Researchers found out that when kids eat pizza, they are likely to consume more calories, fat and sodium compared to eating other food. In the United States from 2009 to 2010, about one in five children have eaten pizza for a meal. Also, around one in four teenagers have also eaten pizza.
According to the Statistics Portal, pizza is one of the most popular foods in the United States. In fact, pizza sales among restaurants from 2012 to 2014 are $38,524.73 million while frozen pizza sales are $4.91 billion.
Lisa Powell, lead author of the study and a professor of health policy and administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said "Given that pizza remains a highly prevalent part of children's diet, we need to make healthy pizza the norm. Efforts by food producers and restaurants to improve the nutrient content of pizza, in particular by reducing its saturated fat and sodium [salt] content and increasing its whole-grain content, could have quite broad reach in terms of improving children's diets."
Pizza is very popular among families and even schools in the United States due to the fact that it is inexpensive and widely available anywhere. Also, its convenience and easy-to-access characteristics make it one of the favorite foods for snacks and meals of children and teens.
According to Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, Canada, pizza's fame and popularity emerged because it is tasty and affordable.
"It's constantly being thrust at them. From school cafeterias to weekly pizza days in schools without cafeterias to birthday parties to group events to pizza night with the parents to pizza fund-raising -- it's difficult to escape," Freedhoff said."But of course, that doesn't make it healthy," he added.
Pizza contains about more than 20% of the daily intake of calories. Because it contains too much of everything - calories, fats and salt, it can lead to children's higher risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and other metabolic diseases.
The researchers studied data from four US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 2003 to 2010. In the surveys, about 14,000 teens and children from ages 2 to 19 have reported what they have eaten 24 hours before the test.
They found out that more teens are eating pizza. Also, the proportion of children eating pizza at dinner and from fast food restaurants has dropped. However, the total calories eaten on the day they ate pizza drastically increased than other days when they did not eat pizza at all.
Overall, when children ate pizza, they ate 84 more calories, 3 grams more saturated fat and 134 milligrams more salt. On the other hand, teens consumed extra 230 calories, 5 grams saturated fat and 484 mg sodium on pizza days. What more if they ate pizza every day?