Pizza has hands down taken the international crown for being the world’s most popular comfort food, bar none! There is something magical about its round expanse of delicious and varied toppings all sizzling from the oven’s heat on a bed of bubbling melted cheese over a sea of luscious red tomato sauce, all contained within its shallow platter of crisp and chewy crust!
You can now find pizza in almost every corner of the globe! If you happen to be Down Under you can enjoy the best pasta in Geelong along with the best waterfront pizza of any town or country! The old Italian recipes are very much kept alive along with new additions to the pizza menu, a food that is constantly evolving as it attracts more and more aficionados to its mouthwatering pleasures.
It’s pretty easy to understand why people from all walks of life and multiple cultures love to eat pizza so much – it tastes fantastic! There happens to be more to pizza than just the taste, there is actually some amazing and fascinating science behind why pizza is so universally craved!
It seems that we humans are naturally attracted to complex foods that embody the following traits- fatty, salty, sweet, and rich. Pizza boasts all of those, and then some! The meat toppings tend to be rich and a bit salty, cheese is fatty, and the tomato sauce is sweet. The pizza’s toppings also contain a fascinating compound called Glutamate that is found naturally in the tomatoes, olives, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, and sausage that comprise so many of our favourite combos! When that Glutamate arrives on our tongues, it sends a message to the brain that this stuff tastes great, and we naturally crave more of it.
Glutamate happens to be the chemical compound that causes our mouths to water while we wait to take the next bite!
The other wonderful chemical effect that pizza has on us is to send a natural feel-good substance called Dopamine to our hungry brains! Eating Pizza truly brings us joy on a chemical level as it triggers the release of Dopamine, the substance that helps us feel happy and pleasurable while we enjoy eating a delicious meal like pizza! The tantalizing combination of the crust’s doughy texture, the smooth and creamy melted cheese, and the savoury tomato sauce, along with all those rich toppings triggers our bodies’ natural reward system so we feel full and fulfilled as we feed on those sensational slices!
Another reason why we so greatly enjoy pizza isn’t as much about chemical science as it is about choice! Pizza is one of the world’s most customizable dishes, you can choose whatever pizza toppings you crave in almost infinite combinations to create the pizza of your dreams! No one is limited by the classic menu recipes, you can choose from a wealth of different cheeses, fresh and pickled vegetables, mouthwatering meats, fresh herbs, and sumptuous spices to create a flavour combination as unique as your own personal preferences and tastes!
Pizza is truly a delicious and healthy food that is whatever you want it to be, and your freedom of choice is one of the things that makes it so special!