Gourmet Pizza - Comfort Food For the Naughties

Pizza was big in the Eighties and Nineties. It became a very popular take away food when Dominos started delivering pizza with the big phone piece on the roof of their cars. It may have been a growing and ever popular take away food of those decades -- but when it comes to the Naughties (2000's), you cannot beat a good gourmet Pizza!

Economic Downturn Pizza

Economic indicators cannot be ignored. Across the world, especially in Australia, pizza is a true comfort to us all, even (maybe especially) in our times of need. When the economic downturn came along, world industries suffered whilst the fast food industry flourished! Take away pizza especially took off and now we seem to be comfort eating ourselves out of the recession.

Where We Turn For A Feel Good Fix

When the economy starts to turn, there are always those industries that keep looking up. The pizza and pizza delivery industry is one of them. While expensive luxuries have started to flounder and Australian's cut back overall, the pizza industry has fared quite well according to an article published in March in the Sydney Morning Herald. Considered an "affordable pleasure", Aussie's turn to their favorite comfort food in these tough economic times more and more -- and pizza is one of our last affordable small pleasures. By January of last year, takeaway foods were up in sales by more than 11% over the previous year, and by the halfway mark Domino's reported an actual increase in pizza sales of almost 3%. In fact, Domino's was hiring while others were firing, just to fill the need for pizza delivery people.

What To Have With Your Gourmet Pizza

And what do we like with our gourmet pizza? But of course, a good, cold beer. The brewing industry has grown right alongside the pizza delivery scene, boasting increased profits of over 2% per quarter, and over a $411 million half-year profit for The Foster's Group, which holds an estimated 52% of the market share for beer in Australia.

When The Times Are Tough

When times are tough, the tough keep going, as these statistics easily show. It doesn't matter if you have cut back on your budget. A few less nights out on the town won't make a difference. You still have the comfort of good food, good friends, and a relaxing beer or wine at home. It seems to me that some foods will always be popular -- and the good old gourmet pizza is one of the strong contenders to hang around for a very long time!

Sean Rasmussen is an Aussie internet marketer and blogger who specializes on ranking webpages #1 on Google. His latest project includes a "For Fun" website called Melbourne Pizza Delivery. Many of Sean's students are fans of his pizza websites FaceBook FanPage.

Comfort Food, the Diet Killer

Have you ever wondered why some foods are so hard to resist? It isn't just the taste. Some comfort foods are only a little bit better than other foods and some really aren't as good. Yet we crave them.

Recently my husband and I cut out white foods from our diet. We lost weight, as planned. But both of us just had to have some bread; white bread, with butter, and peanut butter. We were getting cranky and short with each other. Honestly white bread is hardly gourmet food. Why did we both feel such a draw to it?

After a few days enjoying my bread, I returned to the white food free diet. I ate greens, tomatoes, onions, protein from meat and eggs and beans for starches, a good set of supplements for any missing nutrients. I was well fed on this diet. Yet when trouble hit (my dog got sick) I had to have cake. It is called comfort food for a reason. I hadn't noticed this before. I always thought it was just "a sweet tooth." But when I ate the cake, my mood lifted from rock bottom to where I was functioning again. What was happening?

I did a little bit of research and discovered that some foods, like bananas and turkey help you to create a chemical called serotonin. Serotonin is sometimes called "the happiness hormone" (even though it is not technically a hormone). Turkey is not usually considered a comfort food. Bananas, though I love them have never altered my mood. Cake does. There is more to this puzzle.

I am not a chemist. I have not understood a lot of what I have read about serotonin. I do not really need to know all the chemical reactions that are happening inside my body, just the net result. It appears that while some foods help to create serotonin, it is other foods that trigger its release; a carbohydrate load. A carbohydrate load would be sugar and anything our bodies convert to sugar which includes: white bread, cake, candy, and haven't we all been tempted by a tub of ice cream?

