I love pizza! It’s one of my top favorite foods next to kale and cake. And I know I’m not the only one that loves it, either. Recently, the USDA conducted a study which revealed the enormous amount of pizza we consume in the United States. American consumption of cheese increased by nearly 30% in 10 years because the dairy industry is spending big bucks to promote pizza and partner with big chains like Dominos. Congress even voted to declare pizza a vegetable in the school lunch program. The government wants us to eat pizza – a lot of it. But there’s a lot going on behind closed doors that nobody wants us to know or talk about, and it all starts with the ingredients.
When I started researching pizza ingredients, one thing became abundantly clear. Pizza restaurants did not like the questions I was asking.
The only way to find out what may be lurking in your pizza is to review its complete ingredient list, which is often concealed from the public. I began calling the top pizza chains and easily found a couple ingredient lists online. But, when I called most pizza restaurants and began asking questions, they blatantly refused to share ingredient lists and their customer service reps were oblivious to what their ingredients were – they had no clue.
Little Caesars, California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) and Mellow Mushroom have all refused to answer my questions about their ingredients. I was told by Mellow Mushroom’s corporate offices that they will only comply with minimal government regulations, which require them to publish an allergen list.
After sending me their dough ingredients, CPK suddenly claimed that due to “proprietary restrictions” they can’t disclose their full ingredient lists. They went on to tell me that they “don’t have an easy way to perform a search by individual ingredient” and would need to call each vendor first. While traveling, I stopped into a CPK in an airport to ask questions face to face. Both the manager and store clerk had zero access to ingredients. I even asked to look at the packages of their dough and other ingredients that got shipped to the store in and they said they did not have them.
I called many local pizza restaurants and was informed that it’s their policy to NOT disclose ingredients to their customers. Little Caesars literally told me that if I was concerned about what was in it, I “just shouldn’t eat there…” Ha! Don’t worry, I won’t!
Papa John’s also has repeatedly refused to release their ingredient list, which really caused a stir last year with my friend Melanie Warner, author of the processed food exposing book “Pandora’s Lunchbox“. How can Papa John’s claim to have “Better Ingredients… Better Pizza” without telling us what’s really in it? While they say their lack of transparency is due to the proprietary nature of their recipes, they could be hiding some seriously harmful ingredients. After repeated calls to corporate offices and some helpful photos sent to me by Melanie Warner, I was finally able to uncover some details about what is really in their pizzas.
Why are the ingredients so hard to find? Why are they refusing to share their ingredients? What is it that these pizza restaurants don’t want us to know?
Well, I’ll tell you what they’re hiding: Lots and lots of hidden MSG!
Restaurants don’t want to get a bad rap by putting monosodium glutamate (MSG) on their ingredient or allergen statements, so they have found another way to secretly add this potent flavor enhancer to your food, without the average customer realizing it. Instead of letting you know that they are putting MSG in your food, they are using an FDA loophole to sneak processed free glutamic acid into your food, which has the same effect as MSG – all without warning you. They simply use other forms of free glutamic acid (such as Hydrolyzed Soy Protein), which is the main component of MSG. This allows them to have “clean labels” and deceive us into believing their product contains no MSG – when it actually does!
While it’s true that tomatoes and cheese are naturally high in glutamates, they do not have the same effect on the brain as added manufactured free glutamic acid additives. When I talked to Papa John’s, they admitted that these additives are used as a replacement for MSG by the food industry.
It will blow your mind – literally
MSG tricks your brain into believing that what you are eating tastes so great that you want more of it. Your taste buds sense that there is more protein in the food than there really is – which is great for food manufacturers that want to save money by using less or lower quality meat. These ingredients also promote an addiction to pizza so that you keep coming back to order more. Repeat business keeps their pockets lined with lots of cash. Ever wonder why you can’t stop at one slice? This is why.
MSG and hidden MSG additives are known to commonly cause headaches, obesity and depression – and this is just the tip of the iceberg. As an excitotoxin, its effect on the brain is so toxic that it has been linked to learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Board certified neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. warns that, “Excitotoxins have been found to dramatically promote cancer growth… It also causes a cancer cell to become more mobile, and that enhances metastasis, or spread… When you increase the glutamate level, cancer just grows like wildfire”.
This is serious stuff. But the industry will tell you it’s harmless and that you are crazy for being concerned.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is okay to eat this stuff occasionally, because these ingredients can stick around in your body for a long time, leach nutrients from your system, and can make you really sick. As put by my pal Kristen Michaelis at FoodRenegade.com, “Not only is MSG not a traditional food, not only are many people immediately sensitive to it, but it can also interrupt the hormonal and biological development of children! Lest you think this is all fanciful, it’s important to remember that a number of studies have found that the effects of MSG can occur cumulatively over time with subsequent exposure.”
Toxic hidden MSG ingredients buried in popular pizza menu items:
- Autolyzed Yeast Extract (Hidden MSG)
- Textured or Hydrolyzed Proteins (Hidden MSG and GMO)
- Hydrolyzed Corn (Hidden MSG and GMO)
- Modified Starches (Hidden MSG or Possible GMO)
- Natural Flavors (Possible Hidden MSG)
- Disodium Inosinate or Disodium Guanylate (MSG enhancers)
The additives Disodium Guanylate and Disodium Inosinate are not added to a product that doesn’t contain MSG because they are considered expensive additives that are ineffective without MSG ingredients. The presence of Disodium Guanylate or Disodium Inosinate in a product is a strong indication that a product contains hidden MSG.
I’m talking about more than MSG here
The ingredient lists that I could get my hands on are riddled with artificial colors, artificial and natural flavors, partially hydrogenated oils, cellulose (wood pulp) to keep the already shredded cheese from clumping, and GMO soybean oil.
Partially Hydrogenated Oils (Trans-fat) – There is absolutely no reason for anyone to still be using this. These oils are so bad that even our FDA has woken up and warns that it’s not safe to eat this in any food. Partially hydrogenated oils block arteries and the CDC estimates that they could cause up to 20,000 heart attacks every year! I found these dangerous oils in Pizza Hut’s hand-tossed crust, Round Table’s Creamy Garlic sauce, Papa John’s dipping sauces and Dominos Philly Steak pizza. Partially hydrogenated oils are found in 21 menu items at Cici’s Pizza – it’s even added to their cheese!
