All Pizzas Are Not Created Equal part III

Enriched white flour vs. unbleached flour vs 100% Whole Wheat vs Whole Grain

Many pizza crust recipes are made with enriched white flour, which on the surface sounds like a good thing, but the fact is that it’s not. When your digestive system breaks down enriched white flour it because sugar, which gives you some energy, however doesn’t provide you with many nutrients, and also leaves you still feeling hungry. Try to avoid simple carbohydrates like enriched white flours and refined grains. North American diets are severely lacking in fiber. Fiber comes from whole wheat and whole grain breads. Fiber takes longer for your digestive system to break down and as a result leaves you feeling fuller longer. Also a source of complex carbohydrates (starches) and a major source of B vitamins, magnesium and many other minerals. Most flours are also bleached, which leaches nutrients from the flour. Why do they do this? Good question—apparently at some point in time in North America, someone decided that natural coloured flour wasn’t ‘white enough’ and added the bleaching process. I don’t know about you guys, but I usually try not to bleach any of my food before I eat it.

At Diana’s Gourmet Pizzeria, we use a high protein, unbleached white flour for our White and Moosehead beer dough recipes. It’s an industry specific product, you won’t find it on the shelves of your local grocery store. The higher protein content ensures the crust will have a crispier bottom and be able to support layers of sauce, cheese and toppings that North American pizzas are known for. This flour is more expensive than the standard all purpose enriched white flour, but it’s key to a better North American style pizza.

Who knew there was so much to know about great pizza? Twenty-one years in the industry has taught me a lot, and I’ve also taken pizza baking courses at the Italian Scuola Pizza and the American Institute of Baking to advance my knowledge and skills. You could say I love pizza.

Next post I'll discuss the quality of meats that are used in the most popular toppings found on pizza.

Tour De Pizza

A pizza guy in the US has is on a 1,300 mile mission dubbed the “Tour de Pizza” on his bicycle. He’s promoting that pizza is actually very healthy and that it’s all about selecting your toppings wisely, portion control and exercise.

I’ve been saying that for over a decade, our menu is loaded with healthy choices like low-fat mozzarella, lean grilled chicken breast, fresh veggies not to mention our 100% whole wheat crust option. On more than one occasion, I’ve been told “you don’t look like an award winning pizza chef”, which I always have to ask; “What does an award winning pizza chef look like?” The answer is always that I should be as round as I am tall.

Pizza has been getting a bad rap for years, while it’s true that many low price pizzas are made with fake cheeses and imitation meats loaded with fillers & by-products, the essential, all natural ingredients found in high quality pizzas are indeed healthy.

This guy has lost 25 lbs in 30 days...does anyone need more proof than that?
Check out the full story here;
http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/06/15/1275199/bicyclist-fueled-by-pizza.html

Now I’m not supposed to diet while breastfeeding, and the truth is that I’ve already lost most of my pregnancy weight, but when it comes time to drop the rest you can bet that I’ll be on ‘the healthy pizza diet’.

In the meantime, this gave us an idea for a great way to showcase the healthy nature of our menu so we’re looking for a couple of individuals to participate in ‘the Diana’s 30-day healthy pizza diet challenge’.

The successful candidates would be motivated to lose pounds while eating our healthy pizza for at least 2 meals of the day. We’ll provide the healthy pizza for the 30 day diet and monitor daily/weekly weigh ins. Proper portion control and moderate exercise is also a key component of this plan.

So how about it, do you know someone who’d be willing to take the ‘Diana’s 30-day healthy pizza diet challenge’ ?