I guess congress wants the kids to be obese as it is. However, pizza is now a veggie? Tomato paste spread on bread and covered with preproccessed crap is now a veggie.

I love pizza, but I'm so picky about what I will eat. I do not consider it a veggie. I consider a few of the toppings veggies. If I get a veggie pizza, I still consider it a rare treat.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Well, technically, the sauce on a pizza had always counted as a veggie. The bill that passed is just to keep that as it is today, instead of changing it so it doesn't count.

I still think it's deplorable.

Are you really getting a serving of veggies in the tiny amount of sauce on one piece of pizza.... I mean really that is crazy.

Tomatoes are actually a fruit. Somewhere in time, the government decided to call a cooked tomato a veggie so it would benefit the processing industry. At any rate, a dab of it is hardly a veggie serving, just like a squirt of ketchup on fries should not count as 2 veggies.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Just reinforcing that it's okay to serve crap food to school children... And then we wonder why there's a childhood obesity epidemic.

There is another thread around here some place discussing why some schools are blocking home packed lunches. Granted they wanted the kids to quit bringing a 2 liter bottle of soda and bag of chips for lunch, but at least give some healthy alternatives. They say the kids have been throwing away the good stuff. Well, I'd think that after a while, they'd pick up on the fact that heathy choices were all you were going to get if the other crap isn't served.

So...the freshmen fifteen was the result of eating too many veggies? Thanks, congress, it all makes sense now!

The government did not "decide" that tomatoes were a vegetable, any more than the government decided that green beans, zucchini, eggplant, summer and winter squashes, cucumbers, bell peppers, hot peppers..... were vegetables (they're all fruits, because anything that contains seeds is a fruit).

The government didn't decide that these fruits were vegetables, our common culture did. Just as our same culture decided that rhubarb was a fruit (botanically it's actually a vegetable, in culinary usage, it's a fruit).

The botanical definitions of fruits and vegetables are determined by the structure of the plant.

The culinary definitions of fruits and vegetables are determined by the culinary usage.

In Victorian times, tomatoes were considered fruits in both senses of the word, and were often served with cream and sugar, much like berries (sound "icky" to someone raised with tomatoes as vegetables)...

Thank you kaplods! I found this really interesting. We learn something new everyday

I have to disagree. I did watch Alton Brown on his show discussing the history of it and the government which had me looking it up. I found the following:

"Fruit or Vegetable?
Ever wonder why we consider a tomato a vegetable even though it is a fruit? You can lay part of the blame on the U.S. Supreme Court and maybe some on government greed. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws imposed a 10 percent duty on vegetables, but none on fruit. A tomato importer named John Nix sued the tax collector for the port of New York, Edward L. Hedden, arguing that tomatoes, since they were "really" fruits, should be exempt from the tax. Read Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893) here.

The botanical claim was not in dispute; tomatoes, as the seed-bearing ripened ovary of a flower, are fruits. Yet in a triumph of ordinary language over scholarly, the highest court of the land ruled in 1893 that the tomato was a vegetable and therefore subject to the tariff. In his decision, Justice Gray wrote: "Botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruits of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people ... all these are vegetables ... which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are ... usually served at dinner in, with or after the soup, fish or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert." If you're not too distracted by the vision of a Supreme Court justice pontificating on the distinction between dinner and dessert, you can contemplate two further botanical curiosities: First, most of us have heard that the tomato is "really" a fruit, but did you know that it is even more really a berry? Yes, really. Furthermore, this plant that most Americans grow exclusively as an annual is actually a perennial and will grow as such in its native and wild state. In fact, if inclined, you can nurse a tomato through the winter indoors and set it out again the next year."

http://www.tomatogardeningguru.com/history.html

Yes, but the operative word here is PART (not ALL, and I would argue not even MOST).

I am SO glad my son's school always serves an actual fresh veg and fruit above and beyond the 'requirement'. My son eats an apple and some fresh salad greens with his lunch every day. He's watched me dump my dinner on my salads at dinner every night and now does the same. I wish every school in the nation would get on board and offer more healthy options. There are so many kids who never touch fresh produce... it's sad and scary .

I'm not going to argue with what you are saying other than the fact that I did indeed point out that the government had to interfere and call a fruit a veggie. That is all I was pointing out.

We should question what the tell us. After all, haven't you heard? Pizza is a veggie. It is deceptive and crap as far as I'm concerned. They do not have anyone's, other than their, best interest at heart. It is I can be bought but who is willing to pay the most for me to say what they want.

Wow! Is this a public school? I'm impressed.

Oh my gosh, when I heard this I was enfuriated. I couldn't believe it. This criteria basically allows EVERY dish to be a veggie. Tomato paste? Spaghetti then is a veggie too. So is lasagna. These aren't vegggies they are dishes, just as pizza is a dish as well. What is the world coming to, seriously? And they wonder why children are becoming increasingly overweight younger.