http://www.lohas.com/articles/100292.html
Heart healthy pizza developedSource: lohas.com Published: Friday, April 27, 2007
A US man has developed a method of fortifying pizza with heart healthy brain sterols.
Heart Healthy Road Pizza, the brainchild of Ira Scott, will shortly be available in the freezer aisles of convenience stores and food retailers such as Wild_Oats and Trader Joe's throughout the US.
"I had the idea for a health pizza several years ago, but no one would listen," Scott said. "I eventually worked with some plant sterol experts and designed a method to incorporate plant sterols into the pizza dough and into the cheese."
Each serving of the cholesterol lowering California-style pizza contains a gram of Kosher-certified VitaSterols, Scott said.
Plant sterols are clinically shown to lower cholesterol as a part of a heart-healthy diet and have been the focus of product development in the functional food category.
Scott believes that the marriage of fast_food and functional food will prove a hit with consumers. He is in talks with a number of large multiples, including Yum_Brands, with an eye to increasing production and distribution.
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Lower Your Cholesterol With Pizza?
« Wednesday Weigh-In #11
Weight Loss Surgery: How To Predict Your Risk Of Death »
Lower Your Cholesterol With Pizza?
Sounds good, but how does it taste? And does it really work?
In another example of functional foods — which are foods that provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition — The Heart Healthy Road Pizza may soon roll out to your grocer’s shelves or your local pizzeria.
If they agree to distribute this new product.
Road Pizza Company has applied for a patent for their new thin crust pizza which is supposed to lower LDL, the bad type of cholesterol.
The company has added plant sterols, called VitaSterols, to the cheese topping and the dough to help consumers to reduce their cholesterol.
I can’t comment on their cholesterol claims. And it’s too soon to say how the pizza will taste.
But I’m really concerned about all these enhanced functional and bioengineered foods. No one really knows what the long-term effects of tampering with our food will be.
Sure, we’re told it will benefit our health. But that’s what we were told when saturated fats were replaced by trans fats, too.
Now city after city across the U.S. is banning trans fats because the experts were wrong about their health claims.
But it took a decade before they realized their mistake. It turned out that trans fats increase LDL cholesterol (the bad one) and decrease HDL cholesterol (the good one).
So they actually increase your risk of heart disease.
Many people are unaware that interesterified fats — which are largely replacing trans fats — have been shown to significantly raise blood sugar and depress insulin. That’s a diabetes risk.
Worst of all, interesterified fats still reduce HDL (the good cholesterol). So there’s still a heart risk.
Want a non-food example? How about HRT, hormone replacement therapy?
That was touted for years as a way to not only stop hot flashes for older women, but also to protect their hearts. Years later, we find out it doesn’t protect your heart, but it may cause breast cancer.
So you see, this is why I’m skeptical of functional food claims. Again, I have no knowledge of whether The Heart Healthy Road Pizza will live up to the company’s claims or not.
And I certainly don’t want to single them out.
But I really wish we’d just go back to natural foods. Or at least, I’d like to see the results of long-term studies verifying health and safety claims before the public becomes guinea pigs in these modified food experiments.
What’s the big rush to market these functional and bioengineered foods? Is it really to benefit our health or is it just to increase company profits?
Technorati Tags: pizza, functional foods, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, bioengineered foods, trans fat, HRT, hormone replacement therapy
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 11:03 am and is filed under Nutrition, Controversial Posts, Foods And Medicine, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Weight Loss Surgery: How To Predict Your Risk Of Death »
Lower Your Cholesterol With Pizza?
Sounds good, but how does it taste? And does it really work?
In another example of functional foods — which are foods that provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition — The Heart Healthy Road Pizza may soon roll out to your grocer’s shelves or your local pizzeria.
If they agree to distribute this new product.
Road Pizza Company has applied for a patent for their new thin crust pizza which is supposed to lower LDL, the bad type of cholesterol.
The company has added plant sterols, called VitaSterols, to the cheese topping and the dough to help consumers to reduce their cholesterol.
I can’t comment on their cholesterol claims. And it’s too soon to say how the pizza will taste.
