I’ve mentioned it on this blog before – my nurse’s saying: “Pizza is poison”. Not only is it pretty fattening stuff (in the main, especially if you order one like that on the left), but for us diabetics it’s pretty hazardous on the BGs. It’s been said that pizza can alter your blood sugars for up to seven or eight hours after consumption…. crazy times.

That’s why this article drew my eye this afternoon. Fun facts from the article:

1. Each man, woman and child in America eats an average of 46 slices or 23 pounds of pizza a year. (What the?!!!)

2. High fat foods such as pizza can cause a delay in the absorption of the carbohydrates for 2-3 hours after eating and can elevate the blood sugar for up to 8 hours.

I’m not one of those people who LOVES pizza, but I have to say it’s definitely something I enjoy every two to three months. Thankfully the pizza joint in my neighbourhood’s pretty average, so it’s not one of the staples I fall back on when the cupboard is bare.

However – one of the best pizzas I’ve had in the last year happened to be at Salvage cafe on Waiheke (last year sometime). My husband and I went over to the ‘heke a couple of weekends ago to celebrate my birthday. We parked our car about 3km from the city ferry terminal and walked there, got the ferry over and then walked over hill and down dale to get to the place we were staying on the island. By the time we got to Salvage we’d both built up a bit of a hunger. I was going to be good and get something like fish, but it was ridiculously priced and we just wanted something cheap and easy so went for one of their delicious mushroom, spinach and ham pizzas. YUM!

It’s a funny one, pizza. Basically most of the time when I eat I will take my BG an hour and then two hours after eating – if my BG is back in the right zone after two hours I relax until my next meal. However, after the pizza eating I thought I’d do an experiment – testing my BG every hour whilst not consuming any other food all afternoon (there was no need, I was nicely full!). Sure enough, I aced the one and two hour post-prandials. I think the three hour one was right at the upper end, but by four, five, six and seven hours I was giving myself small corrections after each blood test – the pizza was starting to show its true colours!

So – that was my little pizza experiment. Based on that I’ve decided that pizza is only ever something I will consume before 2pm, so I am awake to keep an eye on my blood sugars as they play up through the afternoon. If that had been at night time I’m sure I would have woken up on a 22 or something the next day.

This new pledge is going to be easy for the minute: but not for long. My husband has grand designs on building a pizza oven on our property. I’ll just have to enjoy it for the perceived extra value it will give to the house – plus find other foods which cook well in that sort of environment and give the pizza a wide berth. Unless maybe I can get into breakfast pizza in a big way…. hmmm.