Healthy Pizza
The amount of antioxidants in pizza dough can be increased, according to a new study, by using whole-grain wheat, along with letting the dough ferment longer and baking it longer and at hotter temperatures.
Food chemistry researcher Jeffrey Moore and his team at the University of Maryland conducted a study to see if they could increase levels of antioxidants in dough and they were especially interested in pizza dough because of pizza’s popularity in American society.
The team cooked whole-grain pizza dough made from two different types of wheat. Whole-grain wheat contains bran and endosperm components that provide the antioxidant materials. Regular flour used in most pizza dough is almost always refined flour, where nearly all of the good antioxidant materials have been removed.
By baking the dough longer the antioxidant levels went up by 60%. By baking it at higher temperatures the antioxidant levels went up by 82%. They cooked the dough at a range of temperatures from 204 to 285 degrees Celsius (400 to 545 degrees Fahrenheit) and at a range of baking times from seven to 14 minutes. Moore’s team saw that letting the dough ferment up to 48 hours also added to the amount of antioxidants.
This is incourageing if you are a pizza lover, but remember this:
- healthy pizza and low calorie pizza are not the same thing
- the unhealthy toppings like cheese or sausages are still there.
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RSS Trackback URL 27. March 2007 (17:17)Filed under: Nutrition, Steaming diets