A Healthful Slice

Pizza may not seem as healthy as the alfalfa sprouts and granola your mother told you were best, but it can actually be good for you. A slice of pizza contains enough necessary ingredients to help you live longer, reports Correspondent Dr. Michael Breen of CBS Station WBBM-TV in Chicago.

Indeed, the popularity of fast pizza delivery and the ease of getting a made-to-order slice at your local deli makes eating pizza seem more of an indulgence than a healthy choice.

A healthy slice of pizza contains fiber from whole grain bread, has tomatoes or tomato sauce, spinach, garlic and olive oil.

Whole grains have anti-cancer agents that help you live longer, according to scientists at the University of Minnesota.

The antioxidants in tomatoes, called lycopenes, cut your risk of cancer forty percent. Lypocenes also help you function better in old age and cut your risk of heart disease by fifty percent. Tomato sauce has a significantly higher concentration of these chemicals.

"If the tomatoes are prepared, cooked, processed, it tends to make the already present lycopenes more available...to the body," says Dr. Richard Van Breeman of the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Spinach is one of the healthiest of all vegetables because it is high in folic acid. It can help fight cancer and researchers at Tufts University found it can protect your brain from signs of aging.

Garlic is high in antioxidants and has been found to help fight off diseases in animals, according to German researchers. Finally, by sprinkling a touch of olive oil on a slice of pizza your risk of heart disease and cancer is lowered because it is also high in antioxidants.

While these foods have been proven to be health-promoters, keeping a healthy diet requires variety. Five additional foods that will help you maintain good health are red grapes, blueberries, salmon, nuts, and green tea.