5 Tips to Healthify Your Pizza Cravings

Pizza and "healthy" don't often go hand in hand. So what are you supposed to do if you love the cheesy cuisine but are a health conscious person?

There are actually many ways that you can alter your pizza recipe to make it healthier. And, to be perfectly honest, I think it makes your pizza meal heartier, tastier, and more satisfying.

1.) The Crust

To create a healthier crust, the first step is to actually make it from scratch. The greatest thing about "from scratch" is that you know exactly what you'll be eating. You can alter any recipe to your taste. You can find a great, easy to make, crust recipe here.

You also want to choose ingredients for your crust that are high in fiber. Using whole wheat flour & whole wheat yeast creates a very hearty, filling crust. The dough takes slightly longer to rise, but it's completely worth it. Whole wheat flour has more than 4x the fiber of white flour.

When you're using a recipe, you can also either half the recipe or create a bigger pizza by rolling your dough very thin. This process gives you less crust per slice, cutting down on the number of bread calories & carbohydrates that you're ingesting.

2.) The Sauce

Again, creating a "from scratch" sauce allows you to control the amount of sugar in your pizza sauce. You can also great gourmet sauces at home from veggies other than a tomato (which is actually a fruit, by the way). Using gourds and squashes to make your pizza sauce adds even more fiber & filling power to your pizza. Plus, it creates a gourmet taste to "wow" your friends & family. I recommend acorn & butternut squash for this process, though I'm sure pumpkin would be interesting as well!

3.) The Cheese

Choosing a part-skim mozzarella, or other light, cheese is essential to "healthifying" your pizza cravings. It is also important, when cooking with cheese, to measure out how much you're using so that you know exactly what you're putting into your meal. I'm not one to skimp on cheese, but I do like to know the quantity that I'm using so that I can regulate my caloric intake throughout the rest of the day.

Using pungent cheeses, like goat cheese, is also a great way to "healthify" your pizza. Why? Well, these cheese are very strong, so a little goes a long way. Therefore, you can use a smaller portion of these cheeses to satisfy your pizza craving while maintaining a stellar tasting meal.

4.) The Toppings

Using tons of veggies on your pizza adds additional fiber to your pizza. You may be wondering why I keep mentioning the benefit of adding fiber to your pizza. Fiber has many health benefits that include helping to prevent diabetes, heart disease, cancer & weight gain! (Learn more here)

If you're a meat lover, adding turkey sausage or ground turkey instead of traditional sausage & hamburger to your pizza will really lighten up your meal. If you're a pepperoni person, there are many substitutes that are better for you and just as delicious as the typical pepperoni. For example, Hormel makes a great turkey pepperoni!

5.) Serve on a Smaller Plate

Often people feel unsatisfied with pizza because it is not filling enough. Though I promise that if you follow the suggestions above you will feel full after a serving, here is a tip to avoid the "eyes are bigger than your stomach" syndrome.

Serving meals on smaller plates tricks your mind into thinking that you're eating more than you actually are. Because of this, you may eat more slowly & feel fuller faster.

Pizza is not your enemy. You just have to mold it into the healthy meal that you desire :)