Soybean Oil (likely GMO) – You’d hope to see just olive oil in there, but soybean oil is the oil of choice for most pizza restaurants. It’s in the dough and pizza sauces, so it basically makes its way into every pizza. This genetically engineered inflammation causing oil is being used at these restaurants:
- Papa John’s
- Domino’s
- Pizza Hut
- Uno Pizzeria
- Papa Murphy’s
- Little Caesars
- Cici’s
- Mellow Mushroom – “Soybean oil is a major ingredient in our pizzas”
- California Pizza Kitchen – “our Ciabatta Bread and our Wheat Dough do contain Soybean Oil”
- Round Table Pizza – Creamy Garlic sauce
BHT/BHA (Butylated Hydroxytoluene.Butylated Hydroxyanisole) – BHT is used in embalming fluid and to fuel jets. BHA is toxic to your organs and linked to cancer. These were found in the pepperoni on every ingredient list I looked at from Uno’s to Dominos.
Sodium Nitrite – Whenever this is added to a meat, there is a really good chance that it contains cancer-causing Nitrosamines. Nitrites are often found in the pepperoni, ham, bacon and sausage toppings.
Enriched Flour – This is a dead food that has had some vitamins and minerals artificially replaced. It’s absorbed by your body as a starch, rather than a whole grain. This flour is used in pizza dough, except the gluten-free versions.
Artificial Colors – These are petroleum-based colorings linked to asthma, allergies and hyperactivity. I found them in the banana pepper toppings, the cheese at Cici’s, and specifically in the garlic oil used by Domino’s.
Caramel Coloring – This is often made by heating ammonia and sulfites under high pressure which creates carcinogenic compounds. You’ll find this very controversial coloring in the bacon at Pizza Hut, the Italian sausage at Round Table, the beef at Little Caesars, the zesty pizza sauce at Cici’s and in the BBQ Chicken pizza at Uno’s.
BPA (Bisphenol A) – You won’t find this on any ingredient label, but BPA leaches from the cans that hold pizza sauce in some restaurants. Many fast food pizza chains use canned tomato sauce that could have BPA. This substance exposure increases your risk for cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes and a slew of other medical problems.
How these pizza restaurants stack up
Papa John’s – They add a lot to their “Better Ingredients”. For instance, their “100% Beef” topping is a lot more than just beef! It contains corn syrup, maltodextrin, natural flavor, natural smoke grill flavor, beef flavor and seasonings. Also, so much for believing that there is 100% real cheese topping their pizzas, as they add modified food starch (hidden MSG), preservatives and powdered wood pulp (cellulose) to their cheese blend. They also add natural flavors to their thin crust, pepperoni, and chicken topping, as well as hidden MSG (autolyzed yeast extract) to their garlic ranch and spinach alfredo pizza sauces. Those little dipping sauces that come with your pizza are loaded with partially hydrogenated oil, GMOs and (you guessed it) more hidden MSG.
Update: In June 2015 Papa Johns announced they’re removing 14 ingredients by the end of 2016, including artificial colors, caramel color, the preservative sodium benzoate, and hidden MSG ingredients like autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed proteins. They have also listed ingredients on their website (however this list is not entirely complete as they don’t publish the ingredients in some of their seasonings, such as in their beef topping).
Domino’s – One of the few pizza restaurants that openly publishes their ingredients online – and their ingredient list has hidden MSG written all over it. It’s almost impossible to avoid at Dominos, as it’s in their cheese, marinara sauce, white sauces, BBQ sauce and a slew of toppings (chicken, beef, Italian sausage and Philly steak). They also add “flavors” to their pan crust, cheese, pepperoni and shake-on seasoning. The garlic oil used on nearly every pizza is NOT what you’d expect (garlic & oil). It’s actually a toxic combo of over 20 ingredients including artificial colors, artificial flavors and TBHQ.
Pizza Hut – You get a lot more than “100% Real Beef” in this topping loaded natural and artificial flavors. Their sausage and bacon toppings have hidden MSG (autolyzed yeast or hydrolyzed proteins), and you are eating modified starches in their cheese, chicken and cream sauce (starches usually derived from GMO corn). The garlic sauce and seasoning used on every hand-tossed pizza is loaded with natural flavors, artificial flavors and partially-hydrogenated GMO oils. Pizza Hut recently reformulated their hand-tossed crust by replacing the high fructose corn syrup with sucralose (Splenda) – an artificial sweetener that has been shown to cause DNA damage to the gastrointestinal tract, reduces beneficial gut bacteria, and is linked to inflammatory bowel disease. Recent research indicates that sucralose is linked to leukemia.
Round Table – “The Last Honest Pizza” honestly adds straight “Glutamic Acid” to their creamy garlic sauce. They add hidden MSG ingredients to their pizza sauces, chicken and sausage toppings. Their cheese is far from “100% real” with “Natural Smoke Flavoring” and cellulose.
Little Caesars – Although their corporate office told me that their ingredients are top secret, the first gal I talked with admitted that there is yeast extract in their beef topping. I also called a local store and found that their super-secret ingredients were listed right there on the package for anyone in the kitchen to read. According to my local restaurant, their sauce contains natural flavors and the cheese contains wood pulp (cellulose). They also rattled off the beef topping ingredients to confirm it contains yeast extract, beef flavorings and caramel coloring.
Mellow Mushroom – One of the most tight-lipped restaurants I talked to would only admit to the use of soybean oil, which is likely GMO – “Soybean oil is a major ingredient in our pizzas” they wrote to me in an email. Furthermore, when I asked about hidden MSG ingredients, they told me that they weren’t required to tell me since they are not one of the 7 major allergens designated by the FDA and don’t list them on their allergen list. So I decided to go use their allergen tool to see what they do list and found something shocking. The tool gives misleading, inaccurate and potentially dangerous information if you have a soy allergy. For example, I confirmed their crust uses soy, but when you use the tool, it says there are plenty of pizzas without soy. The information doesn’t add up and regardless of whether if you have an allergy, I would not trust Mellow Mushroom until they release the full ingredient lists for their menu.
