Congress Says Pizza, Other Junk Food is Healthy

Falling in line with lobbyists, Congress has fought against a Department of Agriculture proposal that would have reduced the amount of pizza and french fries kids are eating for lunch. The proposal would have reduced the amount of starchy foods, like potatoes, and sodium in school lunches, and would've stopped calling tomato paste, like that found on pizzas, a vegetable. Members of Congress said the new regulations would be too costly, with some Republicans adding that changes to the proposal would give school districts the "flexibility" to improve nutrition. The New York Daily News sums up the opposition thusly: 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. Indeed. The government should actually allow children to choose the menu because this is America. It would probably look like this: microwave pizza, chicken nuggets, Lucky Charms swimming in grape soda, tater tots (with tomato paste!), and banana splits. You can hold the banana since we already got the healthy part out of the way with the tomato paste. That's some cheap eatin'! Commenters have taken to the Web (natch) to laugh/cry at the stupidity of this. "The Senate’s action has nothing to do with public health and everything to do with political posturing and caving in to lobbyists," said nutrition and public health expert Marion Nestle. “I only hope that jellybeans continue to enjoy protected legume status," said a Gawker commenter, who may or may not be an expert in anything. For those who can remember, this sounds like the "ketchup is a vegetable" nonsense from the Reagan years. Moreover, the USDA says this won't actually save any money. We're no policy experts, but we'll even go so far to say that we might even save money on treatment all of the health effects from eating Lucky Charms in grape soda for lunch.

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Congress Says Pizza, Other Junk Food is Healthy

Tonya Garcia

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Tonya Garcia