Now here is what really causes the trouble. These foods elevate our mood. This is a good thing. But as my grandmother and mother always said, "Everything in moderation." We need some serotonin, but when we have too much of these foods we get out of balance. It is like being hooked on drugs. You just have to have it. Now all that sugar (bread and pasta are treated like sugar in your body), all that sugar in your system has to be dealt with. Insulin comes to the rescue and gets it out of your blood stream by burning some, storing some, eliminating some and by turning some into fat. FAT. Now it begins. You soon have two pressing problems to deal with. Very quickly your mood is dropping again and your blood sugar is crashing. The quickest and easiest way to get some relief is more bread, cake, a donut or 2, pasta helps too. It becomes a cycle that can spin out of control.

Most of us have faced this problem. How do we stick to a healthy balanced diet when all you want to eat is ____ (fill in the blank with your comfort food, mine is cake followed closely by bread). We need serotonin. We don't need comfort food, or rather the fat that is the result of eating comfort food. What can we do?

A little more research and I found out that there are other things that can increase your serotonin levels. Ways that increase it in a more controlled way. Methods that don't involve food that hurt you in the long run. Here is a short list:

- meditation

- a warm shower

- a little sun

- exercise.

Notice that last one. I have heard so many reasons to exercise if you need to lose weight. The increased muscle will burn more fat. You can have fat burning while you exercise. There is fat burning after exercise (after burn). Now I find out that exercise will release serotonin.

So I will put down that donut, pick up my walking stick and hike down to the lake. This should help me stick to the healthy foods, provide some much needed exercise, and sun shine always brightens my mood. It's a win, win, win. Can't get much better than that.

The author has a blog devoted to healthy aging, particularly for "baby-boomers". She researches and reports on simple, easy, exercises, nutrition, and weight loss strategies. Visit the blog, leave a comment. Even offer an opposing opinion if you like. The site was set up to encourage thought and discussion on a topic we all have to deal with one way or another. Making the next 50 years as good or better than what has gone before.

http://inshapeafter50.com

Restaurant-Pizzeria-Pizza as a much loved Comfort food?

I always did believe, ever since I was a kid, that pizza is a comfort food. I think it's because whenever you feel sad or when we need to perk on our evening, my mom always tell "her night pizza!" And instantly, our faces light up and I and my brethren, would immediately jump for joy! There is something in the tone of my mom; s voice whenever she says night pizza that made us feel so excited. Even though it was the same over and over again, we never seem to lose our appetite. I think it's because pizza really is considered a comfort food; with its oozing mozzarella cheese and delicious fillings, who can deny this truth?

But as I grew up, my perception of pizza changed, especially when I went to work in the city where pizza delivery is not the only way to enjoy. I remembered my childhood; We only ate our pizza at home. However, my experience of this food grew wider when I arrived in best places to eat pizza. It is so amazing how my simple pizza experience has been transformed into something more stylish. Pizza restaurants in town offer all types of pizza topping fantasy! I didn't know that it could be prepared and gourmet style until my husband, who was then still my boyfriend, brought me to a fancy pizza restaurant famous.

My whole concept of pizza changed; from a simple comfort food for a delicious gourmet food. Imagine, no matter how much we were introduced to this wonderful creation of connoisseurs of food, one thing will never change, it will always be a comfort food. I think it's because its flavor is bursting with lots of texture and taste blend. From the harshness of the tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, strong taste, at the base of the bland and tasteless crust and spicy, jalapeno pepper, Italian sausage; you name it! All of these mixtures of flavors make it so appealing and satisfying to the palette ... ultimately, warming your heart.

We all agree that at some point we crave this extraordinary delicacy. No matter how you want to have, either by delivery pizza or enjoy it in a restaurant-pizzeria fantasia, we experience a kind of joy from the inside. Perhaps this is the reason why it is a favorite family treatment. My kids enjoy pizza nights whenever they win a ball game or do well in school. And you definitely feel a reward coming up with this deal. And the trick works! They do well next time take their evidence or join a game of ball. I think they are eager to have done night pizza again. Is the entire experience of good food, relaxed family bonding and fun memories.

So the next time you want to be comforted and you can't pin point what your tastes buds are trying, order a pizza. Might just be the answer to your desire!

Dominie Pelletier is an Italian restaurateur whose main goal is gourmet pizza. This business has been since he was a child, because he used to help his parents run their restaurant. This influenced his desire to become a gourmand and ran their business when his parents decided to withdraw. For more information about gourmet pizza and his secret, please go to [http://www.pizzaottawa.org/]. Food and service at its best!