've had cauliflower crust pizza cooked by people at home including a high end specialty pizza oven, and the middle bottom crust has always been undercooked and disappointing and overcooked at edges and top in those. Restaurant-cooked versions, where they have more practice at it, have always been excellent).

Cauliflower crust does include starch added in addition to the cauliflower. Also always smaller diameter and thinner crust than typical pizza, so calorie density per volume probably not as low as it might at first seem. (Someone without gluten issues might prefer a slice of a small thin crust pizza depending on their tastes if considering it based only on calories).

kshama2001

djbomstad wrote: »

I’m enjoying cauliflower pizza crust but wonder if it’s healthy for me as I try to lose weight. Carbs are my biggest problem to control so I think cauliflower is a good option for me.
Cauliflower vs wheat flour - any opinions on nutritional differences?

Carbs from wheat (and sugar) are a problem for me as well, in that I can eat a lot of them with almost no satiety. I do find carbs from fruits, vegetables, legumes, etc., quite filling.

I personally like cauliflower as a vegetable, but not as a starch substitute.

For example, I will add cauliflower to mac and cheese to bulk it up, but I would never substitute it completely for the pasta.

But you do you

If you like cauliflower pizza crust, enjoy!

lemurcat2

yirara wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

A 12" plain Caulipower brand pizza base has 4 servings at 180 calories each. A Great Value (Walmart store brand) 12" plain pizza crust has 4 servings at 150 calories each, so lower calories, but not what I'd call dramatically lower. (I think the latter are not frozen, but one of those store-shelf things.)

What? I just have to jump in here now, because a pizza crust of at least 600 calories?!? Ok, admittedly, the pizzas I buy are smaller at 25cm, but they come in at 650-730 calories loaded, with either tuna or salami

This looks like a pretty typical homemade crust to me (the olive oil could be cut or eliminated and same with the sugar, or some of one, some of the other, but the olive oil would be used for cooking anyway, and the sugar isn't that caloric in the amount suggested). Personally I don't add olive oil to the dough, but would use it on the dough (and the lack of that is one big reason for the commercial stuff being lower cal, I'd bet, as well as perhaps it comes out thinner -- I haven't made crust in a while, and did a whole wheat flour one the last time I did).

Anyway, this comes to 238 cal by my calculation, for 4 servings per 12" crust, so actually higher than the commercial one Ann chose.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-pizza-crust-recipe/

My own sense is that usually the cauliflower ones, as Ann said, are not lower cal, at least not if compared to crusts made with cal cutting efforts (which again this recipe does not employ). More typically they are an effort to add vegetables to the diet (IMO, just put lots of veg on the pizza) or to be low carb rather than lower cal.

AnnPT77

yirara wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

A 12" plain Caulipower brand pizza base has 4 servings at 180 calories each. A Great Value (Walmart store brand) 12" plain pizza crust has 4 servings at 150 calories each, so lower calories, but not what I'd call dramatically lower. (I think the latter are not frozen, but one of those store-shelf things.)

What? I just have to jump in here now, because a pizza crust of at least 600 calories?!? Ok, admittedly, the pizzas I buy are smaller at 25cm, but they come in at 650-730 calories loaded, with either tuna or salami

So, 25 cm is just under 10". That's a lot less crust, even without considering how thick the crust is. Geometry matters. 😉

If I'm doing the arithmetic right (which I'm often not 😆), the 25 cm crust is 490.9 square cm, the 12" (30.4cm) is 725.8 square cm. A 600 calorie 12" crust would equate to a 406 calorie 25 cm crust, if so.

FWIW, when I do home-made crusts, I don't even think about the carbs. Instead, I've been working on improving the protein per calorie ratio of the crust, while keeping the eating qualities I personally enjoy (thicker, risen rather than dense dense, kind of chewy, whole wheat texture/flavor). That approach reduces carbs somewhat (loosely, same calories, more protein, gotta be less of something, and that "something" is usually carbs). Still a generous dose of carbs, though, from heaps of veggies in addition to crust.