Congress declares pizza as a vegetable?

[Latino555]

WASHINGTON - Who needs leafy greens and carrots when pizza and french fries will do?

In an effort many 9-year-olds will cheer, Congress wants pizza and french fries to stay on school lunch lines and is fighting the Obama administration's efforts to take unhealthy foods out of schools.

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.

School meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables, and USDA's proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business.

Piling on to the companies' opposition, some conservatives argue that the federal government shouldn't tell children what to eat. In a summary of the bill, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said the changes would "prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and ...provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals."

School districts have said some of the USDA proposals go 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 the federally subsidized meals that are given 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.

Reacting to that criticism, House Republicans had urged USDA to rewrite the standards in a bill passed in June. The Senate last month voted to block the potato limits in its version, with opposition to the restrictions led by potato-growing states. Neither version of the bill included the latest provisions on tomato paste, sodium or whole grains; House and Senate negotiators added those in the last two weeks as they put finishing touches on the legislation.

The school lunch proposal is based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said they are necessary to reduce childhood obesity and future health care costs.

USDA spokeswoman Courtney Rowe said Tuesday that the department will continue its efforts to make lunches healthier.

"While it's unfortunate that some members of Congress continue to put special interests ahead of the health of America's children, USDA remains committed to practical, science-based standards for school meals," she said in a statement.

Nutrition advocate Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said Congress's proposed changes will keep schools from serving a wider array of vegetables. Children already get enough pizza and potatoes, she says. It also would slow efforts to make pizzas — a longtime standby on school lunch lines — healthier, with whole grain crusts and lower sodium levels.

"They are making sure that two of the biggest problems in the school lunch program, pizza and french fries, are untouched," she said.

A group of retired generals advocating for healthier school lunches also criticized the spending bill. The group, called Mission: Readiness, has called poor nutrition in school lunches a national security issue because obesity is the leading medical disqualifier for military service.

"We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program," Amy Dawson Taggart, the director of the group, said in a letter to lawmakers before the final bill was released. "It doesn't take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace."

Specifically, the bill would:

— Block the Agriculture Department from limiting starchy vegetables, including corn and peas, to two servings a week. The rule was intended to cut down on french fries, which many schools serve daily.

— Allow USDA to count two tablespoons of tomato paste as a vegetable, as it does now. The department had attempted to require that only a half-cup of tomato paste could be considered a vegetable. Federally subsidized lunches must have a certain number of vegetables to be served.

— Require further study on long-term sodium reduction requirements set forth by the USDA guidelines.

— Require USDA to define "whole grains" before they regulate them. The USDA rules require schools to use more whole grains.

Food companies who have fought the USDA standards say they were too strict and neglected the nutrients that potatoes, other starchy vegetables and tomato paste do offer.

"This agreement ensures that nutrient-rich vegetables such as potatoes, corn and peas will remain part of a balanced, healthy diet in federally funded school meals and recognizes the significant amounts of potassium, fiber and vitamins A and C provided by tomato paste, ensuring that students may continue to enjoy healthy meals such as pizza and pasta," said Kraig Naasz, president of the American Frozen Food Institute.

The school lunch provisions are part of a final House-Senate compromise on a $182 billion measure that would fund the day-to-day operations of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Both the House and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill this week and send it to President Barack Obama.

 

Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/congress-keep-pizza-fries-on-school-menus-1.3323709

[Fockfear]

I think the goverment is not taking into account on what kid actually eat at school.at just because someone take it don't mean they going to eat it.Like who really eat PEA at school?(and sorry for those who do ><)

[Chuckun]

Peas are nice! Although personally, I refused to eat anything from my school. I either brought my own or ate nothing.. Eating nothing is probably better for you lol.

[Kat0n]

33.8% of adults and 17% of children in USA are obese, the situation become, no, is critical and children eat still shit at school

Fast food industry rules the USA.

[Chuckun]

33.8% of adults and 17% of children in USA are obese, the situation become, no, is critical and children eat still shit at school

Fast food industry rules the USA.

 

I wonder how many are simply 'over weight' rather than obese. Indeed, the figures of American dietary effects are scary!

[Fockfear]

I agree to that!but if they want us to eat healty that got to make it more appeling

[Samurai]

Personally, they need more vegetables that are NOT pumped up full of preservatives, and don't cook their food in wrappers. yes the food should look more appealing; almost threw up when i saw a wienersnitchel hot dog in a wrapper

[yourfriend]

One of my roommates is American and he's been going crazy about how absurd this is.

 

Do they have any sick "Science" to back up the idea that the tomato paste constitutes one serving of vegetables?

[Helmut the soldier]

This is just a stupid thought...

Unnecessary to talk about

[collectivist]

The concept is quite simple. Raw, clean fresh vegetables cost a lot to buy because they are easily perishable and don't do well in transport over large scale distributional distance. That and you need to have a massive supplier, but commercial entities who have such facilities want to turn a profit, so milking the government that takes it's money in corporate taxes is, to the large scale producers, almost business karma, but ironically, the raw stock grain ingredients used in processed 'known value items' such as ketchup, pizza and long lasting foods are massively subsidised to be incredibly cheap by the government and with that, the food producers bulk out the base vegetable with preservatives, grain derivatives and other such things which makes long term storage possible, but as a side effect, the chemical dilutants destroy the actual nutrition of the vegetables.

 

All the government is doing is trying to classify the adulterated items as if they were the raw product in an attempt to make use of the industry they have helped fund to socially manipulate the average national into thinking they're getting more healthy than they actually are, which will only harm kids as more and more artificial chemicals enter the average kid's food consumption and the huge intake of high grain derivatives will only deepen an already rising average national waistband.

 

What to do about it? Well...

Edited November 18, 2011 by collectivist

[JoeDirt]

Republicans killing American kids one heart-attack at the time.

[WeetBix KiD]

I know American is ALOT larger than here, but we have none of those in our school canteens. The unhealthiest choices my daughter had is a meat pie, pasty or sausage roll. Most of the choices are things like butter chicken, fried rice, fresh salad and meat rolls etc etc.

I watched a series Jamie Oliver did on the food in schools over there and could not believe what kids are being fed. Also the main drink being flavoured milk! Im not a junk food Nazi, but I believe you cant have what isnt there. Take bad choices away from kids and give them a variety of healthier choices and soon enough they will have to come to accept it. Also doesn't have to be fresh of the truck. Studies here have shown frozen veggies are just as healthy (if not more) than fresh. Also quite heap as well.

[bell reavue]

Some people are arguing that the government doesn't have a right to control the food served in schools. But this is a matter of protecting children and their health...not all families have time/can afford to pack their kid's lunches (especially the kids that get a free lunch program at school). Cafeteria food is disgusting and pizza is not a vegetable. Too many people are putting politics and money over kid's health.

[Strobel]

This argument is more than just disgusting, accepting pizza as a vegetable is just bullshit to get more money on the companies accounts but ignoring the health of the next generations.

I don't know if anybody of you can remember the episode of the Simpsons where a lot of vending machines with "healthy" snacks were put into the school because the cantina doesn't have the budget to feed the pupils.

Sometimes I really think that the writers of some shows actually know what will come next in the future and are trying to prepare us for that situations...

[Fb!N!nJa]

The pizza in my school isn't bad. Although pizza being a vegetable is a congress on LSD's idea.