It’s odd to me that pizza is deemed a “junk food”, especially in the many dieting memes I’ve come across on the internet. When I’m looking for images to inspire my anti-wellness illustrations, I can’t escape the same images of chubby women eating pizza with an ashamed look on their faces, while their skinnier compadres spit out their salad leaves in disgust. Or, it’s skinny women eating pizza being applauded for doing so yet miraculously staying small.
Hey, maybe my opinion of the flat, round bases of baked dough topped, with tomatoes and cheese (and extra cheese, if you’re me) is confused because I had what I thought was a “positive” dieting experience when I ate the so-called forbidden food and still lost weight – back when losing weight was all I cared about. I once had a flatmate who inspired a pizza crash diet experiment of mine, as I’d watch her each night throw a ready-made pizza in the oven and only eat half of it when it was cooked. Half! I know! I’d never heard of such a thing before: someone being able to stop themselves from eating the whole circle of glutton in one sitting. I’d also never realised that someone could eat pizza – albeit, only some – and still be skinny. I’d hit the jackpot I thought. This was the diet for me. I had to try it, I thought…and I did.
Fighting against every bingeing urge I had woven through my skin, I cooked a ready-made pizza, just like she did, ate half, just like she did, and wrapped up the rest to save for tomorrow, just like she did. A few weeks on, and I discovered that the weight I thought I had to lose had dripped from my non-existant “love handles” like cheese melts over a crust. Maybe these Italians had a good thing going here. Maybe I could eat a food I didn’t detest quite as much as those zero noodles from Holland & Barrett, and still achieve my #bodygoals.
Well, actually, all wasn’t as rosey as it seemed. Turns out only eating half a pizza a day isn’t enough to sustain a growing woman, and I struggled to have the energy to pull myself out of bed to show anyone my new figure. All my efforts proved to be pointless and I was just as miserable as before. Taking part in yet another crash diet only worsened my untreated eating disorder, making me feel like a failure for not being able to maintain a skinny frame. Like with any diet where you have cut your calories to far below what your body needs, I put weight back on for no other reason than I was bloody hungry, as expected.
The truth is that there is nothing wrong with pizza. In fact, all of the components to make up a traditional pizza are all things that science recommends we get into our diet. Traditional dough is only made from flour, yeast, salt, sugar and water. That doesn’t sound like “junk” to me. I’m also totally pro the ready-made varieties, as they offer the additional benefit of convenience to people who so desperately need it.
Oh, and not to mention that pizza tastes fucking amazing? Which is why today, I try to get as much of it into my diet as possible, as with all other foods I love to eat. Oddly enough, when I ate this stilton and bresaola pizza this week, I slipped back into my old habits of only finishing half, but for no other reason than the fact that I was full and that I quite like pizza for breakfast. That’s something I never thought I’d say as a former binge eater.
I’ve also no interest in struggling to get out of bed anymore, just FYI.