Poll: US Congress thinks Pizza is a health food.

[Dastardly]

Basically there is a fight in congress now to keep things like french fries and pizza on the menu of school lunches for children. The reason for this is because the Obama administration is trying to get unhealthy food off the menu. So the special interest groups want the small amount of potatoes used in french fries and the tomato paste used in pizza to count as a "vegetable". Tell me escapist (especially non-Americans), what do you think about this?

Here is an article on the subject:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/congress-fights-obama-administration-attempts-to-make-school-lunches-healthier/2011/11/14/gIQAUkSvMN_story.html

I love the republican response, "You shouldn't tell kids what to eat."

1. Yeah. We're a school, we tell them things. Eating healthy? One of those things.
2. For about a third of the kids in NC, free school lunch is the only lunch they get. For a slightly smaller portion, that includes breakfast. If school lunch isn't healthy, nothing they're eating is healthy. Better some than none.
3. There are tons of parents who don't know a damned thing about nutrition. Not their fault, they weren't taught, but that means someone has to let them know. Does Congress want to do it? Didn't think so. So, once again, just shut the hell up and let the teachers clean up the mess you've made.

 

[Denamic]

'Junk food' isn't unhealthy.
Eaten in moderation, it's just like any other kind of food.
It's just that it's so goddamn tasty and people eat too much of it.
Too much of anything is bad.

 

[Snotnarok]

I really can't believe they're wasting their time with this. Fries are fine to have for lunch, my school served them every day or had hashbrowns randomly just attend gym and do something.

 

[ks1234]

Without pepperoni, pizza is one of the healthiest foods you can eat.

You are COMPLETELY wrong... cheese, bread, sugary tomato paste for the sauce... Sure, you can put some veggies and lean meat on top of the pizza and make it a little healthier... or you could just take all of those veggies and lean meat and toss them in a salad for probably half of the calories, sugar, and carbs. It's statements like this that make me realize why America is the fattest country in the world. Sigh...

 

[ryanxm]

I see no issue with pizza. I'm probably going to sound like an idiot, but I think it could be pretty healthy. Its got tomato sauce, so that's some kind of vegetable...right? Its also got cheese (dairy), bread (wheat) and ,with pepperoni, meat.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

So, are people mad that kids eat in school? I mean school food is already basically the same as prison food, take away the few things that are actually tasty even by the terrible school lunch standards, and no one will eat anything. They'll just stare blankly at the food shaped cardboard on their trays. Then throw it away.

Pizza (normal, not cheeseless vegen pizza) w/ pepperoni or sausage includes, but is not limited to: Tomato Sauce (veggie), Cheese (dairy), pepperoni/sausage (meat), crust (grain), herbs and crap(herbs).
If you could put an apple on a pizza, it would be health food.
Delicious, greasy health food.

I don't think the number of food groups something is made from dictates the healthiness...

*slaps you*
I WILL DICTATE WHAT IS AND WHAT ISNT HEALTHINESS!

Moooooooom!!! The internet is hitting me again!!

*slaps you again*
The internet is not hitting you, I am just PUNCHING YOU IN THE FACE THROUGH YOUR SCREEN.
Next I'm going to TURN ALL OF YOUR FILES INTO HENTAI!!!

Well, jokes on you! All my files already are hentai!!!

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha-
*cough, hack, cough*
...ha...

EDIT: I hope you realize that I am kidding of course.

No, you're not.

You're absolutely right, there is so much of it on my hard drive it actually has mass.

 

[tokae]

Speaking as a non-american, everything is unhealthy in excessive amounts. As long as a person leads an active life and has a varied diet then that diet can have the weekly pizza and burger without any problem at all.

 

[Ensiferum]

Pizza is a healthfood? Finally congress and I agree on something.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I came into this thread expecting someone freaking out because someone in congress pointed out that as junk food goes, pizza is actually relatively healthy, and got something completely different.

Getting on topic now, I actually understand why congress is doing this. The bill, as worded, would completely remove pizza and french fries from the menu, something that really does not need to happen. They're trying to classify them as "vegetables" in order to keep them in their rightful place on school lunch menus, not to make some claim that they're in some way "health food." I know it sounds like congress has gone crazy to some of you, but it's actually pretty sane, being pretty much the easiest way to keep pizza and french fries on the menu without having to completely rewrite the bill.

 

[AdamRBi]

That pizza they served me in high school was faaaaaar faaaaaaaaaaaaar from healthy. Adding veggies to it wont do jack. I don't even think it was real tomatos.

But hey, the seasoned curly fries. <3


Anyway; Yes, it's very silly. Pizza's a party food, not a lunch option (ok well sometimes, but only from a real pizzaria. None of that fast food stuff.)

 

[wilsontheterrible]

Does this mean they're going to get rid of nacho day too? That was the highlight of my week growing up. I was poor so I got discounted milk but I would save up my milk money for 2 weeks just to get a plate of stale chips coated in the artery clogging goodness that is nacho cheese, then I'd top it with beef. Shame kids won't get to experience that joy.

They could put vegetables on the pizza. And replace the greasy pepperoni with a leaner meat. Problem solved.

But french fries counting as a vegetable is ludicrous. Potatoes have almost no nutritional value by themselves, and deep-frying them removes most of it anyway.