Uno Pizzeria – They are not much better than the rest with hidden MSG in their BBQ Chicken pizza, Harvest Vegetable pizza, sausage topping and gluten-free crust. I was a bit surprised to see that they also add caramel color, artificial flavors, and a large amount of natural flavors to their BBQ Chicken pizza – it’s totally unnecessary.
California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) – As they were being very difficult in sharing ingredients, I was only able to confirm that the Thai sauce, tomato pizza sauce, pepperoni, salami, bacon, romano cheese, and chipotle sauce do not contain any of the hidden MSG ingredients that I listed. Because they refuse to share an ingredient list, I have no way of knowing whether they contain other additives or hidden MSG that I didn’t ask about – so don’t be convinced that these menu items are clean! I also inquired about hidden MSG ingredients in their other cheeses, BBQ sauce, chicken, sausage and ham toppings – and they have not responded at all regarding those items. Again, I will take their lack of a response as an indication that they do contain hidden MSG until they inform us otherwise.
Papa Murphy’s – It’s all about the sauces at Papa Murphy’s, where there’s yeast extract in their basil pesto sauce and modified food starch in their BBQ sauce, buffalo sauce, creamy garlic sauce and sweet chili sauce. They also add “flavors” to nearly every meat topping available and to their cheese.
Cici’s – They don’t really hide it by adding straight MSG to 10 menu items including their “Zesty” pizza sauce. Cici’s further adds hidden MSG to their buffalo sauce, ranch dressing, bacon cheddar sauce, sausage topping and beef topping. Quite frankly, I can’t believe how bad their “cheese” is – modified food starch, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, (added) casein, aluminum, natural flavors and artificial color! I was also astounded to find high fructose corn syrup in their BBQ sauce and dessert pizzas, as well as carrageenan and propylene glycol in several of their sauces, including the Alfredo.
Are you wondering about your favorite pizza place?
The good news is that you can do the exact same thing I did at your favorite pizza place, and please share the outcome with me!
To get the best results, plan to visit your pizza place during a slow time and not during their dinner rush. This way their employees won’t be rushed and will have time to answer your questions. Right off the bat, ask them if they have an ingredient list to share with you. Most likely they won’t, but it’s worth a try. If their ingredients are not readily available, here’s my game plan for navigating the menu and asking the right questions:
- Typically the safest bet is to stick with a veggie pizza without cheese. This is dependent on what they have lurking in their sauce and crust, so it’s really important to find out what is in those items! Ask them to read you the complete ingredients in the sauce and dough.
- Hidden MSG is most often found in meat toppings, seasoning mixes and creamy sauces – so if you plan to order those things I would ask specifically about hidden MSG ingredients. Ask them if monosodium glutamate, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed proteins, modified starches, or natural flavors are in any of those menu items. Which ones?
- GMO soybean oil is usually found in the crust and the sauces. Ask them if they use soybean oil – and in what menu items. Is soybean oil used in their pans? Can they make you a pizza without it?
- Ask them directly if any of their ingredients are GMO. You may be surprised as they may have no clue what you are talking about. Use this as an opportunity to briefly share with them what a GMO is and why you don’t eat GMOs. Let them know that most soy is GMO so if they use soy in any products, it is probably GMO. Their allergen statement should also be able to tell you if soy is used in any product.
- Remember that “garlic oils” and “shake-on seasonings” may contain a bunch of questionable ingredients and MSG. Ask them if there are any specialty oils, butter sauces, or seasoning mixes used on their pizzas. If they can’t tell you the ingredients in those, ask them not to use it on yours.
- Do they use high fructose corn syrup or other sweeteners in their sauces or dough? These sweeteners are probably derived from GMO sources – including “sugar”.
- Most vegetables will not be GMO, unless they have corn, tofu, zucchini or yellow squash toppings. I would avoid those.
- What about cellulose in their cheese? Are flavorings and preservatives added to the cheese as well?
Beware that often times the restaurant employees truly do not know the answers to your questions, and will give you incorrect answers. For instance, they may tell you that their cheese is “100% real cheese”, without realizing that the pre-shredded bag of cheese in the back contains an ingredient list. On that ingredient list, they will likely find cellulose, some preservatives, and possibly some flavors and colors. It’s good to remember that it’s not all that it seems on the surface, and in order to find out what is really in their food they will need to read the ingredient list on the box, bag or can that the menu item comes in. The bottom line – If they won’t tell you what is in their food, don’t eat there.
They don’t expect the average customer to demand answers about their food!
Only four of the restaurants I investigated publish their current ingredient lists online – Dominos, Uno’s, Papa Murphy’s, Cici’s. (Pizza Hut publishes them online, but they admitted to me they aren’t current in an email). As in my Chipotle investigation, I had to be extremely persistent over several months to get the limited information that I did from the other restaurants. This took multiple phone calls, voicemails, emails, and website contact forms – which often went unanswered. I had to ask specific questions about obscure ingredients. They are counting on the average customer to not do this!
On Papa John’s website, they say that their cheese is “crafted from 100% mozzarella and high-quality milk by one of America’s finest cheese producers” – But the ingredients tell the real story. Now we know their cheese also contains wood pulp and modified food starch… and that IT’S NOT 100% CHEESE. When Papa John’s claims in all of their advertising that they have “Better Ingredients”, yet they won’t openly tell us what they are, it’s a safe bet they’re hiding something.
I wonder if any of these restaurants will have the courage to discuss this issue. Will they do the right thing now that we are calling them out, like Chipotle did when they finally released their full ingredient list online for everyone to see? These companies do not deserve our business, until they publish their ingredients online and make them easily accessible to the average customer.
What to eat instead:
Okay, this is the good part! I’m thrilled to say that I’ve found some pizza places that are doing it right!
Pizza Fusion – I called up a Pizza Fusion restaurant and they freely answered every question I had about their ingredients – a big WIN in my book! Their sauce is super simple: organic tomatoes, olive oil, water – and no nasty additives or hidden MSG. They only use olive oil in the restaurant, so you won’t find any GMO soybean or canola oil here. They confirmed with me that their gluten-free crust no longer contains canola oil and that they are diligent about preventing cross-contamination with gluten. I was really happy to find out that all of their meat toppings are antibiotic-free! Their chickens are also fed a non-GMO diet. Many of their veggie toppings are organic and local, and all are non-GMO. This varies and depends on what is seasonally available, so simply ask them which veggies are organic when you order. They have about 12 locations right now, and I really hope they grow into a larger chain so that more of us have access to pizza places like this!
