Esquire Theme by Matthew Buchanan
Social icons by Tim van Damme

16

Nov

Is pizza a vegetable? “In January the Agriculture department had this crazy idea to improve nutritional standards for federally-subsidized school lunches. It proposed limiting ‘starchy vegetables’ (read: fries) to one cup per week ‘to encourage students to try new vegetables.’ It also proposed changing the way schools met daily requirements for fruits and vegetables by limiting—not eliminating, merely limiting—the use of tomato paste (read: pizza) to meet that requirement.” - Timothy Noah, “Saving School Pizza” Now Congress plans to completely unravel the school lunch standards that the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. The bill would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable. Why is Congress pushing back on healthier lunches by fighting to keep pizza and fries?

Is pizza a vegetable?

“In January the Agriculture department had this crazy idea to improve nutritional standards for federally-subsidized school lunches. It proposed limiting ‘starchy vegetables’ (read: fries) to one cup per week ‘to encourage students to try new vegetables.’ It also proposed changing the way schools met daily requirements for fruits and vegetables by limiting—not eliminating, merely limiting—the use of tomato paste (read: pizza) to meet that requirement.”

- Timothy Noah, “Saving School Pizza”

Now Congress plans to completely unravel the school lunch standards that the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. The bill would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable.

Why is Congress pushing back on healthier lunches by fighting to keep pizza and fries?

6 months ago

school lunch/pizza/vegetables/fruits/obesity/youth/congress/nutrition/wacky/