According to a survey conducted by The Harris Poll, the most popular food chosen by Americans to eat for the rest of their lives is pizza, which garnered the support of 22 percent of Americans.
Clearly, 22 percent of Americans have never had a taco.
It’s difficult to quantify the ‘goodness’ of anything— food is particularly challenging to assess. However, there are some differences between these two foods that establish the taco as supreme.
The crucial difference is variety.
Yes, pizza has different toppings, different cheeses, different sauces, but what ultimately defines a pizza is the dough. A pizza will always be a doughy, bready concoction, regardless of what you put on top. Pizzas are defined by their dough; pizza without dough is not a pizza. However, tacos are defined by what you put in them. Yes, they are wrapped in a tortilla, but the most important part of a taco is what’s inside.
The very language used to describe a taco differentiates it from a pizza. You call it a “taco de cochinita pibil” (slow-roasted pork taco), not a “taco con cochinita pibil” (which would translate to taco with slow-roasted pork). The things you put on a pizza are toppings—layers of food added on to a (dough) base.
As a result, the difference between two kinds of pizza, say, a pepperoni pizza and a Margherita pizza, is noticeable, yes, but almost negligible. A pepperoni pizza has dough, tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. A Margherita pizza has dough, tomato sauce, cheese, more tomatoes, more cheese, and basil. Even new trendy changes, like pesto pizzas or white pizzas, add a measly singular difference that fails to balance out the similarities.
Yet, the difference between two kinds of tacos is enormous. One type of fish taco has cod, sour cream, tomato salsa, cabbage, avocado, and Tapatio sauce, and is, of course, wrapped in a tortilla. A taco al pastor has shawarma-style pork (this style of taco was invented by Lebanese immigrants in Mexico), pineapple, cilantro, lemon juice, and is wrapped in a tortilla.
The point is, the difference between two tacos can be much more apparent and varied than between two pizzas; this makes tacos a better food because you can eat a different kind of taco every day and not get bored. Tacos are not limited to a given set of flavors, but rather, any flavors can be combined and recreated within a taco. The same cannot be said about a pizza—you can only go so far with a pizza, but the possibilities are endless with the versatile taco.
Tacos are not only wonderfully adaptable and diverse, but they are also a food you can enjoy without worrying too much about adverse health effects.
According to healthline.com, one slice of Pizza Hut Pepperoni Lover’s Pizza contains 460 calories, 26 grams of fat, and 900 grams of sodium, or 38 percent of your recommended daily intake. Keep in mind that these are statistics for one slice. How often do you eat just one? On the other hand, a Chipotle steak taco (which, for starters, is not the healthiest option) has 228 calories, 10 grams of fat, and 376 grams of sodium, or just 16 percent of your recommended daily intake.
I recommend the series Taco Chronicles on Netflix, which does a fantastic job of describing the important role of tacos in Mexican life and the variety of tacos eaten. A word of caution: if you’re anything like me, the series will cause intense taco craving.
And if you still aren’t convinced, consider a re-read, you must have missed something. In all seriousness, tacos indisputably outshine pizza. And sushi. And hamburgers. And hot dogs.
But that’s a topic for another time, preferably after lunch (tacos, of course).