Pure Pizza – I simply love this place. If you are ever in Charlotte, this is the place to go. They have an amazing organic sprouted grain crust, and source their toppings locally.
Truly Organic Pizza – This pizza chain in Florida is USDA certified organic. Because of this, none of their ingredients can be GMO, and all of their meats are antibiotic-free and not injected with hormones. I called them up and asked specifically about hidden MSG ingredients. They told me that they do not use any flavor enhancers such as autolyzed yeast extract or hydrolyzed proteins to season their food. They cook their meatballs and chicken from scratch and only season them with basic seasonings like what we would use at home! This is another great option if you are in Florida.
My Favorite Homemade Pizza Recipe – If you don’t have pizza restaurants like these in your neck of the woods, my homemade pizza recipe is super simple and will be ready in less time than it would take you to order and have it delivered – I promise! This recipe cures my pizza craving in no time!
If you know someone who is ordering or eating pizza with these terrible ingredients, help them make the switch by sharing this very important information with them!
Together we are changing the world, one company at a time, by sharing the truth.
Xo,
Vani
Wow! I am new to this web site and amazed to read his article about pizza. I have been trying really hard to eat healthy since recently diagnosed with Celiac. Gluten free pizza was the only “bad” thing I felt I could indulge on once in a while. I am so confused I don’t know what to eat any more….
Kat, stop being confused. This is where you take control of your life and become responsible for what you eat and drink. You have to read labels. You have to! There’s more to being gluten free, its being artificial ingredient free as well. If it isn’t real food, don’t eat it. Simple as that.
Cook and make your food from scratch is always the best way to take control of what get into your body. And it is fun to cook at home too, spend time at home with your families, burn energies during cooking, etc.
Organic gluten free real food.
No thanks on the gluten free, I’d rather not eat cardboard and my family isn’t allergic to gluten. Unless you have an intolerance or allergy, there’s seriously no reason to avoid gluten at all.
Thank you!!! Please confront Olive Garden ingredients and bring to the forefront, as they have High fructose corn syrup in their Italian dressing, which leads me to believe they are not thinking of their customer’s health and well being in their other menus items either!
Thank you Vani! I truly appreciate you using your passion to educate and inform the public about food and restaurant foods. Since reading your website, I have become more diligent at reading ingredients on foods purchased and making well informed decisions.
God Bless!
Don’t eat it. It’s that simple, if you think cellulose is wood pulp, don’t eat it. If MSG is so bad and so abundant in the pizza industries food, don’t eat it! Quit all the whining and live life, eat what tastes good. If everything we ate was healthy, we wouldn’t eat at all…
Chef Bobby: “If everything we ate was healthy, we wouldn’t eat at all…”
Sorry, but I’m not sure what that means. If everything we ate was healthy then, (correct me if I’m wrong) we would eat healthy all the time.
You’re right, we shouldn’t eat what we deem to be unhealthy and unacceptable to our standards, but we can’t weed out what’s unhealthy and unacceptable without information, and the whole point of this article is to GIVE US that information so we can decide for ourselves what we will and will not eat.
How sad that you seem to think healthy food is not worth eating.
I also think that the “whining” Chef Bobby is referring to is what everyone else would consider knowing the facts. How can we expect to make the right decisions if we don’t even know what’s in the food we eat?
“If you don’t like the article, don’t read it!” 🙂
How FOOLISH! Of course we need to know what is unhealthy, not just ‘what we think’ as this purported chef, Bobby, suggests.
Chef Bobby, IF people knew that what is in their food gives them CANCER, THEY WOULDNT EAT IT. Besides, to think of “health food” as only greens and no flavour is exactly what this industry wants. So you associate it with “no flavour”.
Get your mind together. If you want to eat processed cancer giving crap, no one is stopping you. BUT, please, QUIT YOUR WHINING if people want to eat what is healthy and tasty to them without chemicals and additives.
Chef Bobby, Any of us Food Babe followers could throw your reply right back at you and say ” Don’t come onto the Food Babe website. It is that simple, if you are not interested in eating healthy, then don’t bother. ” Personally, I no longer eat food with chemicals and think that it does taste good! Even better! I hope that you would reconsider and give it a try!
Amen to that brother…. Pizza has never been a healthy option so wtf are u all complaining about? If u want to eat healthy then eat at home where you can control what you put in your food. America is fat because it chooses to be. We all know the risks we run when eating fast food. Don’t like it, don’t eat it. It is what it is
sorry, chef bobby. i wish we could eat “what tastes good.” sadly our tastes have been corrupted by all the “false” tastes supplied by chemical companies along the NJ turnpike.
yes, indeed, good taste was nature’s way to get us to eat foods that were good for us in the good old days when nature controlled taste.
by all means, if you retrain your taste buds by eating ONLY real food, you will be repulsed by all the fake stuff and will instantly know when a chemical is trying to pull the wool over your eyes (or mouth)
everything i eat tastes great because nature (and a good farmer) made it that way- not because of a chemical meant to trick me into thinking it tastes great
and PS- chef bobby can’t be a chef at all! real chefs know the difference between real food and pseudo food. i recently heard a french chef compare a pasture raised chicken to a CAFO chicken; he said that the latter was so “other” that he couldn’t even call it a chicken. when asked to weigh in on a frozen industrially prepared meal, he called it a “crime against humanity.”
i live in NYC and real chefs go out of their way to buy eggs from amish farmers even if they cost more because they can tell the difference when they work with quality ingredients.
i also can’t imagine a real chef saying that if we only ate healthy food we wouldn’t eat at all. one thing i’m sure of- i’ll never eat chef bobby’s cooking. he has too low an opinion of food!
Dude flipping ‘burgers’ at McD’s doesn’t make you a chef.
