A cheesy slice of pizza doesn't tend to come top of dieter's list, but it soon could be if Scottish food experts have their way, as they’ve invented (what they claim to be) the first nutritionally sound pizza.
Nutritionist and professor Mike Lean from Glasgow University believes his team has created a pizza that contains 30% of an adult’s recommended daily amount (RDA) of vitamins and minerals.
Just as this starts to sound too good to be true - researchers also claim that the ‘healthy’ pizza also has a third of the RDA of calories, carbohydrates and protein, as well.
Lead researcher Lean claims that they managed to create the nutritious pizza by incorporating nutrients in less obvious forms – such as seaweed, fruit and unusual vegetable combinations.
Quite simple really.
"I researched the market and found that seaweed was an interesting new ingredient being used in artisan bread,” says Lean, reports the Metro.
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"So we used that as a way of reducing the salt level. The sodium content of seaweed is about 3.5% compared to 40% in salt. There's iodine in there, vitamin B12, all sorts of things. And the flavour is excellent as well."
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Professor Lean claims clever (and simple) tricks such as mixing red pepper with the tomato base to top up vitamin C levels also helps to boost the pizza’s nutritional value.
The researchers claim they were inspired by the lack of nutrition in popular staple meals.
"For a good number of years I have been trying to help people find easy ways to get a balanced diet,” adds co-study author professor Donnie Maclean.
“The easiest way to do that is to eat nutritionally balanced meals. Three of those a day and you've done it, but at the moment commercially prepared meals are not nutritionally balanced.”
Professor Lean’s ideas have caught the attention of one leading British supermarket, which has hinted it may stock Lean’s pizza’s soon, reports BBC News.