Go ahead, give your kids pizza. Just maybe not so much of it.
A new study found that American children take in more calories, fat and salt on days that they eat pizza. That's not necessarily because it's worse than a burger or a side of fries. It has a lot to do with the way pizza lends itself to snacking and overindulging.
When pizza was on the menu, kids aged between 2 and 11 consumed 84 more calories and 134 more milligrams of sodium than on days they didn't eat the food, while teens took in an extra 230 calories and 484 milligrams of sodium, according to the research published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Children of all ages also consumed more saturated fat.