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Issue No. 016 · Pizza
Pizza goes on trial and walks free
I put two slices on my monitor. Then I ate the same two slices a smarter way.
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I ate the whole thing. Two thick slices of pepperoni pizza, the kind that folds in half and leaves a shine on the paper plate. My monitor was on my arm and my dinner was on my lap.
Years ago a doctor told me pizza was finished for me. It was off the list forever, with no discussion.
So I went and got the number myself.
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+64
Point rise from two slices
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Two slices, thick crust, nothing before them
My rise above my starting number, one weeknight dinner, my own monitor.
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One person, one sensor, one meal. Your numbers may differ. Shared for education, not as medical advice.
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That rise came out of the crust, mostly. Two thick slices carry something like 60 to 80 grams of carbs, and white flour turns to sugar fast once it reaches your gut. Published tables put the glycemic index of pizza somewhere between 60 and 80, and the crust decides where you land. Thin crust sits lower. Stuffed crust sits at the top of that range.
But the cheese changed the shape of the whole thing. Fat and protein slow how fast your stomach empties, so the sugar from that crust shows up late instead of all at once. In other words, pizza can hit you twice. First inside the hour... then again two to four hours later, long after you have put the box in the trash. That late rise is why so many people wake up wrecked after pizza night and blame themselves instead of the crust.
My doctor never mentioned any of this. She had ninety seconds, a pad, and one word for me... no. Meanwhile the research kept stacking up on the other side of that word, in food-order studies nobody ever handed me. So I ran the test again one week later, same pizza place, same two slices, with one bowl of greens in front of it. I cannot promise your body moves the way mine did, because bodies differ and one sensor is not a study. But the direction of this hack shows up in trial after trial.
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Meanwhile... The Hack
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Pizza alone
Salad first, then the same pizza
Same pizza, one week apart. The second night I ate a bowl of raw greens with oil and vinegar, waited about ten minutes, then ate the slices.
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🍕
Pizza, no salad
+64
Point rise
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36%
Lower rise
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🥗
Salad first
+41
Point rise
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⚡ Your mission this week
Salad first, pizza second
⏱ 10 minutes
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Order the side salad with the pizza
Any raw greens count. A bagged salad from the store counts. Ask for oil and vinegar on the side and pour it on yourself.
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Finish the greens before the first slice
Give it about ten minutes while the pizza cools. The fiber gets to your gut first and slows down what comes after it.
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Take a slow walk after the last slice
Ten easy minutes around the block gives your muscles somewhere to put the sugar, and it may soften the late rise that pizza brings.
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🎯 Your first win
One salad in front of one pizza. That is the whole mission, and it still counts if you eat four slices after it.
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Where this comes from: The International Tables of Glycemic Index list pizza between about 60 and 80 depending on crust and toppings, and clinical work on high-fat meals shows the fat in cheese slows gastric emptying, which is why the rise can arrive late. In a crossover study of adults with type 2 diabetes (Shukla and colleagues), eating vegetables and protein before the carbs lowered post-meal glucose by roughly 29% at 30 minutes and 37% at 60 minutes. Later food-order trials in prediabetes and in gestational diabetes point the same way. Any single meal may respond differently in your body. |
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You never had to give up the pizza.
You had to change the order.
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★ Welcome to the revolution
Jackie
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