Dear Congress, Pizza is NOT a Vegetable.
Pizza = Vegetable?
If my child ever argued with me about eating their broccoli and instead insisted that their slice of pizza was a serving of vegetables, I wouldn’t just protest their statement but I would think that I had done something horribly wrong in rearing them. This is a topic where Congress and I differ. They’d apparently agree with my 5-year-old.
Let’s get a bit of the back-story. According to NPR, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had proposed that the pizza that is offered in our nation’s public school cafeterias should put a half-cup of tomato paste on the crust for it to be considered to be a serving of a vegetable …
But the proposal to include more sauce was met with much opposition. “A slice of pizza would literally be swimming in tomato paste,” said Corey Henry of the American Frozen Food Institute. They lobbied Congress to get that provision changed. “No kid at school is going to eat a piece of pizza that’s just drenched in tomato paste,” he added. “Tomato paste is almost unique in its ability to provide a very significant amount of critical nutrients and vitamins,” he said in defense of tomato paste, even in smaller quantities than the proposed half-cup.
And their lobbying apparently worked. Now it looks as if the bill will pass when the House votes on it later this week, making the call for more tomato sauce to be killed. Pizza with a scant amount of sauce can be deemed on par with a serving of a vegetable.
“It’s a shame that Congress seems more interested in protecting industry than in protecting children’s health,” wrote Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She told NPR’s The Salt, “This [nutrition regulation proposed by Congress] may go down as the biggest nutritional blunder since Reagan tried to declare ketchup as a vegetable.” She added, “It’s ridiculous to call pizza a vegetable.”
Pizza with a vegetable. Yes. Pizza as a vegetable. No way. That’s some kind of 5-year-old kid logic right there.
Photo: Flickr
No wonder taxes are so high with our dollars going to fund this garbage? Why do we need the government to make declarations about what is a vegetable and what is not? Can we not think for ourselves?
Hey, I live in the South, where macaroni and cheese is considered a vegetable. Pizza would be a step up.
My favorite pizza is with chicken, tomato and Broccoli added. However, to my non-vegetable eating children, tomato sauce is as close to a vegetable than they’ll ever get. My oldest doesn’t even like the school pizza, but the little one, at lunch in school she never eats her vegetables so even though I am glad that she is being exposed to vegetables every day (even if she’s not eating them), at least if pizza has enough tomato sauce to count as a vegetable, then she’ll be getting more than what she would usually have on all the other days that vegetables are actually served on. I take what I can get.
Why are schools still IN the food business? Pack your children’s lunches and take schools out of the providing, deciding and liability over food business.
Our schools are underfunded, crying for tax levies- cutting academic and sports programs, laying off teachers, cutting bus service- cut the school breakfast, lunch, dinner and grazing programs. Cut latch key. EDUCATE, period.
It is very hard to learn when you are hungry. There are children, who if it were not for school breakfast and lunches, would not eat. There are children who hide food from the lunches to take home to their younger siblings so they can eat. School food is important.
This is government corruption. It’s the result of corporate money being allowed to undermine our legislative machinery.
Don’t they get entitlement aid in the form of food stamps/WIC/SNAP and all? Use it to buy the food to pack their lunches.
I might have high utility bills this winter that will cut into my grocery budget. But my kids will stay hungry since our income still falls above the standard set forth and they won’t qualify for freeby food. But my kids’ hunger makes it just as difficult to learn as the poorer kid’s hunger does.
If you’re going to pay for SOME school lunches, breakfasts, dinner and grazing snacks- then pay for them ALL. One kids hunger shouldn’t be disqualified on income. After all IT’S HARD to lean if your hungry. Feed em ALL!
There is NO reason that the federal government should be making decisions about what should be served in our schools. States, or maybe even the school distrists themselves, should be in charge of this kind of thing.
What Bob said!
@Yahoudi–If your utility bills are cutting into your finances to such a degree that your choices are heat your home or feed your children, then you can probably get food benefits.
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Somehow, though, I suspect you are overstating your case.
They positioned this incorrectly – they should have just made the case for deep dish vs. thin crust and they wouldn’t have had to go on about this – add more sauce and it’s a veggie. Pop some broccoli on it and let’s party. Better yet – start gardens at the schools and serve the veggies in the cafeteria – the way things our going, our kids will need to know how to farm in the not so distant future in order to survive.
….are you kidding me… pizza by definition is not a vegetable, it is a dough, with cheese and tomato sauce with optional toppings it can have vegetables on top making it a veggie pizza…world is going to hell in a hand basket. ….pathetic. I guess the saying is true with great progress comes future greater regression. pizza is not a vegetable …wonder who voted these idiots into power? stop giving your opinion to the pork (your money because your money is where the real voting begins ) and start allocating it to life sustaining choices, no gmo, vaccines, or processed chemical additive food’s, see how past decision’s effect not only your future but someone else’s as well.. bullshit. government and society today is rubbing cultured society to the ground. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzYZe2GaGrw especially when songs like this are considered good and taste full. all because it has a great beat lol
Isn’t a tomato a fruit? Just saying.
If Congress declaring pizza a vegetable upsets you please consider taking action. Here’s a link to an Action Alert to express disappointment to Congress: http://bit.ly/trnlCy.