It’s good news for anxious footie fans - after scientists revealed pizza can reduce nervousness during a game.<br /><br />While enduring a compilation of nerve-wracking football moments, Pitch Side podcast host, Theo Baker, had his blood pressure and heartrate monitored.<br /><br />His Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) - a test which determined his emotional state - was also closely checked. <br /><br />Without pizza Theo’s levels were up and down, spiking several times - however they were consistently lower once he started to smell a pizza bubbling away in the oven.<br /><br />And his feelings of calmness were maintained once he finally got to enjoy a slice of the stuffed crust salt and pepper chicken pizza.<br /><br />Professor Oli Buckley, from the University of East Anglia, who worked on the study with the UK’s number one selling frozen pizza brand, Chicago Town, said: “Pizza and football go hand-in-hand.<br /><br />"And it seems this has a scientific reason following our experiment.<br /><br />“The study shows that from GSR, heart rate and the blood pressure measurements that reduces the physiological markers of arousal and stress.<br /><br />“Assessing Theo’s reactions in the two conditions, one without the pizza and one with pizza, showed that with the combined data that cooking and eating frozen pizza has a notable calming effect.”<br /><br />The scientific experiment follows a study of 2,000 football fans, which found 92 per cent find aspects of watching the game stressful.<br /><br />Top of the list is penalty shootouts (37 per cent), followed by waiting for the final whistle to blow when narrowly leading a game (23 per cent), and VAR decisions (22 per cent).<br /><br />They also find their side missing an ‘easy’ goal (15 per cent), giving away a goal ‘too easily’, and pushing for an equaliser or winner when it’s nearly full-time (13 per cent) challenging.<br /><br />When it comes to what’s more nervy - club football or international , 40 per cent find club the most challenging, and 19 per cent find watching their international the most trying.<br /><br />Although 34 per cent find both equally difficult.<br /><br />And the nerves tend to start during the build-up to a game for 35 per cent - especially<br />a match of some significance.<br /><br />All of which begs the question - ‘why do they put themselves through it?’ - and 31 per cent admit they ask themselves that very question.<br /><br />Theo Baker, who played in last Sunday’s Soccer Aid match at Stamford Bridge, said: “Football is, by far, the thing that brings on the most nerves for me in life.<br /><br />“So when I had the opportunity to see if getting stuck in to my favourite food could help with that in any way… I jumped at it.<br /><br />“I knew cooking a pizza at home straight away eliminates any takeout stress of not knowing what I’ll get or when, but I didn’t expect even the smell of it cooking to make such an impact.<br /><br />“‘Net’ outcome? Whack a pizza in the oven, sit back and let the guys on the pitch take care of the rest!”<br /><br />It also emerged 29 per cent admit if their team loses it put them in a bad mood ‘for days’ after the game.