I don't really know how kids think these days, but when I was in school I liked pizzia and french fries because they were delicious and had no nutritional value whatsoever. Delicious grease

 

[xitel]

There were no salads. It was just a choice of two entrees, choice of two sides, and a bread. You could manage to get no fruits or vegitables.
It was baad, though my home state has a terrible school system in general.

Fair point. I suppose living right next to Washington, and in a generally high-value area, raised the standards somewhat. More taxes collected = slightly better stuff. Not to mention, we didn't have to deal with the good ol' fashioned suth'n comfort foot that befouls a large portion of the population. I don't know about you, but while deep frying a chicken and covering it in sausage gravy may taste delicious, it sure as hell isn't healthy.

 

[Divine Miss Bee]

They could put vegetables on the pizza. And replace the greasy pepperoni with a leaner meat. Problem solved.

But french fries counting as a vegetable is ludicrous. Potatoes have almost no nutritional value by themselves, and deep-frying them removes most of it anyway.

actually, potatoes have some of the most diverse vitamin distribution of any vegetable. if schools baked the fries instead of frying them, they can be a healthy carb side.

 

[Broknhead]

Without pepperoni, pizza is one of the healthiest foods you can eat.

pizza while not "healthy" as per societies dumb standards, is definitely balanced. grains, dairy, meat, fruit/veggies are a part of most types of pizza, so at least u get a lot of the nutrition you need to feel good, even if its got a little more fat than would be preferable. trying to get kids to eat salads every day for lunch is just cruel. teach them how to eat balanced, but dont deny them good foods they like, especially if they are well behaved + good students. i feel terrible for kids who have vegan parents who push it on them, who have to be denied what they enjoy, and instead taught an unhealthy disdain for people who dont follow their nutrition guidelines.

 

[Saltyk]

So, are people mad that kids eat in school? I mean school food is already basically the same as prison food, take away the few things that are actually tasty even by the terrible school lunch standards, and no one will eat anything. They'll just stare blankly at the food shaped cardboard on their trays. Then throw it away.

Pizza (normal, not cheeseless vegen pizza) w/ pepperoni or sausage includes, but is not limited to: Tomato Sauce (veggie), Cheese (dairy), pepperoni/sausage (meat), crust (grain), herbs and crap(herbs).
If you could put an apple on a pizza, it would be health food.
Delicious, greasy health food.

I don't think the number of food groups something is made from dictates the healthiness...

*slaps you*
I WILL DICTATE WHAT IS AND WHAT ISNT HEALTHINESS!

Moooooooom!!! The internet is hitting me again!!

*slaps you again*
The internet is not hitting you, I am just PUNCHING YOU IN THE FACE THROUGH YOUR SCREEN.
Next I'm going to TURN ALL OF YOUR FILES INTO HENTAI!!!

Well, jokes on you! All my files already are hentai!!!

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha-
*cough, hack, cough*
...ha...

EDIT: I hope you realize that I am kidding of course.

No, you're not.

You're absolutely right, there is so much of it on my hard drive it actually has mass.

How is that even possible? Did you overload your hard drive and it just started spilling out? Watch out for tentacles!

 

[GreyKnight3445]

Pizza (normal, not cheeseless vegen pizza) w/ pepperoni or sausage includes, but is not limited to: Tomato Sauce (veggie), Cheese (dairy), pepperoni/sausage (meat), crust (grain), herbs and crap(herbs).
If you could put an apple on a pizza, it would be health food.
Delicious, greasy health food.

I don't think the number of food groups something is made from dictates the healthiness...

*slaps you*
I WILL DICTATE WHAT IS AND WHAT ISNT HEALTHINESS!

Moooooooom!!! The internet is hitting me again!!

*slaps you again*
The internet is not hitting you, I am just PUNCHING YOU IN THE FACE THROUGH YOUR SCREEN.
Next I'm going to TURN ALL OF YOUR FILES INTO HENTAI!!!

Is it good hentai?

 

[redisforever]

They did this in my school, and I'm in Canada. So, every day, I walk 10 minutes to a nearby restaurant, where they know me quite well, and get French Fries there instead. They are awesome, and about a quadrillion times better than the fries we had in the cafeteria before. They were more expensive, and there were less of them. They were also smaller, and tasted like cardboard. Yum.

 

[DarkRyter]

Back in my day, all we had to eat for school lunch was what we could hunt down in the playground.

I lived on wildflowers and sandbox sand.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Pizza isn't exactly a health food, but it isn't deadly to have it once a week, the problem though, is that it that the "pizza" my school served IS deadly to have once a week, pepperonis would literally float on the grease, not sure how it is everywhere else, but where I live it isn't fit for human consumption

tis truth

there is grease...and then there is school grease.

you could swear they would take each individual piece of pizza, dump it in a vat of grease, then toss the pepperoni's on it and serve it to you that way.

OT: i think they have "bigger fish to fry" than school pizzas...but honestly

when you get to high school, i think it is perfectly up to that person to make whatever choice they want to eat, they want fatty as fuck food? more power to em, they want a hoagie with a side salad? good on them. let em eat what they wanna eat.

 

[Frostbite3789]

They could put vegetables on the pizza. And replace the greasy pepperoni with a leaner meat. Problem solved.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

You will not desecrate pizza day, sir! You will not!