Food Study Fridays: #5 - Pizza Pops

It's almost time for the kids to go back to school. Hooray! But soon it will be time to pack school lunches. Boo!

I know that most of us parents like to give our kids a special lunch once in a while. You know, kind of a break from the boring old sandwich (or whatever is your child's everyday lunch item).

Sometimes that means participating in the hot lunch program at your child's school--if they have one. Or, sometimes that means packing something fun for your child that they can heat up in their classroom microwave--if they have one.

Well, my go-to special heat-up lunch has always been the pizza pocket. Simple, easy and enough like pizza so my daughter never gets bored with them.

But what exactly are pizza pockets made of? Let's have a look.

 

As you can see, this is a well-known brand of pizza pocket. In fact, the company calls them "Pizza Pops".

 

For this week's Food Study Friday, I've chosen the plain old "Three Cheese" variety for two reasons:

1. It's the plainest form of this particular pizza pocket. So I figure that it gives us a pretty good indication of what is in this type of product. And...
2. It just so happens to be my daughter's favorite kind of Pizza Pop.

So let's start by looking at the nutritional facts label (NFL):

 

As you can see, this product delivers 260 calories for each pizza pocket eaten. It contains a fair amount of saturated and trans fat, along with an okay amount of protein (8 grams). But each is also very high in sodium (510 mg) or a whopping 21% of the daily recommended value! And I'm wondering something about this:

Is the daily recommended amount of sodium in this product meant to be the daily recommended amount for adults or children?

I assume this is the daily recommended amount for adults, so if a child is eating one of these for lunch, the amount of sodium in this product could easily be higher than 21% of their daily recommended amount.

Okay, let's see what's really in these Pizza Pops. Let's look closely at the ingredients list:

 

Holy moly, that's a long list! I won't list all of the ingredients again, but let me highlight a few things:

Sodium Phosphate and Sodium Aluminum Phosphate

Both these show up multiple times in the ingredients listing.

Sodium phosphate is often used in baked goods as a leavening agent. In other words, it makes dough rise. So its inclusion here kind of makes sense. As does sodium aluminum phosphate, which is also used to make dough rise, except...

Except that sodium aluminum phosphate, being an aluminum salt, contributes to the excesssive accumulation of aluminum in the body. This has been linked with all kinds of cognitive function problems.

In other words, the aluminum in the sodium aluminum phosphate could make it harder for your child to think straight. Awesome!

Sodium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate

Otherwise known as SSL, this product is something of a miracle of modern food science in that it can be used as an emulsifier, foaming agent, dough strengthener, and a fat and sugar replacer.

Not to mention, SSL's number one role as a shelf-life enhancer, keeping baked goods from going bad in storage. Which you wouldn't think is super-necessary for this product. It's typically stored in the freezer, not on a shelf.

Methylcellulose

Used as a thickening stabilizer and emulsifier, methylcellulose can be extracted from plant stocks--even wood. So basically it's straw, wood chips or sawdust. Yummy!

Potassium Sorbate 

This is a commonly used food preservative. Again, why do they need this when the product is stored in the freezer?

Natural Flavor

As I've said many times, there is no such thing as the ingredient "natural flavor". Its inclusion here means that it is a flavoring agent that can only be ordered and used by the food manufacturers, so it is actually artificial.

And there are even a couple excitotoxins in these Pizza Pops too, namely:

• Glutamic acid
• Autolyzed yeast extract

If you've been reading my Food Study Friday posts,you know that excitotoxins have the effect of exciting certain brain cells to death.

So, all in all, not a very healthy lunch for kids. Or for grown-ups either.

But I have a suggestion:

Why not whip up a batch of your very own pizza pockets? I found a great recipe for Whole Wheat Veggie Calzones that could be made up, baked, stored and packed for lunches. And the best part: They can be eaten either hot or cold.

A much healthier alternative to "Pizza Pops" that the whole family can enjoy.