Pizza is one of the foods that has gained popularity over the years regarding quick-fix foods. But what is there not to like about this delicious food?

We now have companies devoted to ensuring that we do not go through the hustle of spending time fixing one. Instead, all you have to do is get yourself a frozen package, slide it into the microwave, and within minutes, you get to enjoy your pizza.

However, we must ask, is frozen pizza bad for you? This article focuses on determining the health risks of consuming frozen pizzas.

Let's get started!

How Are Frozen Pizzas Made?

Frozen pizzas are made by large industries that use advanced industrial equipment that can quickly produce hundreds of partially baked or completely baked pies. Before the industrial period, pizzas were traditionally made by hand and must be baked promptly to maintain their delectable flavor and delicate texture.

However, as our knowledge of industrial processes increased, producers figured out a creative technique to keep pre-made pizzas fresh and of high quality by following a few essential storage best practices. Eating frozen pizza begins at ground level with a few common ingredients. First, a combination of fundamental components is used to create the crust.

Every manufacturer has a unique way of making dough, and most preserve their formula jealously. Next, a ratio of flour, salt, sugar, water, flavorings, and preservatives is included in the dough. The dough's additives and preservatives are necessary to maintain the pizza's quality.

While a frozen pizza generally lasts without preservatives once frozen, it might not maintain its quality for as long as a pie with the appropriate food-safe chemicals.

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Once the dough is molded into a thin crust (the healthier choice), the pies are placed in a giant oven that cooks the dough from all sides. The residual germs on and around the crust's surface are eliminated during this procedure. The pies are prepared for the following phase by machines adding the sauce, processed meats, garnishes, and other components.

The finished pizzas then move to a chilling industrial chamber where they are frozen for 20 to 30 minutes at -25°F. Each pie is scrutinized for flaws after being taken out of the freezer. The prepared pies must then be sealed in airtight plastic bags and sent to local retailers.

Pies are transported from the production line to retail locations in temperature-controlled vans that maintain frozen foods. The pies are then unloaded from the storage and kept in separate chillers.

Frozen Pizza Ingredients You May Be Weary of

1. Food Chemicals

Food chemicals that may harm people are used to make frozen pizza. For instance, frozen pizzas like Celeste Pizza and Original Cheese contain titanium dioxide, a coloring agent that damages DNA. It is crucial to remember that not all frozen pizzas have these substances. Harmful preservatives found in pizza

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For instance, TBHQ, included in items like Totino's Cheese Flavored Pizza Rolls, can potentially impair the immune system. Additionally, things like Bagel Bites Pizza Snacks contain BHA, a preservative potentially cancer-causing to humans.

Another potential human carcinogen, potassium bromate, is included in certain Pepperoni Pizzas. Red 40, another ingredient of other brands, is a synthetic food color that can stunt children's development and lead to behavioral issues.

These chemical additives and many others find their way into the food we consume through legislative loopholes that enable food and chemical industries, rather than the Food and Drug Administration, to assess whether they are safe for human consumption.

Ten compounds, including titanium dioxide, TBHQ, BHA, and potassium bromate, are designated for prompt review under the Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2021.

2. More Ingredients Than Grams of Fat

Most pizza makers add a bizarre 31-line ingredient list on their packaging that includes terms like "propyl gallate" and "BHT." Long and cryptic ingredient lists are a surefire indicator of highly-processed foods, which have been linked in studies to an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease incidence and death if you eat frozen pizza.

The researchers noted that 58% of the total calories in the typical U.S. diet are highly processed and emphasized that each extra daily serving of ultra-processed frozen items, such as frozen pizza, substantially elevated risk.

3. Significant Calories

Did you know four hundred and ten calories are included in one serving (1/5 of a pie)? However, when did you last have just one frozen pizza slice? Half of the daily calorie need for an inactive woman in her mid-50s or older is found in two pieces, or 810 calories.

Read more on how many calories does a slice of pizza have?

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When you consume more calories daily than your body requires, the excess energy is stored as fat. Studies have repeatedly shown a connection between obesity and cardiovascular disease.

For instance, a meta-analysis of five research showed that each five-point gain in body mass index (BMI) raised the risk of type 2 diabetes by 67% and coronary artery disease by 20%, respectively. According to participating physicians, you must recognize the additional weight, who conclude that excess body fat is bad for the heart.

4. Saturated Fat

Most frozen pies have 22 grams of fat, of which 10 grams—mostly from cheese, pig, and beef—are saturated fats. Those unhealthy fats fall just short of the 13 grams per day that the American Heart Association cautions against.

Saturated fat-rich diets have been associated with cardiac issues such as atherosclerosis, which is the fatty plaque formation on the inside walls of arteries. According to a clinical study, excess fat can also increase LDL "bad" cholesterol and your risk of heart disease.

