Is pizza junk food?

Their objective: to figure out whether eating pizza could play a role in a person's risk of heart disease. And to get the answer, the researchers interviewed and studied about a thousand patients who were hospitalized with various conditions during a four year period in Milan. Roughly half of those patients were admitted after suffering a heart attack.

All patients who suffering a heart attack were more likely to eat plenty of calories and few fruits and vegetables. They had a history of hypertension, diabetes, and smoking. That's not surprising at all. And they rarely if ever drank alcohol.

But when the scientist looked at pizza consumption, they found something interesting, and Americans may not believe this. People who regularly ate pizza -at least one serving a week- were 40% less likely to suffer a heart attack than those who never ate it. And frequent eaters -those who had two or more servings a week- were a whopping 60 percent less likely.

Surprised?

At this point you might be scratching your head. How is it that an almost universal symbol of junk food could be associated with good health?

Well, here's how :

We are not talking about American pizza, but we're talking about pizza the Italian way.

The Italian pizza had thin crusts and was dressed with olive oil and a moderate amount of cheese. There was no mozzarella jammed into the crusts or piled high in three or four layers.

Second, and most important, in their pizza the Italians loaded up on the sauce, and lots of sauce calls for more tomatoes.
The tomato fruit has so many remarkable nutrients, like those that contributed to the prevention of heart disease in patients from the Milan study mentioned earlier.

The amazing thing about tomatoes is that unlike most fruits and vegetables, they practically to be cooked, as pizza sauce. Cooking only enhances their nutritional content. Chopping and heating makes the active compounds in tomatoes more accessible. Even better, mixing in a little healthy fat like olive oil further increases your body's ability to absorb those nutrients, because the nutrients are fat-soluble.
In other words, a recipe with plenty of tomatoes -especially cooked- may be just what the doctor ordered.

Okay.. now we know that the secret is tomatoes.

Health Benefits of Tomatoes
Tomatoes for natural skin care :
Tomatoes have a substantial level of lycopene, a compound utilized in facial cleansers. In case you wish to try out tomatoes for natural skin care, you may begin with around 8 to 12 tomato fruits. Peel the tomatoes followed by putting the skin onto your face with interior of the fruit coming in contact with your skin.

Tomatoes for cure cancer :
Many studies that have been done show that the substantial amounts of lycopene in tomatoes functions to lower your risks of getting prostate, stomach and colorectal cancer.

Tomatoes for strengthening bones
Contain a significant amount of vitamin K and calcium. These nutrients are important in strengthening and doing minor fixes on the bones and the bone tissue.

Tomatoes as antioxidant.
Apart from the tomato health benefits mentioned above, the fruit has a lot of Vitamin A and C. Both these vitamins act as antioxidants to neutralize hazardous free radicals in your body.

Tomatoes for lowering cholesterol
The presence of potassium and vitamin B in tomatoes are helpful in lowering cholesterol and blood pressure.

Putting tomatoes minus the seeds to your meals has been confirmed in some scientific studies to lower the chance of kidney stones.

The presence of vitamin A in tomatoes is good for enhancing your eyesight. Tomatoes are among the greatest foods to enjoy in preventing night blindness.

Tomato is rich in mineral called chromium. It functions effectively to aid diabetics keep their glucose levels under control.

Fresh tomato juice boosts the appetite and help digestion. Having tomato juice blended with spinach juice help activate liver and also help ease and avoid constipation.