Pizza legally now a vegetable, thank you Congress!

dcain2

Stupidity running rampant.....is what this is!!

fit4mom

....is that this is!!

What?

fakeplastictree

Mmmm. Pizza. ::drool::

leethecuz

I didn't know the ninja turtles were members of congress

caseyp1122

Gotta love the food lobbyists and the control they have over our government.

fit4mom

I didn't know the ninja turtles were members of congress
[/quote
SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!

SaddyPants

I didn't know the ninja turtles were members of congress

Winner!

Laces_0ut

for everyone saying we should teach our kids to eat right you are missing one important things. most parents are idiots.

i guess we should do away with child seatbelt laws too right? dont want the government telling us what's good for us.

i just dont think its a big deal to have only healthy options at our schools.

fit4mom

BTW did anyone ever consider that maybe there was something attached to the new health bill that could be bad for us. That is how most bills get passed. They get tucked in for a nice comfy ride to be an undeclared bill. Sneaky isn't it.

tuffytuffy1

So, does that make it FREE on the new Weight Watchers Point system?

LMAO, on the Points Plus system, maybe, but not the old points system:laugh:

woou

I want pizza. Can't eat it. :sad:

tigersword

All this blathering about government regulations on school lunch, what's next, government regulations on office cafeterias, too? Adults are obese, too, and since it's obviously too much trouble to teach kids to choose healthier alternatives, I guess adults should be forced into what to eat as well, right? Where would it end? After that we could get government regulations on what you can and cannot grow and eat yourself, we all know there could be pathogens in homegrown food, we might need a regulation protecting you from eating it and getting sick. :huh:

The whole, pizza sauce counts as a vegetable is irrelevant and pointless to argue about. Tomato sauce is mostly tomatoes, tomatoes are a vegetable (technically a fruit, but legally a vegetable,) so why wouldn't tomato sauce count as a serving of vegetables? If I take a few tomatoes, and crush them up, mix them with some herbs, flavors, a bit of sugar, and nutmeg, does it suddenly stop becoming a vegetable?:huh:

Laces_0ut

All this blathering about government regulations on school lunch, what's next, government regulations on office cafeterias, too? Adults are obese, too, and since it's obviously too much trouble to teach kids to choose healthier alternatives, I guess adults should be forced into what to eat as well, right? Where would it end? After that we could get government regulations on what you can and cannot grow and eat yourself, we all know there could be pathogens in homegrown food, we might need a regulation protecting you from eating it and getting sick. :huh:

The whole, pizza sauce counts as a vegetable is irrelevant and pointless to argue about. Tomato sauce is mostly tomatoes, tomatoes are a vegetable (technically a fruit, but legally a vegetable,) so why wouldn't tomato sauce count as a serving of vegetables? If I take a few tomatoes, and crush them up, mix them with some herbs, flavors, a bit of sugar, and nutmeg, does it suddenly stop becoming a vegetable?:huh:

let adults do whatever the heck they want to do. but lets at least try to give kids a fighting chance and not be fat by the time they are 18. like i said most parents are idiots and thats why we need laws to protect kids. like seatbelts. if it wasnt a law many parents would never buckle their kids up.

Hellbent_Heidi

let adults do whatever the heck they want to do. but lets at least try to give kids a fighting chance and not be fat by the time they are 18. like i said most parents are idiots and thats why we need laws to protect kids. like seatbelts. if it wasnt a law many parents would never buckle their kids up.

You clearly don't drive near any inner-city areas, right? I see kids without car seats or seat belts on in the Detroit area almost daily.

bcattoes

All this blathering about government regulations on school lunch, what's next, government regulations on office cafeterias, too? Adults are obese, too, and since it's obviously too much trouble to teach kids to choose healthier alternatives, I guess adults should be forced into what to eat as well, right? Where would it end? After that we could get government regulations on what you can and cannot grow and eat yourself, we all know there could be pathogens in homegrown food, we might need a regulation protecting you from eating it and getting sick. :huh:

The whole, pizza sauce counts as a vegetable is irrelevant and pointless to argue about. Tomato sauce is mostly tomatoes, tomatoes are a vegetable (technically a fruit, but legally a vegetable,) so why wouldn't tomato sauce count as a serving of vegetables? If I take a few tomatoes, and crush them up, mix them with some herbs, flavors, a bit of sugar, and nutmeg, does it suddenly stop becoming a vegetable?:huh:

The govt already has regulations for school lunches because tax dollars are used to fund it. The "blathering" is about a proposal to better those regulations (make them healthier).

