Learn To Choose The Pizza That Won’t Sabotage Your Diet
Pizza is the favorite food of many people. Maybe it is for you too. But what if you are on a diet? Do you know how to prepare or choose the healthiest or low in calories ?
This food is normally associated with highly caloric snacks. However, If you prepare it with a quality dough and ingredients it can become a true delight.
If, in addition, you follow some very simple guidelines, it can become a healthy and very rich option. Here are some tips so you don’t sabotage your diet.
The right ingredients for your pizza
Not because your pizza contains many ingredients does it mean that it is less healthy or that it contains more calories. The trick is to choose your ingredients carefully so that the combination is light.
Non-fried vegetables, such as arugula , spinach leaves, broccoli or avocado are a good idea. For the meats, choose grilled chicken or ham.
If you add a slightly strong spice, such as black pepper, it will provide satiating effects, so it will be a very suitable option in the preparation of your pizza.
Do not forget to read: Symptoms that you do not consume enough vegetables. Very important!
Cheese calories
A pizza without cheese doesn’t make much sense or taste. However, cheese provides about 220 calories to each serving.
So what’s the easiest way to cut down on the calories cheese gives you? You can simply add just half the recommended amount of cheese to cut down on saturated fat.
If you don’t want to remove half of your cheese, you can request part skim cheese instead of whole cheese. Some pizzerias give you the option of substituting feta for regular cheese .
This is a good option, because feta cheese is low in calories. Provides about 50 calories per 2 tablespoons
The lowest calorie options are cheese-free. You can make it or order it without cheese and sprinkle red pepper flakes on top instead.
Calories from meat, sausage, and pepperoni
Be supposed to the type of meat that is added to pizza adds about 40 calories per slice. Of course, that number can vary if you add a lot of sausage or pepperoni.
The number may also vary depending on the serving size.
The pepperoni or salami provides about 130 calories per ounce of meat every time they add.
A typical slice of hot dogs or salami contains between 200 and 250 calories.
A low calorie alternative is chorizo. This will save you around 20 calories per serving. You don’t have to worry about the taste, because chorizo has a delicious flavor that you usually like a lot.
Other alternatives include extra lean ground beef or Turkey breast ground. Grilled or roasted chicken is another alternative that you can use as the main ingredient for your pizza.
If you can’t order leaner meat, you can still cut the calories from the salami or sausage on the pizza.
Simply use an absorbent paper towel or several paper napkins to remove some of the fat from your chunk. With this, you can save between 15 and 25 calories per serving.
The calories in the dough
The best pizzas are usually those with a thin crust. This also becomes an advantage to obtain healthier recipes.
Also, if that dough is homemade and you make it with whole ingredients, the results are even better. Doughs made with refined white flour increase insulin levels.
This will cause a feeling of craving and you want more.
Lower in calories
Your lowest calorie choice will almost always be a vegetarian pizza. . Vegetables provide flavor with very few calories, allowing you to add a small amount of cheese.
Choosing vegetable toppings, such as green bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions, will also add fiber and antioxidants .
You might even try adding spinach or broccoli to it. After a while, you may prefer vegetables over meat-based toppings in your pizzas.
Additional tips to cut calories
- Ask for the dough to be crispy to save calories . For example, the crust of the thick dough contains about 100 calories more than that of a thinner one.
- Replace regular dough with whole wheat dough to get almost 20% of the fiber you need for the day.
- Avoid the accompanying sauce, like garlic butter, to save hundreds of calories, especially if this is double or triple your slices.
Finally, a visit to a local pizzeria or small restaurant can offer you a greater variety of healthy ingredients than chain restaurants.
Options might include grilled shrimp, green peas, asparagus, artichoke hearts, black beans, corn, spicy fajita chicken, lemon grilled chicken, or fresh minced garlic.
As you can see, in the end, eating healthy and having that craving is not that complicated.