Top 10 Tips To Make Your Italian Takeaway Healthier

I love Italian food! Pasta, risotto and of course, pizza! But it can sometime be hard to determine the healthiest choices when faced with such tempting menus! New research shows that half of all the takeaway pizzas surveyed contain the entire daily salt recommendation per pizza. Enjoy half a large-stuffed crust meat feast pizza and you could be consuming 1600 calories and 70g of fat!

The good news is that pizzas can vary massively in their calorie and fat content, depending on their size, base and toppings which means you can 'tailor-make' your own pizza and keep control of what you are eating. So just follow my top 10 tips to make your Italian takeaway healthier:

1. Don’t automatically go for starters. Even ‘healthier’ options like tomatoes and mozzarella, drizzled with oil can contain more than 500 calories.
2. Avoid the extras. A pizza is already a lovely indulgence, to don’t be tempted to add unhealthy extras like garlic bread, wedges or loaded potato skins. Instead add a side salad.
3. If you love your garlic bread starter try to swap it for bruschetta topped with tomatoes which is lower in fat and contains fresh veg.
4. If you are going for pasta, generally swap white, cheese based sauces for red tomato based ones.
5. When choosing pasta dishes, go for chicken or vegetarian rather than meat based dishes.
6. If you are choosing a salad, ask for the dressing on the side so you can add just a little.
7. If you are going for pasta, either ask for a smaller serving (many restaurants do smaller portions now) or share with a friend along with a green salad.
8. Be careful what you chose to go on your pizza. Stay clear of high fat, high calorie toppings such as pepperoni, salami, spicy sausage, bacon. Instead choose toppings such as onions, chillies, mushrooms, tuna, peppers, spinach, olives, pineapple, sweetcorn, chicken and tomato. If you really want a meat option, go for ham.
9. Go for thin based pizza’s rather than the deep ones, and particularly stay away from those with extra cheese in the crust.
10. Share a medium pizza rather than going for individual ones.

If you have any top tips, be sure to share them on my Facebook page.Next week I will be sharing some yummy recipes you can try at home to recreate your favourite Italian dishes in a healthier way. And in a fortnight we will be looking at Thai food.