Chef Bobby, That may be the single most obtuse and ridiculous comment I have ever heard. Being a chef you must realize at some point that food is not just about pleasure but about nutrition about building a lifestyle of sustainable health.
A ton of work went into this research and article. The results are overwhelming and discouraging. For the good news, simply scroll down to the bottom. Truth is, many food manufacturers and suppliers, especially the big ones, have been hiding their secret ways of driving repeat sales for decades, since the 1950s. More good news, we are waking up to this reality. Time to put the horses back in the barn!
WOW! I am shocked, and I really shouldn’t be because it seems this is happing a lot. I am glad that we make homemade pizzas more than we do take out. Thank you for this information, I will be checking out where we eat for pizza before eating there.
http://www.laramealor.com/woot-woot-wednesday-7-things-must-fail-miserably-successful/
I just want to mention something, as an individual in the restaurant industry (Fine dining) and a student studying food science, a lot of what is being said is extremely exaggerated. When it comes to GMOs, they are everywhere. I don’t agree with them like many others out there, but it’s really difficult to avoid them especially in a commercial setting. As for the MSG, these are the glutamic acids that are naturally found in foods, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, mushrooms, dried mushrooms, soybeans, dried fish, and most importantly seweed. This seweed is what MSG is taken from the natural layer that forms on the outside if the seaweed. MSG is just as bad as salt, salt is also know to cause heart problems, headaches, and obesity. Before you start arguing how bad things are, you should make sure you know what they are. As I am sure that you have been consuming mushrooms, seaweed in sushi, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese; these are all NATURAL sources of MSG.
Natural sources of MSG are addressed in the article. Did you read it?
Dr. Blaylock addresses that issue in his book. I won’t be able paraphrase him well. Something like the fact that naturally occurring amounts from whole foods, like seaweed and mushrooms, are handled easily by the body and brain. It is the absolute off-the-charts quantity of free-form glutamic acid created by the processing of the foods – such as Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein and Autolyzed Yeast Extract. They bear no resemblance to whole foods such as tomatoes and soybeans, and the astronomically high amounts are still able to cross the blood brain barrier. Appears to be especially true for those with any vulnerability to brain issues. Truly have no idea if this information is of interest to anyone else. It has made a difference to our family. Might be just us though!
This was an upsetting post, as we try to eat clean but have made a tradition out of eating at Mellow Mushroom every Friday as a family. I wrote our local restaurant in Raleigh and said we would be eating elsewhere until they released their ingredient list and received this friendly response. I’m hoping she gets some answers from corporate!
“Hi Molly, My name is Casey Fox and I am one of the owners of the Mellows in the area. Thanks for your recent comment as well as your frequent business. Since we are a franchise, obviously these decisions regarding ingredients are up to them but I have sent them an email and waiting on their response. As soon as I hear back I will be in touch but in the meantime I do want you to know Mellow has always used the freshest most expensive ingredients you can buy and we are constantly improving as we go along. For example:
Our dough contains no refined sugar, instead we use molasses and spring water from north Georgia mountains.
Our chicken and beef are all natural, no growth hormones or antibiotics.
All produce is delivered fresh daily and prepped in house.
Our cheese is the made from part skim milk and the most expensive you can buy.
Our hoagie rolls are made fresh by Neomonde bakery.
Beef and sausage are fresh and cooked in house and drained of excess fat.
Corporate takes great pride in using these high cost ingredients even with some push back on occasion from franchisees over cost. I am not sure why they won’t release the information but I will find out and get back to you.
Casey”
Thanks for sharing this response! You go girl!
But for the Cheese – most expensive you could buy? That would be organic, grass fed! I do agree Mellow Mushroom *seems* like it’s better than most, but they need to tell us the ingredients so there is full transparency! 🙂
I think it’s comical that she continues to say “most expensive” and that is supposed to mean that it’s “ok”. Let me just go out and buy the most expensive cheese b/c then I know it will be the best, healthiest choice for me.. Hmmmm..
Sad that the consumers are the ones doing the educating! But hey, at least someone is!
I just got a response from their corporate office:
“Thanks for your inquiry about ingredients in Mellow Mushroom products. We are now, as we have always been, committed to serving wholesome, nutritious food and we’re very proud of the quality of product that we deliver to our guests. We make a strong effort to serve all-natural products anywhere possible. We do not publish our full ingredient lists because many of our products are proprietary recipes. However, if we receive inquiries about specific ingredients we will always make our best effort to address any of our guests concerns.
Currently, the only product we serve which contains MSG is our lite ranch salad dressing. We also do not have azodicarbonimade in our dough or any of our other bread products. Our magic mushroom soup contains hydrolyzed corn, and our meatballs contain disodium insonate. If there are any other ingredients you may be concerned about, please feel free to contact me directly. We appreciate your business and I want to personally thank you for taking time to contact us about your concerns. Feedback from our guests helps us to understand what is important to you, and assists us with guidance in our decision making processes.
Annica Kreider
VP of Brand Development”
Hey Molly,
I too was super upset upon reading Mellow Mushroom as one of the secret restaurant names on this pizza list. Especially because I assumed they used more organic and clean ingredients. Because you said you are in the Raleigh area there’s another place my friends and I tend to go to when Mellow has 45 min wait or more…. Which as you know if typical for Thursday-weekend nights. Lilly’s pizza at 5 points I found out uses all local and natural ingredients. Now that I found this out I’m definitely not even going to attempt mellow until I know they release their list.
Hopefully this helps you!
Thanks for letting us know about Lilly’s! I am in the Chapel Hill area and I will definitely have to check it out!
Yes, Lilly’s is awesome! In fact, in my initial email to Mellow, I said that I will be going there until they release their ingredient info. Thank you for the suggestion!
Regarding California Pizza Kitchen: If you want to see some of the stuff that *might* be in their restaurant food, read the labels on their grocery store pizza. I’m guessing they are probably similar since both pizzas appear to be pretty close from what I’m told from people who eat it.
Frozen pizza ingredients are not similar at all to what is sold in a restaurant. They have to add preservatives to extend shelf life. As I mentioned below, CPK publishes a cook book. Get the book and make your own — nothing scary about those recipes and they taste like the restaurant variety
*might*.
