Pizza legally now a vegetable, thank you Congress!

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.