Pizza as health food?
2007-03-27 11:08
Washington - It's the junk food
junkie's wildest dream come true - pizza as health food.
University of Maryland food chemists said on Monday they
had found ways to enhance the antioxidant content of
whole-grain wheat pizza dough by baking it longer at higher
temperatures and giving the dough lots of time to rise.
Antioxidants are substances that protect cells from damage
caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Some
experts believe antioxidants can lower the risk of cancer,
heart disease and other ailments.
Liangli Lucy Yu, a food chemistry professor, said the
findings arose from broader research into ways to improve
health-promoting properties of wheat-based food products.
"The reason that we chose pizza is just because it is a
very popular food product, not only in the US but worldwide,"
researcher Jeffrey Moore added.
"So we thought if we could find ways to improve (its
antioxidant) properties, doing this for such a product could
have a larger impact on public health," Moore added.
But Moore had a slice of advice for pizza aficionados who
might want to cover their crust with mounds of fatty toppings
like extra cheese, pepperoni, sausage and ground beef.
"If you're adding back all these other things that have
potential negative health consequences, then you're negating
anything that you're adding in terms of (health) value," Moore
said.
The research was served up at a meeting of the American
Chemical Society in Chicago, a mecca for deep-dish, thick-crust
pizza.
The researchers experimented with baking temperatures,
baking time and fermentation time - the time the pizza dough
is given to rise.
A hotter oven
Antioxidant levels rose by up to 60% with longer
baking times and up to 82% with higher baking
temperatures, depending on the type of wheat flour and the
antioxidant test used, they said. The precise mechanisms
involved are unclear, they said.
Baking time and temperature can be increased together
without burning the pizza when done carefully, the researchers
said. They used oven temperatures from 204 to 287 degrees Celsius, and baking times from 7 to 14 minutes.
They looked at fermentation times up to two full days, and
found that longer periods in some cases doubled the dough's
antioxidant levels. This probably stemmed from chemical
reactions caused by yeasts in the dough that had more time to
release the antioxidant components, Moore said.
A common fermentation time is about 18 hours, Moore said.
The study used only whole wheat dough. Most of the
antioxidants in wheat are in the bran and endosperm components
that are generally removed in refined flour, Moore said.
Thus, longer and hotter baking and longer fermentation likely would be less effective in making more healthful pizza with refined flour, he said.