Human nutrition is one of the most important factors that influence everybody’s health. Nutrition favors the normal development of children, promotes disease prevention and life prolongation, and creates the conditions for an adequate human adaptation to the environment. Therefore, the issue of healthy eating is one of the most important in the implementation of social policy.
Nowadays, the production of food, spices dyes, and fragrances has a huge impact on the environment, economy, and culture, locally, nationally, and globally. Such products as chips, sodas, fast food, sausages, margarine, mayonnaise, fancy cakes, chocolate bars, and chewing candies are very harmful to people’s health, but there are a lot of useful, enriched with vitamins products, as well.
Everyone likes to eat such food as pizza. This product is going to be discussed in the essay.
Pizza is a native Italian product, which has found insane popularity in many countries of the world. All people who eat it from time to time have a question: “what benefits and what harm does it bring to the human body?”
Pizza has many beneficial properties. Pizza dough is often made from wheat that is rich in vitamins E, F, C, PP, and B and has a full range of minerals. Wheat has a huge energy potential, it adds vitality and increases the immune system, regulates the acid-alkaline balance, detoxifies the body, normalizes digestion and potency. Tomatoes are the obligatory ingredients in pizza. Tomatoes have a large amount of substance that contains lycopene, which helps prevent cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Eggs in pizza are a source of protein and cheese is the source of calcium. Olive oil has a number of useful properties. This oil has the anti-aging, immune-stimulating, and anti-sclerotic effect. So, pizza is quite useful product for people’s health, but if it is correctly cooked. The semi-finished product contains many harmful additives. Pizza should not be filled with smoked meat products.
It is believed that the prototype of pizza was served on the table to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The official capital of this Italian dish is Naples. The word “pizza” is thought to have come from the Latin word pinsa, meaning flatbread (Demetri, n.d.). This dish came up once in 1552 for the first time after the tomatoes were brought to Europe from Peru. In those days, pizza was considered as food for poor people. This dish quickly spread around the world but it is the most popular in Europe and America. The secret of attraction to pizza lies in the simplicity of its preparation, nutritional value, and lots of different recipes. Only Americans thought up dozens of ways to prepare the pizza.
Pizza as one of the international and world-famous dishes has a great impact on culture of different countries. Due to the wide influence of Italian and Greek immigrants in American culture, the U.S. pizza is widely spread. There are quite a number of regional pizzas, having only a vague resemblance to the Italian original. Pizza is very popular product in Australia (where there is an appreciable proportion of citizens of Italian descent), Brazil, India, and Russia.
Despite the fact that Italy is the birthplace of pizza, it is tried in every civilized country, and many states may even boast their own national cooking recipe. This dish has become one of the hallmarks of the ethnic group. According to its ingredients and method of preparation, it is possible to characterize those people by whom it is prepared.
Due to its popularity, pizza not only promotes the development of the culture of different countries but also the development of the economy as it has a great demand among population.
References:
- Demetri, J. (n.d.). History of pizza. Life in Italy. Retrieved July 5, 2013 from http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/pizza-history.asp
- Pizza health benefits – Pizza health issues/facts. (n.d.). Pizza Facts – All about Pizza. Retrieved July 5, 2013 from http://www.pizzafacts.net/pizza-facts/pizza-and-health/