Monday, 21 November 2011
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Is Pizza A Vegetable?
Is pizza a vegetable? Congress sure thinks so! Last week created an uproar after news broke that the United States Congress has decided the tomato sauce in pizza qualifies it to be a vegetable. In this decision, Congress as rejected the proposed new USDA guidelines for school lunches that would have increased the quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables served in school cafeterias across the country.
Many arguments have been made questioning the logic of this decision, mainly: If pizza is a vegetable based on tomato sauce, then isn't lasagna a vegetable as well? A McDonald's burger is loaded with tomato and lettuce, so is that a vegetable too?
The Huffington Post outlines the ingredients for the "traditional 4x6 school pizza" made by ConAgra and the findings are simple: Tomato sauce in pizza is not made of tomato alone--there are many other ingredients.
But Sarah Kiff of The Washington Post accurately points out that Congress didn't explicitly state that pizza is vegetable--that part just might be creative journalism or "reading between the lines." Kiff points out that Congress didn't debate pizza or vegetables and the bill doesn't mention it at all. The debate was how many tablespoons of tomato would qualify it to be one serving of vegetable. The answer is that one-eighth of a cup of tomato paste would qualify as half a serving of vegetables. Here's a nutrition label that Kiff shares in her article showing that one-eighth of a cup of tomato paste (left) versus a half a cup of apples (right) doesn't have too much variation:
What do you think? Are people over reacting by the decision made by Congress or is this uproar valid?
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- From: larabs@xanga
- About Me: I'm a Rutgers University graduate who discovered a passion for writing in college when I found myself enjoying researching for and writing papers instead of working at biology labs. In my spare time, I enjoy cooking and watching movies--I am in pursuit of learning to fluently speak French and Italian after developing an interest in these languages from watching foreign films. Apart from foreign films and cooking, my interests include photography, traveling, art history and interior design. twitter.com/sushbaral
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Comments (38)
Sure is. Now let me go out to my garden and pick some pizza.
Overreacting......they should have just said it was a reliable source of vegetable due to the tomato sauce.
I suppose. If you remove everything but the sauce.
Sure it's s veggie so is chocolate and coffee (they're beans)
"The debate was how many tablespoons of tomato would qualify it to be one serving of vegetable."
Trick question because TOMATOES ARE FRUITS NOT VEGETABLES
God.
that is crazy!
pizza is NOT a veggie lol
@x_damaged_yet_unbroken_x@xanga - tomatoes are fruits, so even that wouldn't work, lol.
Ok, let's get it right. It's not that Congress thinks that pizza is a vegetable, but rather that the tomato paste in a pizza qualifies as a daily serving of vegetable.
This post reminds me of http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luvu0iUbcq1qzanv5o1_500.jpg LOL
Remember, we are talking about the government here.
a pizza a day keeps the doctors away..
only in america
Haha, well even if the nutritional information isn't too far off, I think we can all agree it's the principle of the thing.
Pizza is so friendly, you can make it with whatever you like, veggies or meats, it will always taste Good. Yummy !
Even if they DID say pizza is a vegetable, schools are not required to serve it! Tho' I wouldn't try serving the tomato paste! No salt added--eww.
The decision was created years ago. There's just renewed interest because they're talking about it now and they've ruled AGAIN that pizza is a vegetable.
It's purely lobbyist. They're not even going to address the fact that tomatoes are fruits... not vegetables.
Is there 1/8 cup of tomato paste in a piece of school pizza? Seems to me they always skimped on the sauce when I was in school...
This is like the 5th post on this subject in the past week...
It would work if tomatoes were vegetables. They are fruit, but they are treated as a vegetable. And at the same time... does it really matter? I don't understand being up in arms over this. I think it is rather silly. Tomatoes are good for you, end of point. :)
@drawmafreezone@xanga - and that is why i eat chocolate and drink coffee no matter how much i try to get skinny...
Two tablespoons of sauce does not constitute a serving of vegetables. Two tablespoons of anything isn't really a serving, but in this case, an exception is being made for the benefit of the producers of frozen pizzas for school lunches, putting their interests over the interests of not creating another generation of fat, unhealthy little porkers.
Sure, pizza can be very healthy, and the pizza I make from scratch every
now and then has plenty of nutritional content, but the essential point
is that the lobby paid handsomely to ensure that they wouldn't have to
make healthier pizzas and they wouldn't lose out on their sweet deal to
provide frozen crap for school lunches...
I guess it could be argued that done any other way it would cost schools
more money, when schools already don't get enough money, why should
they get more money to provide food? (Because if they do
provide food, it ought to promote health and a healthy lifestyle
instead of setting up children to be a burden on the
healthcare system (and a boon to the producers of junk and fast food),
which increases costs there... which I suppose is also fine because it's
a private industry? I don't really know how these things are considered
in the US)
pizza a vegie is so moronic.
@Anemic_Royaltea@xanga - "Two tablespoons of sauce does not constitute a serving of vegetables."
- as someone who makes pizza for a living, there's barely a teaspoon of sauce on a slice of pizza! It really is ridiculous how much people can twist things, lol.
If you're making that much pizza, wouldn't the sauce have a ton of preservatives and other things that would negate the nutritional benefits of whatever "vegetable" that is in the sauce? Not only that, all the cheese and grease that is usually found in pizza.
Using the only example I can think of quickly, wouldn't it be like serving a healthy salad with chocolate chips, marshmallows and whipped cream?