The tomato sauce argument is not over whether it should be considered a vegetable. It already is where school lunches are concerned. The arguments is whether there should be a minimum amount of it to be considered a "serving" of vegetables.

Laces_0ut

let adults do whatever the heck they want to do. but lets at least try to give kids a fighting chance and not be fat by the time they are 18. like i said most parents are idiots and thats why we need laws to protect kids. like seatbelts. if it wasnt a law many parents would never buckle their kids up.

You clearly don't drive near any inner-city areas, right? I see kids without car seats or seat belts on in the Detroit area almost daily.

maybe i should have said many "more"? maybe Detroit is short on police?

fit4mom

let adults do whatever the heck they want to do. but lets at least try to give kids a fighting chance and not be fat by the time they are 18. like i said most parents are idiots and thats why we need laws to protect kids. like seatbelts. if it wasnt a law many parents would never buckle their kids up.

You clearly don't drive near any inner-city areas, right? I see kids without car seats or seat belts on in the Detroit area almost daily.

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sunkisses

Actually, it sounds like "the government" had been taking steps to reduce the poor health choices of the food being served, but...

"Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said the changes would "prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and to provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals."

BUT it sounds like the school districts are acting on keeping students from being hungry, not keeping them nourished.

"School districts had said some of the USDA requirements went too far and cost too much when budgets are extremely tight. Schools have long taken broad instructions from the government on what they can serve in federally subsidized meals that are served free or at reduced price to low-income children. But some schools have balked at government attempts to tell them exactly what foods they can't serve."

The part of "the government" that wants to reduce spending through elimination or reduction of social programs in the US is in agreement with school districts that are focused on not having to lay off thousands of teachers and administrative staff. The idealistic part of "the government" wants to make kids healthier.

The part about making tomato paste a vegetable just sounds foolish. Sometimes I think this country is so embroiled in its own bureaucracy that it can't see beyond its own nose.

I think you and I could have a lot to talk about. So to sum up in layman's terms, the government (and specifically state and local governments) has reduced school budgets so much that the school are having trouble providing food for free/reduced lunch students under the current requirements, so the government is changing what can be considered a veg to allow the school disctricts to continue providing free/reduced lunch.

Yup. That's right.

victoriaftw

tomato paste IS technically a vegetable.... just pureed and sometimes filled with addatives (depending upon who is making the paste).... but pizza as a whole? no way! :laugh:

Momma24

Ok, pizza as a vegetable is a bit ridiculous, but this whole thing started because pizza was going to be banned due to the new USDA guidelines. I personally don't feel the government should have anything to do with telling people what they can and can't eat....(yes they should still make sure it is safe to eat). If you don't want your kids eating pizza at lunch send them with something else or teach them to make smart choices.....I'm assuming pizza wouldn't ever be the only option.

Exactly!

Coyla

I promise you that school lunches are not responsible for the growing obesity epidemic among children. There are a lot of people--probably on MFP--that grew up eating school lunches and are healthy, fit adults.

It's not the government's responsibility to protect our children from bad food choices, or anyone's children, for that matter. That's up to the parents. And if that means a kid down the street ends up obese, okay. He will deal with that, like the kid with bad eyesight will deal with that. It's impossible to make every kid's life easy.

Purpleflipflops

Nah,
I can see where they'd be... I mean, I always count a slice of veggie pizza as a serving of veggies, and frankly, a nice, homemade pizza with fresh dough, a lot of sauce, an actual serving of shredded mozzy is not terrible. It's the " "-lovers pizza's in every fast food pizza chain that are ruining it!

