The American Medical Association has published an article in their journal that calls for a “fat tax” to be added to pizza as well as soda and other foods that are supposedly bad for you. This despite the glaring evidence that says that, well, not only wouldn't it do any good, but it would be highly misplaced.

Pizza, when made correctly, is an almost complete source of nutrition. A superfood, as it were. It's got all the basic food groups included in the mix and is only fattening if you eat the cardboard crusted, crappy variety. Real pizza, however, is one of the healthiest foods you can eat.

Secondly, the assertion by the AMA that adding a sort of sin tax to pizza and soda and so forth will somehow stop their consumption is ludicrous. First off, did you know that the largest receiver of farm subsidies are those growing corn and wheat? In fact, more than half of all farm subsidies paid out by the federal government every year are for corn (which is the #1 sweetener in the country, by way of high-fructose corn syrup, the primary ingredient in soda after water), for wheat (the primary ingredient in pizza crust), and for soybeans (an ingredient in almost everything). So the AMA is proposing that we tax something that is current subsidized by... taxes. Seem a little circular to you?

Let's analyze a slice of pizza and consider what the American Medical Ass(es) did not: the highly nutritional content of the average slice of pizza.

For this, let's look at two slices, one (my favorite) cheese pizza and the other a fully-loaded “supreme” pie with everything on it.

The cheese pizza has bread, cheese (milk), and tomato sauce (vegetables and herbs). That's a lot of protein, calcium, vitamin C, wheat, and more. Add in something good to drink like filtered water, quality beer, wine, etc. and you've got a lot of nutrients going on. Wine is even recommended by the AMA to reduce the risk of heart attack. For what that's worth.

Now for the big slice. The supreme pie has literally every food group on it. There's the aforementioned bread, cheese, and tomato sauce plus a lot of other vegetables, meats, and possibly even fish. The best supreme pizzas will have either sun dried tomatoes or lightly-baked tomatoes added to the top for bonus taste and nutrients and none are deep fried or otherwise fatteningly-processed. Unlike, say, the common ingredients in most fast food.

If all you want to do is calorie-count, though, then pizza still comes out on top. The average, plain slice of my favorite, according to CalorieKing, is only 300 calories. Compare that to any other fast-food burger offering and you've got a 200+ calorie winner. Throw on the extras and the slice is still underneath the average value meal at the local McCrappies.

So why is the AMA targeting pizza? Bias, I think. Most doctors spent eight years (or more) in college to get their medical degrees plus another couple of years working long hours as interns. Neither of these are situations where nutrition is, to say the least, well thought out.

College kids eat a lot of garbage pizza (you know, the blue and the red boxes) and I doubt medical interns are much better with their own habits after a 12 hour shift. So I would hazard that these AMA types definitely haven't spent any time at Tucci's or one of the other fine establishments we've reviewed here at WorstPizza.