Although considered as one of the healthiest pizzas, it is worth wondering if the traditional Neapolitan pizza is healthy.
In this post, we are going to count the calories in Neapolitan pizza and conclude if it really is a healthy option or not over the most loved cheese pepperoni pizza.
Most people would assume that traditional Neapolitan pizza is healthy since it is made with fresh ingredients, cooked perfectly and quickly in wood-fired ovens, and it usually has a thin crust that is cooked crispy.
While that is a good assumption, a thin crust does not necessarily mean that it does not have many calories.
Any pizza including the Neapolitan pizza has a lot of calories in them.
You can sense that with the fats and carbs that come with the different parts of the pizza.
There are components that you can control to limit the amount of calorie content in the pizza.
It is not easy to do as you need to attain certain consistency to get that crispy thin crust on your pizza.
You do get to edit the toppings if you want to get a lower amount of calories.
I researched and came up with many simple facts that can determine the number of calories in the traditional pizza and how you can solve them in each part of the pizza you cook.
Is Neapolitan Pizza Healthy?
If you look at the general structure of a Neapolitan pizza, you will notice that it is not that unhealthy.
Many consider it the healthiest type of pizza in terms of calorie number.
Overall, Neapolitan pizza is a healthy type of pizza as it contains fresh ingredients.
It is also cooked very quickly in wood-fired pizza ovens which means that the ingredients keep all the nutritional contents in them.
Compared to fast-food pizzas, Neapolitan pizza is far healthier.
It gets even healthier if you cook it in wood-fired pizza ovens at home as you can reduce the amount of the ingredient that impacts the calories the most.
Since Neapolitan pizza is made with accurate measurements and healthy ingredients, you cannot simply rush it.
That means that you can cook pizzas healthier at home in a wood-fired oven if you want to.
When you look at the takeaway pizza that you used to buy, you will see that it contains many calories and fats.
It has so much more of those unhealthy minerals compared to Neapolitan pizza.
The ingredients used in cooking authentic Neapolitan pizzas are of the best quality and have many nutritional minerals. So yes, you can say that Neapolitan pizza is healthy.
These ingredients and processes are also observed by the Associazone Verace Pizza Napoletana to ensure that the pizza is authentic.
Nutritional Value In Neapolitan Pizza
As mentioned above, traditional Neapolitan pizza has a lot of nutrition in it.
You can check the healthy minerals and proteins that come with the pizza and see how these can help you be healthier.
For an average-sized Neapolitan pizza, you will get 56 grams of protein that can help you recover the lost muscle mass and tissues that have small rips in them when you exercise.
There are also 38 grams of fiber in the pizza which is perfect for helping you with your digestion.
It even helps in metabolism as it improves the overall health of your digestive tract.
There are fats in the pizza and you get around 18 grams of it from the pizza.
This is not much and is just enough to complete around 20-35% of your daily fat requirement or intake.
There are also other minerals such as sugar and you can get a little less than 25% of your daily intake from the pizza.
It also has sodium and potassium to help with your bones and teeth.
As for the calories, a regular or average-sized Neapolitan pizza contains around 130 grams of calories per serving so it is still quite low compared to other pizzas from fast-food chains.
Calories In Neapolitan Pizza Dough
Now that we know how many calories and other nutrients you get from the pizza, let us deconstruct the pizza and see how many calories it contains in every part of the pizza you cook.
For the pizza dough that you use in making Neapolitan pizza crusts, you will get about 150 grams of flour.
This is for a personal 10-inch pizza and so it also depends hugely on the size of the pizza.
For a small pizza like 12-inch ones, there are on average 525 calories in a single pie.
That is not quite high and you can even make it lower by making even smaller pizzas to control your calorie intake.
Calculating The Calories In 1 Neapolitan Pizza Dough Ball
For every 100 grams of flour that you use on your Neapolitan pizza dough ball, you will get around 361 calories. That means that you get to control how much calorie goes into the dough.
There are also differences between each type of flour but since authentic Neapolitan pizza only uses 00 flour, this equation is the basis for that and you will see that it is one of the lowest.
So for your 200 grams of flour in large 12-inch to 14-inch pizzas, you will get calories of a little over 720.
This is still quite low when you compare it with other types of flour used in other pizzas.
Calories In Neapolitan Pizza Sauce
If we stick to a personal 10-inch pizza, you will see that there are not many calories that you get from the pizza sauce.
It uses tomatoes which is one of the healthiest foods you can have.
If you use the authentic San Marzano tomatoes, then you can even say that it is healthier.
For every 100 grams of this pizza sauce, you get only 20 calories which are pretty low for a sauce.
Since the pizza sauce used in Neapolitan pizzas is completely natural with no preservatives added, you get to keep all the healthy minerals and lessen the bad ones.
