Few Tips for Choosing the Healthiest Pizza to Order

What's the healthiest pizza to order? It depends on what you put inside it, but most of these tips are sound. First of all, if you're trying to make a healthy pizza, you'll want to use tomato sauce and avoid the butter and cream. Instead, opt for low-fat or fat-free (such as reduced-fat) cheese, and reduce your fat intake overall. Use whole-wheat crust for your pizzas if at all possible, and don't add a lot of oil to the sauce or the toppings. Even the crust's original oil should be reduced, since that contributes to oiliness, another factor in unhealthy food.

Another tip for choosing the healthiest pizza is to choose a thin crust. Pizza hut and other smaller chains often have thinner crusts than more traditional companies, which is good if you are on a diet. Thin crusts contain fewer calories because they don't cook evenly or retain much of the original sauce or toppings. A thin crust also keeps warm and doesn't get hot, which means you can eat more at one sitting and avoid feeling guilty about the calories. If you enjoy a thicker crust, go ahead and add some low-calorie cheese and bake it up, but be sure and cook it thoroughly and all the cheese is on the outside, too.

Another tip for choosing the healthiest pizza to order is not to skimp on the toppings. Although healthy-friendly companies like Green Mountain and 365 Healthy Kitchen typically offer healthy options on their pizzas, healthy aficionados will want to pile on the toppings. The best pizza is one that has vegetables, marinated tomatoes and olives, marinated spinach and kale, marinated red onions and bell peppers, and, of course, plenty of chopped and cooked vegetables. (What about pizza toppings like macaroni and cheese?) As long as those ingredients come with your veggies, you'll be fine.

A good way to cut calories from your healthy pizza is to choose sauce that's low in fat. Some chefs choose to use no-fat or low-calorie sauces, but these aren't always the healthiest options. In fact, many people have reported heartburn and stomach discomfort after trying low-calorie sauces. If you really want low-calorie pizza sauce, look for one that contains reduced sodium.

Many people will choose spinach as their favorite pizza topping, but if you're watching your cholesterol levels and you're worried about adding too much cheese to your diet, opt for something else. As an alternative, choose a veggie pizza with reduced-fat mozzarella cheese and reduced-fat Alfredo sauce. Alfredo sauce isn't only good for pizza, it's also good for pasta, rice and salad dressings. You can even substitute half of the oil with olive oil and feel better about cutting back on the cheese. Of course, another good alternative is using organic ground beef instead of fat-filled meatballs. Ground beef has less fat and is much healthier.

When it comes to choosing healthy toppings, you should aware of nutritional value of pizza. The healthiest pizza is made with non-fat or low-fat cheese. Low-fat and organic cheese are loaded with calcium, vitamin D, fat-burning proteins and vitamins B & C. You can find all these nutrients in non-stick crusts, which are becoming more popular due to health advocates' campaigns. However, if you're going to go with the healthiest pizza crusts on the market, you should definitely avoid the potato crust. The potato crust is loaded with calories and fat, and the taste is worse than the cheese.

One type of healthy crust you might consider is the veggie crust. The veggie crust has less cheese and is made from whole-wheat flour. While the crust tastes great, it doesn't stand out as much as the traditional white pizza. You do, however, still get lots of vegetables and a lot of protein. Even though you won't eat as much, you will still get plenty of vegetables for your daily vegetables.

As far as calories go, a healthy pizza (with less cheese) still has less fat than a non-healthy pizza (made with full-fat mozzarella). You can also get your pizza (with less cheese) with an assortment of vegetables. Vegetables provide lots of nutrients without excess calories. One great example is spinach, which provides more vitamin C than any other vegetable. If you combine spinach with marinara sauce and buffalo chicken (which have more protein and iron than steak), you'll have a healthy, tasty meal you'll love. Choose a veggie crust for its taste and nutrition, and you'll be healthy too!