Vegetable based pizza bases
Pizza is not the first product that comes to mind when you think of healthy eating. But for a while now there are also pizzas with a vegetable-based base. That sounds healthy! But is it?
Daily portion of vegetables
The Nutrition Center recommends eating at least 250 grams of vegetables per day. But no matter how healthy and tasty that is, it still turns out to be quite difficult for many people to get this daily portion of vegetables. On average, we eat only 140 grams of the recommended 250 grams of vegetables per day. The large food producers saw a gap in the market and came up with a solution: processing vegetables in all kinds of products. And then mainly in products in which you do not expect vegetables: pizza bases for example.
fair weighing
For example, pizza bases are available with a base of cauliflower, beetroot, spinach or carrot. The packaging of ready-made pizza bases with vegetables states that the pizza bases sometimes contain up to 40 percent vegetables. For a pizza base of 315 grams on average, that would mean that you get half the daily recommended amount of vegetables through the vegetable base alone. Unfortunately, that calculation is incorrect. The vegetables that are processed in the pizza base are first weighed. After weighing, it is then made into powder. Because the moisture is removed from the vegetables, a lot less of the original amount of vegetables remains. The powder, which ultimately only has a fraction of its original weight, is then processed into the pizza base. Legally, the starting weight of the vegetables may be used on the packaging. So the label does not state how much powder is in the product, but how many grams of vegetables were weighed at the first moment of weighing. Actually, there is no beet of that amount of vegetables that is stated on the package. That is why they are now also called ‘attract vegetables’.
The eating factor
Vegetable powder lacks a lot of properties that make real vegetables so healthy and unique. There are still some vitamins and minerals in the powder, but hardly any fiber. You have to chew real vegetables, and your digestion is put to work. It is precisely because of that chewing and that fiber that vegetables keep your stomach sweet for a long time. A pizza base with vegetable powder bites away easily, but is much less filling than a pizza that is topped with many vegetables. And because of the illusion that you are already very healthy with such a vegetable base, the temptation is great to cover the pizza with cheese and salami instead of vegetables. All in all, you’ll be much unhealthier.
Is there nothing healthy at all about such a vegetable base?
The vitamins and minerals from the original vegetables are still largely preserved in a pizza base. In addition, vegetable pizza bases contain more saturated fats and added substances such as sugar and salt. These substances are necessary because the product has to be tinkered more with for a good structure and taste. You would expect a pizza base that consists partly of vegetables to contain fewer carbohydrates than a pizza dough base. But vegetable soils also consist for the most part of wheat flour. Due to the extra added sugar, there are even more carbohydrates in some vegetable bases than in a regular pizza base. And finally, such a pizza base made of vegetables is a lot more expensive than a regular pizza base or a ready-made frozen pizza. Our best tip: top a regular pizza base with extra tomatoes, bell pepper or zucchini, then you eat a lot more vegetables. And such a pizza will cost you even less money.
