The Scientific Reason Why Pineapples Belong on Pizza

Before land and time—before dinosaurs roamed the Earth—there has been the contentious debate over whether pineapples belong on pizza. Okay, maybe not contentious debate, but it has been proven by simple biology. There is, in fact, some scientific backing as to why pineapples belong on pizza.

Taste is broken down into five flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and savory/umami. Our bodies naturally crave sugar because, in earlier times when we were foragers, it provided a source of energy when finding in fruits and other foods with natural sugar levels. This, compared with the sodium found in tomato sauce, can result in a glorious salty and sweet combination.

Your taste buds can taste multiple flavors at once through layers. These layers can occur quite frequently when eating foods, especially with salty and sweet combos. Classic combinations such as chocolate-dipped pretzels, PB&J sandwiches, and salted-caramel are a few examples. Pineapples on pizza are just another one of these things.

Barb Stuckey, author of TASTE: Surprising Stories and Science About Why Food Tastes Good wrote:

“We like sweet because it signals calories, or energy, to us. And we like salt because we need it for normal bodily function. We have no sodium storage system, as we do with other minerals (i.e. we store calcium in our bones), so Mother Nature’s solution is a built-in craving for it. The combination of these two positive biological responses is VERY pleasurable.”

In general, pineapples are good for you and paired with the regret of consuming pizza, perhaps it’ll balance things out? Pineapple contains vitamin C and manganese, both of which are beneficial to your health. Manganese serves as an antioxidant while vitamin C helps the immune system.

They also contain vitamin B2, which helps with energy and reaction times. Maybe you like pineapples by themselves and not on pizza; however, sneaking it into your diet in small ways could truly benefit your health.

Science proves that you should stop hating on pineapples-on-pizza lovers. They’re doing it right after all, according to basic biology. They just work together, and if you don’t think so, just know you’re going against the facts.

Maybe at the least, just quit dragging out, “Ewwwwww,” when you see people chowing down on pineapple pizza, or shutting down their suggestions for what toppings to put on the group pizza. For those of you who are doing it right, next time your friends rag on you for your decisions, just let them know that your preference is backed by ~science.~

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