It's the junk food junkie's wildest dream come true -- pizza as health food.

University of Maryland food chemists said on Monday they had found ways to enhance the antioxidant content of whole-grain wheat pizza dough by baking it longer at higher temperatures and giving the dough lots of time to rise.

Antioxidants are substances that protect cells from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Some experts believe antioxidants can lower the risk of cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

Lucy Yu, a food chemistry professor, said the findings arose from broader research into ways to improve health-promoting properties of wheat-based food products.

"The reason that we chose pizza is just because it is a very popular food product, not only in the U.S. but worldwide," researcher Jeffrey Moore added.

"So we thought if we could find ways to improve (its antioxidant) properties, doing this for such a product could have a larger impact on public health," Moore added.

But Moore had a slice of advice for pizza aficionados who might want to cover theircrustwith mounds of fatty toppings like extra cheese, pepperoni, sausage and ground beef.

"If you're adding back all these other things that have potential negative health consequences, then you're negating anything that you're adding in terms of (health) value," Moore said.

The research wasserved upat a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago, a mecca for thick-crust pizza.

“垃圾食品”狂熱者們最美妙的夢想實現了--比薩被認定為健康食品。

馬里蘭大學的食品化學專家們于本周一公布，他們已發現提高全麥比薩生面團中抗氧化物含量的方法，即用更高的溫度烘烤、延長烘烤時間及生面團發面的時間。

抗氧化物是一種能夠保護體內細胞免受不穩定粒子自由基破壞的物質。一些專家認為，抗氧化物能夠降低患癌癥、心臟病等疾病的風險。

食品化學教授Lucy Yu說，這些發現源自一項范圍更廣的、有關如何提高全麥食品中所含有益健康成分的研究。

研究員杰弗里·摩爾說："我們之所以選擇比薩作為研究對象，主要是因為比薩是一種十分流行的食品，不僅在美國如此，在世界各地都很流行。"

他說："所以我們想，如果能找到提高比薩中所含抗氧化物的方法，那么為這樣一種食品做研究將能對大眾健康產生更大的影響。"

但摩爾對那些想在比薩外殼上加很多如奶酪、辣味香腸、臘腸或牛肉粒等澆頭的比薩愛好者們提了一條建議。

摩爾說：“如果你把那些不利于健康的東西又都給加了回去，那之前加進來的有益物質都起不到作用了。”

這項研究在美國化學研究學會在“厚皮比薩之鄉”芝加哥召開的一個會議上公布。

Vocabulary:     
crust : the hard outer portion or surface area of bread（面包外殼）
serve up: 提出；提供；端出（菜肴）