Health Research

Hugh Hewitt found some really old news that was new news to me (and apparently to Hugh, too, who called it, "The. Best. News. Ever."). The BBC reported back in July of 2003 that research indicated pizza may prevent several types of cancer.

Researchers claim eating pizza regularly reduced the risk of developing oesophageal cancer by 59%.

The risk of developing colon cancer also fell by 26% and mouth cancer by 34%, they claimed.

The secret could be lycopene, an antioxidant chemical in tomatoes, which is thought to offer some protection against cancer, and which gives the fruit its traditional red colour.

The researchers speculate that pizza's protective ingredient may be the lycopene in tomatoes. But I'd be willing to venture that it could also be the olive oil. Or maybe even the combination of tomatoes with olive oil.

Of course, this research was done in Italy by Italian researchers studying Italian pizza-eaters eating Italian pizza. Their pizza is likely not the same as New York pizza or Chicago pizza or Pizza Hut or any of the other Americanized pizza.

I used to work with an Italian guy. It was either his parents or his grandparents who were born in Italy, and he said that to them, pizza was a way of stretching leftovers. You took the little bits of what you had in the fridge or the cupboard, smeared tomato paste on the pizza dough, added olive oil, and then topped it with the leftovers--usually not cheese. That was Italian pizza.

So it may be true that Italian pizza helps prevent cancer, but the news may not be quite as good for us Americans.

But then again, you never know...