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This is most likely the best news you’ll hear today, but it turns out that a pizza could be counted as one of the five-a-day fruits and vegetables.

Now before you cry ‘fake news’, a pizza is obviously not as good as an apple, or as healthy as a Caesar salad, but the tomato base most of our pizzas come with does indeed count as fruit, or veg, depending on what you believe it really is.

Nutritionists advise us that we are supposed to eat at least five portions of fruit and veg a day to stay healthy, and as part of a health poll, recipe box firm Gousto, ran a survey featuring some interesting foods, to see if people know their stuff when it comes to nutrition.

Among the ‘not-so-obvious’ food groups were regulars like baked beans, spaghetti, and of course, pizza.

According to their poll, 95% of Brits didn’t believe the pizza part. But the fact remains true… By that same logic, canned spaghetti submerged in sauce also counts as part of your five a day.

Six in 10 of the 2 010 participating in Gousto’s survey were also wrong about baked beans, as you can actually tick off one of your veg portions when you indulge in a can.

Strange enough, nuts aren’t among your recommended fruit and veg intake, although they do come with many health benefits. Nor are potatoes, however, sweet potatoes are.

Of those polled, 22% admitted that they hadn’t managed to hit their five portions on any day in the past year, and almost half failed to meet food intake recommendations for the past month. Mostly, people were just not sure which foods actually count.

According to nutritionist Ellie Bain, eating more fruit and veg is “proven to lower our risk of heart disease, certain cancers and strokes”, as they’re packed with fibre, vitamins and minerals.

If you’re unsure about how much you should be eating, Ellie said: “As a general rule, a portion is about 80g, or 30g for dried fruit. That would be roughly a handful.

Canned and frozen options like tinned tomatoes or peaches are also good, although the syrup tends to be just sugary water, so maybe don’t drink that.

Sweet potatoes, parsnips, beetroot and even onions can also tick your five-a-day boxes, as well as tomato puree, spring onion, garlic, chilli, ginger and fresh herbs.

The best news of all is that most of the latter ingredients are favourites on Butler’s Pizza, which obviously means that getting a slice from Cape Town’s No. 1 pizza place can be considered a good choice. They also have an amazing selection of vegan offerings if you really want to double down on the five-a-day.

Tell us this doesn’t look healthy:

 

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Maybe next time your spouse insists on ‘something healthy’, you can employ the old ‘Well I read that…”

[source:dailystar&butlers]