We live outside Chicago and we have Homemade Pizza Company. While I haven’t inquired about ingredients, they offer many “healthy” pizza options including whole wheat crusts and gluten free pizza. I’ll be interested to find out more info about their ingredients as well, but hopefully they’re one of the good guys! Thanks for all of your great info!!!!!
California Pizza Kitchen sells a cook book. The crust is flour, water and yeast with a dash of sugar and salt. Pretty darn tasty; I don’t see any reason why they would need to enhance with MSG. Get the book and make the pizza yourself.
David – The recipes in the cook book are not the same in the restaurant unfortunately. They have everything pre-made shipped in boxes to chains across the country. It’s very processed.
OK I already stopped eating breads with “azodicarbonamide” now I will stop eating Pizza. After reading your articles, very soon, I will have very few choices left 😀
LOL! I was thinking the same thing Avii! I am interested to read the articles and to know these things though. I guess the answer is that the less processed the the food we choose the less we have to remember all of these chemical names !
This is so depressing. I just can’t believe people exist in this world that decide to put dangerous chemicals in our food so we’ll eat more of it, when the science shows how detrimental it is to our health. It is disgusting.
I am a neuroscientist and knowing the facts on excitotoxicity …. it is not something desirable and we should avoid anything that can induce it.
When will these companies stop trying to slowly kill us???
I feel goo because I don’t eat at any of these places. Papa John’s is a disgusting looking pizza. I wrote to Domino’s a few years back about how disappointed I was with their product and never heard back.
I have my favorite place to go. A hole in the wall mom & pop pizzeria. The best for miles around, right across the street form Domino’s. I’m handing this list to Tony the owner. Thanks
Thank you! You have saved me hours of my own personal research. Ignore the negative responses, they know not what they say.
While I appreciate your review of Pizza chains, you fail to link to any credible scientific source for studies indicating types of illnesses directly related to MSG. I don’t eat MSG myself, but if you want to be taken seriously you need to cite published scientific fact.
simple solution, don’t eat garbage fast food pizza! Find yourself a nice “mom and pops” pizza shop. Real home made stuff. The person that did all the research behind this, wasted there time….like i said before…this is fast food pizza! GARBAGE!!!
As much as I agree with you, and with this list. Mom&Pop shops are great!! but as a college student when you’re tight on cash and want to get a pizza, I don’t want to spend 12 bucks when I can spend 5 at little Caesars or 6 at Papa Johns. Are they bad? maybe, but considering all the other “junk food” (chips, candy, etc) out there, Id rather have a nice hot piece of american “junk” pizza Any day!
Do you know anything about Settebello? They are in Utah and Las Vegas and claim all ingredients are from Italy. Is it true Italy does not use GOM products and their c u else is grass fed?
Great work Vani! Now I can share more truths about Pizza with my people.
I have been eating Pizza from a few of these restaurants for my entire life. I am never sick, completely in shape and have stayed this way for a 99% of my life. You can eat from these places from time to time, just don’t make it an everyday choice. A little pizza here and there will be the least of your worries in the long run. Articles like this only add more stress into our lives then good.
Can you tell me about Custom Fuel Pizza? It think it’s one of the healthiest pizza places, but after reading this only God knows. Hopefully Custom Fuel pizza can save all the pizza pizza lovers the heartache.
Please, for the love of god, PLEASE pick up a dictionary and look up the meaning of the word “literally”. If pizza LITERALLY blew your mind, what would be happening is that pizza would be cutting your skull open and blowing air onto your brain. That is what LITERALLY means. It is the literal interpretation of whatever you’re saying. It’s bad enough you used literally incorrectly in the title of one of your subsections, but you also used it incorrectly in the title of the article itself.
Isn’t it bad enough that kids aren’t being taught how English works in school? Are you trying to make it worse by perpetuating the misuse of the word “literally”? Come on.
Hate to break it to you Jackson, but the world has moved on without us. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/15/living/literally-definition/
LOL
I fully expected that the bacon cheddar sauce from from CiCIis was a natural product. LOL… Next maybe you can uncover that McDonald’s does not use Angus beef in Big Macs.
Luckily for me, I have already learned about the crappy chemicals that are put in food. There are so many people that are unaware, though, and would appreciate knowing, so Thanks for always educating, Food Babe! I can’t tell you the last time I had a slice of pizza from a pizza company. I try to eat gluten free, so I make my own pizza. I use Namaste gluten-free pizza crust mix and make a goat cheese and triple pepper pizza and it tastes great and is rewarding to make my own food that I can trust, what is in it. I do miss the freedom, though, of being able to go out to a restaurant or getting take out, when I want to and order what I want to, but I am used to it. It is just not appealing to me to eat chemicals anymore!
Keep up the good work Vani. Let’s expose the fraud so the people can awaken to the reality.
Vani, you hit on the holy grail of food – the everloving pizza, and one of my very favorite foods. I wasn’t surprised to find some people debating your credibility and facts, so let me help with the MSG debate. MSG is in everything, and when it is not advertised as such, there are headaches, immediate exhausted feelings and respiratory reactions. I speak from experience and from the experience of friends and family. Anyone who hasn’t experienced at least one of these reactions can count themselves lucky, not safe from the possibility. They either haven’t recognized it or refuse to accept it happens..
Absolutely repulsive! This is why pizza is so addicting! There is just so much MSG and other additives that make you lick your lips even when you just see the word PAPA or HUT. I wish more people would take to their kitchen and create their own pizza versions using natural ingredients! I made a cauliflower pizza crust and it was phenomenal! All it included was cauliflower, eggs and seasonings!!! No added nonsense like these pizza joints!
Otherwise I have NOT had pizza in 12 years and I am now EVEN MORE THRILLED about it, ha ha! Thanks Food Babe 🙂
Hi Hari, I loved your investigations on pizza. I learned so much to make informed choices of where I shop. Thank you.