But I’m really concerned about all these enhanced functional and bioengineered foods. No one really knows what the long-term effects of tampering with our food will be.
Sure, we’re told it will benefit our health. But that’s what we were told when saturated fats were replaced by trans fats, too.
Now city after city across the U.S. is banning trans fats because the experts were wrong about their health claims.
But it took a decade before they realized their mistake. It turned out that trans fats increase LDL cholesterol (the bad one) and decrease HDL cholesterol (the good one).
So they actually increase your risk of heart disease.
Many people are unaware that interesterified fats — which are largely replacing trans fats — have been shown to significantly raise blood sugar and depress insulin. That’s a diabetes risk.
Worst of all, interesterified fats still reduce HDL (the good cholesterol). So there’s still a heart risk.
Want a non-food example? How about HRT, hormone replacement therapy?
That was touted for years as a way to not only stop hot flashes for older women, but also to protect their hearts. Years later, we find out it doesn’t protect your heart, but it may cause breast cancer.
So you see, this is why I’m skeptical of functional food claims. Again, I have no knowledge of whether The Heart Healthy Road Pizza will live up to the company’s claims or not.
And I certainly don’t want to single them out.
But I really wish we’d just go back to natural foods. Or at least, I’d like to see the results of long-term studies verifying health and safety claims before the public becomes guinea pigs in these modified food experiments.
What’s the big rush to market these functional and bioengineered foods? Is it really to benefit our health or is it just to increase company profits?
Technorati Tags: pizza, functional foods, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, bioengineered foods, trans fat, HRT, hormone replacement therapy
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 11:03 am and is filed under Nutrition, Controversial Posts, Foods And Medicine, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fast food turns functional with cholesterol-lowering pizza
Breaking News on Supplements & Nutrition - North AmericaPrevious page : Fast food turns functional with cholesterol-lowering pizza
Fast food turns functional with cholesterol-lowering pizzaBy Catherine Boal
4/26/2007- A new pizza dough mixture which incorporates cholesterol-lowering plant sterols is set to further expand the market for functional snack foods.The dough, developed by the Road Pizza Company, is part of a Californian style thin crust pizza and claims to help consumers regulate their levels of LDL 'bad' cholesterol.High cholesterol has been linked to many illnesses, in particular cardiovascular disease (CVD) which causes almost 50 per cent of deaths in Europe and is estimated to cost the EU around €169 billion each year.It is widely accepted that a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol can reduce the risk of CVD.Many food manufacturers have targeted this dietary concern with a raft of products claiming to reduce cholesterol levels. Most recently, cereals and snack manufacturer Kelloggs introduced breakfast cereal Smart Start with cholesterol-lowering ingredients to its health and wellness portfolio.The Heart Healthy Road Pizza, which is awaiting a patent, could soon be introduced into major retailers - offering consumers a healthier version to what is generally regarded as an indulgence snack food.According to the creator of the pizza, each serving contains a gram of natural plant sterols, VitaSterols, which have been added to the product's dough base and cheese topping.
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From the Los Angeles Times
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http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-hew-webbooster26apr26,1,4339531.story?track=crosspromo
From the Los Angeles Times
BOOSTER SHOTS
Pizza and chocolate--health foods?April 26, 2007Isn't it fabulous how healthful junky foods (or "indulgences," as they're termed in the trade) are becoming?Recently, some samples of Hershey's Antioxidant Milk Chocolate showed up at our office. Never mind that sugar is the first listed ingredient: These things are laced with natural flavanols! They're good for us!We hear that another American staple is soon to be rejiggered: A cholesterol-lowering pizza is in the works. Both dough and cheese of the patent-pending are impregnated with plant sterols, creating a pizza that will theoretically lower blood levels of LDL, or bad, cholesterol."I believe Heart Healthy RoadPizza is the perfect vehicle to help lower cholesterol," says the pizza's inventor, Ira Scott, in a press release."Chocolate and pizza are two foods that are fine just the way they are," comments a colleague. "No one should be messing with them."— Rosie Mestel
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.Article licensing and reprint options
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