Winter Health Benefits Of Pizza Sauce
Posted on: 4 November 2014
Going out for a piping hot slice of pizza, fresh from the oven, may be a great way to get over the winter time blues. Good conversation and laughter while sharing a pizza with family or friends can make long winter nights a little more bearable, but did you know there are many actual health benefits to eating pizza?
While many pizza sauces come from well-kept recipes, most of them share four common ingredients: tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and oregano. Here is how those four ingredients help you stay mentally and physically healthy throughout the cold winter months.
Tomatoes
Cooked tomatoes, the base for most pizza sauces, come with a plethora of health benefits. Eating tomatoes on a regular basis can decrease the effects of cigarette smoke, reduce your risk of cancer, detoxify your body, increase digestion, and protect you against cardiovascular disease. This makes them a great food to eat year round, but they are especially helpful during the winter.
Tomatoes contain vitamin C and iron, which can increase your overall immunity, reducing your likelihood of getting sick this winter. Their ability to detoxify your body and increase circulation is also helpful during the cold months, when you may not be getting as much exercise as you do during the summer.
Garlic
You probably already know that garlic is a great food to eat to boost your immunity. Garlic works with the tomatoes in pizza sauce, helping you absorb the iron provided by the tomatoes more efficiently. It is also highly antiviral and antibacterial, killing harmful organisms before they have a chance to infect you and balancing out the natural bacteria living in your stomach.
As an added benefit, garlic may help reduce the production of fat cells by your body. If you are afraid of putting on extra winter weight, you may want to ask for a bit of extra garlic on your pizza to increase your metabolism and stop fat production at its source.
Olive Oil
Olive oil is known as one of the healthier fats and has many benefits. Like garlic, it works synergistically with tomatoes. It helps you absorb the lycopene in tomatoes, which may reduce your risk of cancer. It is also known to reduce the risk of heart disease and osteoporosis.
However, one of the best winter benefits to olive oil is its potential to reduce your risk of mental illness. A recent Spanish study found that a olive oil can decrease your likelihood to suffer from depression. Since winter is a difficult time for many people suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder and other forms of depression, it is an important time to concentrate on a diet that combats depression.
Oregano
Oregano, the classic Italian spice used in pizza sauce, is yet another great antibacterial ingredient, that will help reduce your likelihood of developing colds throughout the winter. If you already have a cold, it may decrease phlegm in your lungs and encourage you to sweat out toxins.
It also is known to increase motivation, boost your learning ability, and enhance your mood. This can have a great effect in your professional or academic life if you are currently suffering from the wintertime blues.
You may think of pizza as a quick and easy comfort food. However, the next time you dine out or order in, you should consider asking for extra sauce, either on the pizza or to dip your crust in. That way, you can make sure you are enjoying the many benefits of the healthiest part of your pizza during the coldest months of the year. In fact, why not make pizza a weekly winter treat for your friends and family?
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