Good news for you! I found a great remedy for your back pain (tail bone problem) that you mentioned in an earlier newsletter. This really works and you can do at home like I did. It is the “Egoscue Method” found in his famous best selling book called “Pain Free.” You can get it at almost any book store or on Amazon. Barnes & Noble has it too. There are also Egoscue clinics in many large cities in America. This one in his book really helped me and totally eliminated my low back pain in 48 hours — Simply put your feet on a chair and lie back on the floor (no pillow) for 30 minutes resting your hands on your tummy and breathing from your abdomen. Your legs should be resting on a chair from below your knee to your heels. This is called the static stretch in his book. It realignes your spine. He had many other corrective exercises. Best wishes. Bob Rom
Hi Foodbabe,
great article about pizzas. Wasn’t aware of the MSG in pizzas. Won’t buy those any longer and make my own at home now.
Thanks for your work and keep going, Richard
Learn to make your own pizza! It is cheaper and you can achieve the style you like better than a chain. pizzamaking.com is a good resource to get started.
Please stop for a second and ask yourself how often you can afford to eat pizza at one of these “all natural/orgnic ” pizzarias. I work in the food industry as a broker who represents the companies that provide ingredients. The industry tries to provide as clean of ingredients as they can when ever possible. When we as a public demand inexpensive food, raised minimum wages, and regulation after regulation on the manufacturers and restaurants, what do you think is going to happen? THe truth is that there are a lot of people who can not afford to eat all natural, organic etc. they dont have time to cook meals at home made with the freshest of ingredients. And the restaurants need to be profitable so they have to find ingredients that less expensive than what they would “Chose” to use if the had their druthers, unencumbered by little things like Cost, profitability and logistics.
It is easy to spout off about what we would all want to eat and should eat on a blog. Try running the company that employes thousands of people, dealing with logistics of getting that food to the restaurant in a costly manner, and everything else that comes with putting out a pizza that is afordable to the public…….. try that and see if your view point doesnt change.
And by the way……what company in their right mind would let a stranger with a blog walk in and be given free reign to scrutinize their business. They do have proprietary recipes, etc. Duh!?
Look how one sided this article is without any discussion of why they have to use what they use. But I guess it is easier to just throw stones than to do real research….
Interesting that you cite regulations as the problem. My experience is that, while I do not agree with every reg, most are in place for good reason. That good reason is that history has taught us that the food industry will not hesitate to endanger the health of its customers or the well-being of its own workers without such regulations.
Let’s only eat egg whites. O no wait that is not a thing anymore. Cause these crazy lunatics dont last for more than ten years. Next you will tell me not to eat wheat. O wait you already did that. But that will also not be a things health people say in 5 years. Honestly I will only eat at little ceazers now just because they snub such stupid complaints
Thank you Vani for all your research and investigation which provides the rest of us with an informed starting point for our own decisions. As more of us nationwide become “informed” we can continue our gentle pressure to get back to real food. Natural is so overused and phony and not to be trusted. Dig deep!
I am a food scientist and I am so shocked of how little you know about any of the ingredients and how much misleading information you are putting out there.
Modified food starches and natural flavors DO NOT contain any MSG,
BHT/BHA are antioxidants, preventing food become oxidized, and safe to consume,
Enriched flour is enriched with natural vitamins and minerals, good for us…
I agree food manufactures and restaurants should use natural ingredients and fewer ingredients to deliever the best food for us. However, if you don’t know anything about the good ingredients and their functions, just read a paragraph online, and make a blog about how harmful they are, you are misleading!
Do you have any degree in science, chemistry, biology, or nutrition? Do you cite any widely accepted scientific literature to back your points up?
THANK YOU. As a fellow food scientist and student pursuing a graduate degree in nutrition, I commend you for bringing up this point. There is a lot of information lacking from this article, pointing out only the ‘negative’ things and leaving out important details. Cellulose may be a wood pulp, yes, but it is also an undigestible fiber in many vegetables.
There is a LOT of science behind food, how it works outside & inside the body, that should be studied and understood before promoting information to the general public. This is how we end up with many misinformed people in anything with some sort of scientific basis. It is beyond frustrating for anyone with formal education in this area.
anne ~ if you are a food scientist then it shouldn’t come as any surprise to you that more & more people are becoming allergic to gluten, preservatives, flavor enhancers and other additives {“natural flavoring”}. in the past couple of years, my sister, 1/2 a dozen of my friends, and me myself have all become intolerant to these ingredients that are supposedly scientifically proven to be safe for humans to consume {at least by united states standards}. i don’t need a scientific study to tell me that isn’t true, because i live it every day. but, it would be wonderful if food scientists {maybe even YOU or your colleagues} would conduct studies to prove what i’m experiencing is real to all the nay-sayers and doubters who aren’t experiencing it for themselves {yet}. but, then again, maybe you can’t get funding for such research because it might topple the u.s. food industry on its head & the big corp’s that run the food industry can’t afford for that to happen??
“more & more people are becoming allergic to gluten, preservatives, flavor enhancers and other additives {“natural flavoring”}. in the past couple of years”
Funny how the SAME PEOPLE who originally said that there might be such a thing as non-celiac gluten intolerance just recently came out with a study saying that they were WRONG.
But hey, pretend you know science. That’s okay.
You can make your own pizza at home, better than pizzeria quality and see the ingredients before you buy. Gebardi Chicago Pizza Crust Mixes and Gebardi Chicago Pizza Sauces…including delicious Gluten-Free options. Easy-to-follow instructions on the packet, as well as how-to videos on the website. http://www.gebardifoods.com
THANKS FOODBABE!
You have nailed it about MSG, its derivatives and other chemicals. Which is strictly a flavor enhancer to make a person, as you have indicated, eat more. I have written to Dr. Oz and the Doctors trying to get this very message out. My wife nearly died from MSG poisoning. Her Doctor confirmed this. I will say 95% of the people in America do not understand the ramifications of chemical poisoning by processed food. Why is America obese? Because of, in my opinion, chemicals of all types in our food supply.
I might add that nitrites and nitrates are used to ‘quick meats and certain processed foods. Days instead of months. Liquid smoke used by jerked meat processors and the like for the flavor is a deadly product. Case in point: I purchased some 44 gallon barrels from Oberto for the use as rain water storage. Mistake! This stuff would not wash out of the barrel. I asked an employee what happens if the liquid is spilled in the plant. He stated the liquid could not be cleaned up. It wore off like a tar base. There was some water with liquid smoke in the barrels when I checked so, I dumped the water around the edge of the lawn. Within a day the grass died and did come back for several years. I ultimately disposed the barrels.