Make sure to avoid marinara, especially in large pizzas like 14-inch or 16-inch pizzas as that can be a lot of added sugar and sodium. I would say it is better to stick with 12-inch pizzas instead of 14-inch, 16-inch, or larger pizzas.
Calculating The Calories In A Serving Of Neapolitan Pizza Sauce
See, the pizza sauce is that you do not usually use a lot of it when making pizzas.
That is especially true with Neapolitan pizzas as you would only need a thin layer of the sauce.
For about 2 teaspoons, you will have enough to make a personal 10-inch pizzas or even 12-inch ones.
This amount only has 14 grams, so you need to divide that to 100 grams to get the percentage.
For larger pizzas, you will use more pizza sauce.
However, on average, the amount of calories you get from the pizza sauce of Neapolitan pizzas is only around 5 calories or 6 calories.
Calories In Neapolitna Margherita Pizza
The secret behind the Neapolitan pizza is that you do not highlight quantity. Instead, you stick to quality as all the flavors you need will be in the pizza if you do it the right way.
One of the simplest yet most common variations of Neapolitan pizza is the Margherita pizza.
You will only see cheese and spread bits or whole leaves of basil as toppings in a Margherita pizza.
On average, one Margherita pizza contains 930 calories which is much lower than other pizzas.
It can even beat other Neapolitan pizzas with other toppings as some average 100 calories.
Calories In Mozzarella On a Pizza (Fresh And Dry)
The most common topping for Neapolitan pizza is mozzarella and basil leaves.
As you may know, there are many calories in cheese, which is also true with mozzarella cheese.
Fresh mozzarella contains around 85 calories for every serving which is around 28 grams.
Dry or low-moisture mozzarella cheese has around 90 calories for a single serving of 28 grams.
The thing is that low-moisture mozzarella cheese is more often used in Neapolitan pizzas because it does not affect the consistency and crispiness of the thin crust from the moisture it contains.
Calories In 10-inch Neapolitan Pizza
A regular 10-inch, or a personal Neapolitan pizza that uses every ingredient available and the amount of each ingredient will usually make the pizza have 1000 calories on the whole pie itself.
However, if you consider reducing each ingredient you use, you can bring that number down to 930 calories.
That is not a lot but it is a good and healthy improvement.
You can even choose healthier ingredients and bring that number down to 640 calories.
That way, you can enjoy your pizza alone without having to exercise a lot to burn all those calories.
Calories In A Slice Of Pizza
You should know about this part of the post and the question as to the answer on how many calories there are in a single slice of pizza largely depends on the ingredients.
Of course, you will be putting more calories into a whole pizza if you use more toppings or other fattier and have more calories than the simple combo of mozzarella and basil.
However, a single slice of Neapolitan pizza has 142 to 160 calories.
That makes a whole pizza still healthy even though it has many ingredients that contain a lot of calories.
Calories In Neapolitan Pizza Toppings
Again, the amount of calories in the pizza is hugely dependent on the ingredients you use.
That is especially true with the toppings as they can drastically change the calorie level.
One of the most common toppings is pepperoni.
Pepperoni contains a lot of fat also adds calories to the pizza with around 60 calories on each pizza that you top with pepperoni.
Basil is one if not the most common topping for Neapolitan pizzas and it has no calories at all.
That is why I suggest using vegetable toppings to reduce the number of calories in the pizza.
Some people would add greens such as jalapenos to give the pizza a bit of spice.
While it has calories, it does not affect the pizza that much as it only has 28 calories for 100 grams of it.
How To Reduce Pizza Calories
There are many specific ways to make sure that you reduce the number of calories in your pizza.
However, if you put it in general terms, you will see that you only need to control the ingredients.
One example is to use tomato sauce as it is, first, the required pizza sauce for Neapolitan pizzas for it to be called a Neapolitan pizza.
It also has a very low-calorie intake compared to marinara. Marinara can make you fat with the added sugars, while also containing sodium, so marinara is probably something that you should avoid.
You can also make smaller batches and make sure that you only use what is needed.
For example, you should always opt to cut down on the dough recipe and make the crust thinner.
When you use a thinner crust, not only do you get a lower calorie count but you also can attain that crispiness you always want on your pizzas.
Again, you can control the amount of cheese you put in the pizza or add more jalapenos.
Studies stay that people who consume more spices can reduce their calorie intake.
Final Thoughts – Is Neapolitan Pizza Healthy?
No, not really, I mean if you put it in a way that you want a meal with little to no calories at all, then Neapolitan or any type of pizza should not be your first choice for your diet.
However, there is also another answer and that is yes, Neapolitan pizza is healthy if controlled.
You need to look at and watch your intake and the ingredients you use when cooking.
Also, when you compare Neapolitan pizza to regular pizzas that you get from fast-food chains, they are much healthier.
So in conclusion, yes, Neapolitan pizzas are healthy.
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