The land where pizza is one of your five-a-day… because it is covered in tomato paste

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER



Guideline reversal: A spending bill released late Monday reverses previous school lunch standards proposed by the Agriculture Department limiting the use of potatoes and allowing tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable



It has given us the iced doughnut, the burger and the fattest people on Earth.

But now America is outdoing even itself when it comes to unhealthy food, by trying to claim pizza is a vegetable.

A school lunches Bill going before Congress aims to reclassify the junk food due to the tomato paste on the dough.



Pro veggies: First Lady Michelle Obama has made healthy eating a top issue for her, promoting a balanced meal with plenty of vegetables to young children which some feel may slouch with Congress' new guidelines



Despite lacking significant nutritional content, this thin coating would be enough for pizza to go towards a daily count of fruit and vegetables.

The move has been derided as a cost-cutting drive so the U.S. government will not have to spend so much on fresh food for school lunches. Subsidised school meals must include a certain amount of vegetables.



Fighting for fries: The Senate voted last month to block limiting potato in their version of healthy school lunches



A congressional committee is pushing for the move and to keep french fries on school lunch lines in a fightback against an Obama administration proposal to make school lunches healthier.

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year which limits the use of potatoes and delays limits on sodium and a requirement to boost whole grains.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable.



Garden education: Mrs Obama, who has invited local school children to help with the White House's garden, has pushed for healthier school lunches while some school districts have said the USDA requirements have gone too far and cost too much



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.

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said the changes would 'prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and to provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals.'



Issue of National Security: Indiana Senator Richard Lugar called on Congress to pass Mission: Readiness, which says poor nutrition in school lunches is a national security issue because obesity is the leading medical disqualifier for military service



School districts had said some of the USDA requirements went 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 federally subsidized meals that are served 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.



The school lunch provisions are part of a final House-Senate compromise on a $182 billion measure 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: dailymail