You and your staff are amazing! Thanks a bunch!
Please add the ZPizza and Pizza Fusion chains to this study.
Also, please create a website listing all the ingredients and not just what you are mentioning here. It would be helpful to so many people in so many ways.
Thank you.
Once again, it’s so much better just to make your own food. That way, you have full control over what you eat.
Great article and great work, Vani.
I do have one criticism regarding your research. The uproar over cellulose is unwarranted. Anybody who has had basic biology knows that cellulose is one of the components of the cell wall in every green plant. Unless you plan to avoid all vegetables and fruits, then you ingest cellulose every single day. The human body doesn’t digest it so it ends up as waste, which albeit a bit TMI, is why corn always looks the same coming out as it did going in.
Thanks Foodbabe, you so rock in getting this info out to people who want to make good choices. It really is not rocket science, there is a reason so many people are always sick in this country. The human body is designed to heal itself but If you eat chemicals and crap you will get sick… you put good clean food in and you have a well tuned running body….DAAA!!! Keep up your great work girl!
Thats why I always get costco pizza. Its half the price of all the rest and so much better…. made with REAL ingredients. If you go to a costco and ask them for the ingredients AND nutrition facts… guess what they will give thwm to you no questions asked.
It makes me wonder why the FDA watch dogs don’t do their jobs protecting the consumers. Sure glad I never eat that garbage, and thanks for the valuable info Vani
Not surprised at all, but I have never tried any of these chains. I never read labels…just had reactions from the time I was a child, so I let go of all fast foods & the obvious processed, canned ingredients. Now at 60 I eat and eat well although there seems to be a wave of more and more substances being added to my regular ‘go to’ foods. So Sad.
What do people actually eat that allow all of this crap to be added? Where to they live? Do they have children? Grandchildren, pets or any morality???
I really- really don’t understand.
I appreciated the factual points made, but I didn’t like wading through the emotionally charged language and general drama. I found it hard to wade through the preamble, but I’m glad I did.
Thanks for insight!
MSG monosodium glutamate is a FLAVOR INHIBITOR. It is perhaps the only food ingredient out of the thousands that exist that DOES NOTHING to the food.
Its ENTIRE FUNCTION IS TO SUPPRESS THE TASTE BUDS in our tongues that identify bitter and sour, thereby highlighting the flavors of sweet and salty. It’s bottom line function is to increase profits by extending shelf life and controlling the taste to cover up off flavors when using cheaper products in processed foods. There has been plenty of scientific evidence provided at FDA hearings… and available in medical research regarding its neurotoxic affects on human wellness. One needs only to look at who were the 1994 committee members and what were their backgrounds and where did their funding originate from to determine why their 6 VOTES determined that MSG and its variants could remain in food products for the 300,000,000 USA consumers. The Issue is in LABEL TRANSPARENCY so we can make our own decisions as to what we want to put into our bodies and, especially, what we provide our children and loved ones .. . Great Article, Vani .. Keep translating those labels and highlighting the choices available to those who want to know .. ..
I can not have any MSG or anything like it. I spend my time in the bathroom before I even leave the restaurant that has used it. I knew that some restaurants and Fast Food restaurants were using it under a different name. Thank you for providing this information. While it is true that many people are unhappy when you point out something that is bad for them or for their health, this is not your fault. Our food is not the food that our grandparents ate. There are far more additives and the wheat grain of their time is not the wheat grain now used to make bread, crackers, etc. We get many products from other countries with poor sanitary conditions and some who are adding things that should not be in our food. Thank you for keeping us informed.
Thank you very much for your research. Now I know why I cannot eat just one slice. I remember saying many times after eating a slice of pizza, that it was so good it’s addictive. So now I know that it’s literally addictive. I recently became a vegan (to improve my health as well as save some animals) and have been to the Mellow Mushroom for their vegan pizza on occasion. So I guess I can’t honestly trust them either. My goodness! For the love of money what are these companies feeding us? It’s making us sick for the drug companies to come to our rescue…and by the way make us more sick and dependent on the drug until it’s time to be recalled, then the lawyers have their turn to profit from you being sick. No money is worth you being sick. No offense to any ones profession or people who don’t know what is happening.
I hope we can all do better. At least we are more aware and we can make our own choices once we are informed correctly. Your article is a start
Thanks again, great article!
Wow. This is absurd. You’re aware that cheese and tomatoes have the highest concentrations of NATURALLY occurring glutamate, correct? Below is a MUCH better summary on MSGs and the nonsense that uninformed people with zero science background (or access to accurate data) believe. Unreal.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/jul/10/foodanddrink.features3
I can tell you for Dominos that is not true on the sauce I have called the distributor and had every single ingredient verified! You should not publish anything until you definitely have the facts. My son is highly allergic to corn and corn bi products and they do not have any in their sauce.
So what is the pizza place to buy from out the the lot. We eat pizza alot and would really like to be directed to the best pizza to buy.
Make your own, it’s way better for you anyways 🙂
You can get Amy’s pizza!
Amy’s pizza!
Best pizza place? CHeck out Panago.com You don’t find anything fake or unnatural in there.
Z Pizza is a good choice. Organic and non-GMO. Plus is the best I have ever had.
I agree with Dave H, make your own! I use a couple slightly modified Peter Reinhart recipes for the dough and sauce.
If you can get roma tomatoes in season, great. If not, buy European canned romas like La Valle or Cento to skip the Bisphenol-A in American canned goods.
Two other tips…cold rise your dough 1 to 3 days and get a pizza stone. Most consumer ovens won’t go beyond 500 degrees but you can still make a great crust with a pizzastone in a 500 degree oven.
Oh…and don’t over do it on the toppings. You’ll have a big mess in your oven to clean up after all the juices run off the edge of the pie.
The one thing I haven’t done yet is splurge for the buffalo mozzarella.
I also suggest you find somebody to guide you through it. I probably made over 100 pies before I got my technique down to where my pizza is better than anything you can buy at a pizzeria, let alone the junky big chain processed pizza that foodbabe buys.
Supermarket frozen pizza?!?! Don’t even go there.