5. Sodium

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, after bread, pizza is the second-leading source of sodium intake in the American diet. Pizza is also one of the "Salty Six" foods, according to the American Heart Association (AHA), that contribute too much salt to the diet.

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Eating frozen pizza daily provides nearly a third of your recommended daily salt consumption. The AHA advises limiting intake to 2,300 mg daily as the recommended daily sodium intake. Since high blood pressure is a substantial risk factor for heart disease, your doctor might advise receiving less than 1,500 mg per day if you currently have high blood pressure.

Your body will retain water if you overeat sodium. As the water stimulates your heart and blood vessels, it might cause blood pressure to increase in certain people.

6. Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates

Most frozen pizzas comprise 5 grams of added sugar per slice. While it might not seem like much, keep in mind that extra sugars add up. Additionally, remember that you receive them from various sources during the day.

However, one serving of frozen pizza has 36 grams of refined carbs, equally harmful to your health as the white flour used to make the crust. White flour also contains very little fiber, about 2 grams per serving.

Health Issues That May Arise

Imagine you disassemble the usually packaged pizza and look at the ingredients. In such a scenario, though only sometimes, you will discover that frozen pizzas provide the ideal combination of heart-harming ingredients. You are probably not thinking about salt, sugar, saturated fats, and processed carbs, even if you know their existence. High levels of each element increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

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Additionally, they raise your risk for metabolic conditions, including diabetes, obesity, high blood sugar, hypertension, and linked conditions like high cholesterol levels and high blood sugar.

What is a significant adverse consequence of consuming a lot of frozen pizza, then? For starters, heart illness may come about.

Factors That Ensure Your Frozen Pizza Is Legit

If you like frozen pizza, you should be aware of the following seven factors.

a) The Manufacturer

The first is that only a portion of the ingredients in a healthy frozen pizza is made in our country. There is no legal requirement to identify the producing facility's nation generically. Therefore, you need to pay closer attention to the back of the package to determine whether the pizza was made in America.

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b) Ingredients

Another piece of advice is carefully examining the ingredient list: "The shorter, the better. Always follow beyond the filling. Fresh pizza is a straightforward dish created with only a few simple ingredients: flour, water, tomato, oil, salt, and—most importantly—barely any yeast. As a result, high-quality pizzerias always choose for a lengthy rising period of 5 to 24 hours and less than 1% yeast content.

c) Level of Yeast

The third component is that you should be healthy after eating a fine, artisanal, and industrial pizza, which is a sign of too much yeast. On the other hand, if you eat pizza in the evening and get up to grab a drink, the yeast content of the dough may need to be lowered.

d) Quality

Fourth, the quality of the individual components makes a difference, and it is always important to carefully study the label to understand the product's qualities better. For instance, some knowledge about oil may be possible. The best vegetable oil is olive; palm or any other vegetable oil is of poor quality. Keep in mind that olive oil, whether extra virgin or not, is always favored over all different types of fats because it is the world's most famous oil.

e) Tomatoes

Water is another crucial ingredient in the production of high-quality pizza. As a result, we recommend one only utilize water from basin one, or the purest water one can find. Italian tomatoes are the least acidic, but they also have the same acidity; thus, it has strongly advised to use them in tomato sauce. Check the label to ensure it says, "Produced in Italy" before buying.

f) Crust Thickness

The thickness of the pizza foundation is one of the key distinctions to consider between frozen food pizza and pizza made from scratch. Even in this situation, you may still discover goods that resemble handcrafted ones. The secret lies in the technique used.

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Frozen pizza is a bit thicker than homemade pizza since the typical industrial method calls for the dough to pass between two rolls, making it impossible to make it particularly thin. The hot-pressing patent, however, which enables you to "crush" the dough without pulling it, creating a foundation as light as an artisan pizzeria, makes an exception for many frozen pizzas.

g) Method of Preparation

It is usually best to use a wood-fired oven since you can manage the humidity of the dough and get a crispier crust. Using beech wood that has been approved for use in food preparation, two wood-fired ovens at most must be used to ensure the safety of the ingredients and equipment.

After each cooking, the brushes remove tomato residue from the refractory stone top. The controls are strict, and the assessment does not indicate that hydrocarbons are present in the finished goods.

h) Elasticity

The seventh "secret," the most popular topping, involves mozzarella. The entire pizza is often made, frozen, and then reheated at home in the best retro microwave, where the pizza loses flavor and turns rubbery. Because of this, mozzarella is only put to prepared pizza at high-quality pizzerias so that it only needs to be cooked once.

The only thing left to do is for it to melt, not to be cooked any longer, since doing so will always result in rubbery food, like with artisan pizza.

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