Researchers at the University of Illinois (USA) studied the eating habits of 14,000 children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 to understand the impact of pizza on children’s weight.
The results of the study show that when children eat pizza, they consume 84 calories, 3 grams of saturated fat and 134 mg more salt than others. Teens who eat pizza show an excess of 230 calories, 5 grams of saturated fat, and 484 mg of salt. Surpluses that favor the appearance of Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
Whether they are “American type” pizzas from the supermarket or from fast food, the observation was the same. “There was no difference in the impact on calories and nutrients if young people ate supermarket or fast food pizza, suggesting that efforts to improve nutritional quality
Children: Play before meals to eat more fruits and vegetables Pizzas should include pizzas from all sources, ”says Lisa Powell, professor of health policy at the University of Illinois and author of the study. On the other hand, the researchers found that the pizzas served in school canteens have a lower impact in terms of calories.
As pizza represents 20% of the diet of children and adolescents, the researchers recommend boycotting industrial and fast-food pizzas and reducing recipes by replacing all fatty and salty foods (bacon, meat) with vegetables, reducing the amount of cheese and using a wholemeal dough.
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“Since pizza remains a prominent dish in children’s diets, we need to make healthy pizzas the norm,” comments Lisa Powell, lead author of the study.
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