Pizza
About pizza
Do you know what the title stands for? It is the number of slices of pizza consumed every second in the United States alone. Surprised? Well, don’t be. With over 69,000 pizzerias in the United States, they represent over 17% of all restaurants. Pizza is definitely one of the most popular and most consumed foods worldwide.
It all started in Naples, Italy in 1889 when cheese was added for the first time to the famous regional Neapolitan Tomato pie. But it wasn’t always as popular as it is today. In the end of the 19th century, the queen of Italy at the time banned pizza from the royal courts as it was considered a food of the poor. The legend says that the king at the time, Ferdinand I, left the royal courts disguised as a common citizen only so that he could go have a taste of the newly created food.
Today, pizza is valued so much in Italy that it is considered as a symbol of the country. In 2009, the European Congress passed a Traditional Specialty Guaranteed law that will protect the original and authentic recipe of the Neapolitan Pizza. Only pizzas that follow this law’s guidelines will have the honor to be called “traditional Italian”.
Pizza is a $30+ billion per year industry in the United States. With over 3 billion pizzas sold each year, the United States is definitely one of the biggest consumers in the world. Unfortunately there is always a catch. Even though it is so widely spread and consumed, only a few people realize how damaging pizza can be for your health. The high amounts of salt, calories, fats and cholesterol can have a huge impact on your health.
Local pizzerias cannot handle all of the high consume demand. That is why chain restaurants like Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns are becoming more popular. They offer great delivery services, a huge variety of choices and cheap affordable prices. However, they have found a better way to deal with the high traffic of consumers. Most of the ingredients and pizzas are prepared ahead of time. The authenticity of the traditional Neapolitan pizza is nowhere to be found in these chain restaurants.
In the past few years Pizza Hut came under criticism of the FDA because of the huge amounts of salt found in their meals. Some of their meals contained more than twice the amount of salt that a healthy adult should consume each day. However, not all pizzas are bad for your health. The authentic Neapolitan Pizza made of all natural ingredients has been found to have cancer curing chemicals. During a recent study conducted in Europe every person that ate traditional pizza at least once a week had a lower chance of getting cancer. It is believed that this protection and health benefit comes from anti-oxidants found in tomatoes.
Over 94% of the United States’ population consumes pizza almost every day. It has become a part of everyone’s daily life. Every time there is an event going on, or if we simply gather with friends, the first thing that comes to our mind is pizza. I guess we can call it a delicious tradition.