Hellbent_Heidi

You clearly don't drive near any inner-city areas, right? I see kids without car seats or seat belts on in the Detroit area almost daily.

maybe i should have said many "more"? maybe Detroit is short on police?

Detroit is short on a LOT of things, and yes police are one of them, but I doubt its the only place these things happen. Just to clarify, I don't believe its acceptable for the schools to be serving a bunch of crap every day either, but I guess what's sad is that so many of the people who brought these kids into the world in the first place, aren't doing anything to teach them the right things about nutrition, or giving them good healthy food options. A lot of kids will never make the choice of veggies or lean proteins over pizza (and neither do a lot of their parents). Its a very sad situation!

I have to wonder how many kids would even eat the healthy choice if it was the only option provided at schools? I wasn't an overweight kid, but was very, very picky, and I definitely would have gone hungry vs. eating something I didn't like when I was a kid in school.

Momma24

I promise you that school lunches are not responsible for the growing obesity epidemic among children. There are a lot of people--probably on MFP--that grew up eating school lunches and are healthy, fit adults.

It's not the government's responsibility to protect our children from bad food choices, or anyone's children, for that matter. That's up to the parents. And if that means a kid down the street ends up obese, okay. He will deal with that, like the kid with bad eyesight will deal with that. It's impossible to make every kid's life easy.

That is so right

LilMissFoodie

To be fair, it's the tomato paste they're counting as a vegetable, not pizza. It's literally in the third paragraph of the article you linked to ("The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable...").

The article had a poor title, since it doesn't reflect what the bill actually stated...and so does this post.

Right, but the legal loophole means pizza gets counted as a vegetable for the quota, because of the inclusion of tomato paste.

By that logic, you could include banana splits because they have a fruit.

I say yes. Again, they are saying the tomato paste is a serve of vegetables not the pizza. It would be different if they were therefore concluding that pizza should make up the main part of your diet rather than vegetables. If I were to cook up some broccoli and serve it with some stirfried chicken breast in a sauce would you not allow me to call it a serve of vegetables?

gg24

However, the amount of tomato paste used on a slice of pizza does not qualify as a whole vegetable serving. So that is where the pizza comes in as a vegetable. They are just fudging the numbers and saying that a whole slice of pizza does qualify as a vegetable serving even though it doesn't.

To be fair, it's the tomato paste they're counting as a vegetable, not pizza. It's literally in the third paragraph of the article you linked to ("The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable...").

The article had a poor title, since it doesn't reflect what the bill actually stated...and so does this post.

Right, but the legal loophole means pizza gets counted as a vegetable for the quota, because of the inclusion of tomato paste.

By that logic, you could include banana splits because they have a fruit.

I say yes. Again, they are saying the tomato paste is a serve of vegetables not the pizza. It would be different if they were therefore concluding that pizza should make up the main part of your diet rather than vegetables. If I were to cook up some broccoli and serve it with some stirfried chicken breast in a sauce would you not allow me to call it a serve of vegetables?

Kimmer2011

They say that because tomato paste is so concentrated, 2 tablespoons of it is equivalent to half a cup of vegetables. I disagree.

rubyosburn

lol, this is pure insanity, I don't hink I will be taking advise from Congress on my healthy eating.....rotfl!!!

iKapuniai

mmmm.... I love me some modern fruit and veggies!

tmarie2715

Congress declared pizza a vegetable in the USA

I kid you not.

Are we done taking food advice from government yet?:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45306416/ns/today-today_health/t/pizza-vegetable-congress-says-yes/#.TsY7qFawXAg

Food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes, and some conservatives in Congress say the federal government shouldn't be telling children what to eat.

I imagine this is the same lobbying that went on to decide the food plate and food pyramid, which is just making us fatter, instead of providing real health.

To prove they are right, and pizza is a vegetable, I planted one in my garden, the rare "vege-deluxe" heirloom version, right under my twinkee tree, which is now considered a fruit.

SO came home talking about this. I love the way you put it-- much lighter toned and made me less depressed. Ish.

I also wanted to add that each slice would have to have 2 cups of sauce (via NPR) in order to truly have enough vegetable content.