Pizza: Second Highest Calorie Source Among American Children

A new study on children's nutrition shows that kids consuming too much pizza ingest excess calories, saturated fat and sodium, all the ingredients for poor overall health.

The study from Illinois Prevention Research Center found that pizza is the second highest source of calories for children aged between 2 and 18 years, only behind grain foods, New York Daily News reported. The study counted higher calorie intake in children and teenagers, ranging anywhere from 84 through 230 calories on days they eat pizza.

"The adverse dietary effects of pizza consumption found in this study suggest that its consumption should be curbed and its nutrient content improved," researchers concluded in the journal Pediatrics.

To arrive at their conclusions, researchers analyzed questionnaires completed by children aged between 2 and 19 years during 2003 to 2010. The data obtained showed pizza consumption had decreased 25 percent during these years but continues to remain a commonly consumed food as 20 percent children eat pizza every day, Fox News reported.

Researchers also found that snacking on pizza had the maximum impact.

"Pizza consumption as a snack or from fast-food restaurants had the greatest adverse impact on TEI," researchers said while adding,

"For children and adolescents, respectively, pizza consumption was significantly associated with higher net daily TEI (84 kcal and 230 kcal) and higher intakes of saturated fat (3 g and 5 g) and sodium (134 mg and 484 mg) but not sugar intake."

Others not associated were quoted by Fox News opining that pizza can be modified to make it healthy and should preferably be served at home.