If you have had people around you advising to stay away from pizza for health reasons, here’s one for them. According to a health study, eating pizza helps you reduce chances of cancer. Researchers have discovered that people who ate pizza at least twice a week were 59 per cent less likely to develop cancer of the oesophagus, and had 34 per cent lower risk of throat cancer and also were 26 per cent less likely to get colon cancer.

Pizza, which was always criticised for its high fat and calorie content, has now been widely accepted as a healthy food. The credit for this goes to the tomato sauce, used extensively in the preparation of the pizzas. According to Doctor Silvano Gallus, of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Milan, tomato sauce in pizza’s can help fight off tumours. He says “We knew that the tomatoes used in the sauce are considered to be a food that prevents certain tumours. However, we did not expect that pizza as a whole offered such high prevention against cancer.” The study was done on 3,315 patients with tumours of the digestive system who were compared to almost 5,000 people suffering other ailments.

Under the study, each patient had to fill in a questionnaire about their eating habits, including a question on how often they ate pizza, says a report in the International Journal of Cancer. Even though the amount they ate was not specified but the scientists concluded that regular consumption of pizza helped stave off cancer.

Tomato sauce or puree, common ingredient in a pizza, is already proven to have cancer fighting properties thanks to lycopene, an antioxidant in the skin of tomatoes which makes them red. Lycopene may inhibit or even reverse the growth of tumours. Lycopene is found in fresh tomatoes but is much more efficiently absorbed by the body when the tomatoes have been processed into foods like in the case of a pizza. A high intake of lycopene-rich vegetables is linked to lower rates of many diseases.  Lycopene in cooked tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and tomato juice has been shown to slow the growth of breast, lung, and endometrial tumors and to reduce prostate, stomach, and pancreatic cancer risk.

Pizza also contains olive oil in the dough and toppings. The monounsaturated fats in olive oil are also considered protective against cancer. Olive oil is rich in antioxidants and natural chemicals called ‘lignans’, and has been linked with lower rates of cancer of the large bowel, breast, endometrium, and prostate.

However, the preparation style and type of pizza also plays a role here. For example, Mediterranean style pizza and Italian pizza are completely different. But given its large variety of toppings and vegetables that can be consumed with a Pizza, it continues to be a delicious healthy option.