(Image Source:BetterSchoolFood)


BY RICHARD LAYCOCK

ANCHOR LAUREN GORES

A new regulation proposed by congress could put pizza in the food pyramid... as a vegetable. WHDH explains why.

“School lunches are required to contain a certain amount of veggies and the two tablespoons of tomato sauce on a slice of pizza, well that’s enough. The Obama administration recently tried to change that rule but the new spending bill blocked new tomato-paste regulations and kept pizza in the vegetable category.”

The Obama administration has been trying to reduce the childhood obesity problem by getting healthier foods into school cafeteria’s but CBS says this motion could derail that plan.

“The new bill keeps french fries on the menu at school. It delays the requirement to boost whole grains and it calls the tomato paste on pizzas a vegetable. The changes were requested by food companies that make frozen pizzas and by potato growers.”

And KOB says the new proposal has polarised opinions.

“Supporters of the bill say delaying the requirements will save schools money at a time when they're pinched. APS did tell us earlier this year it would cost more to meet new federal food guidelines and that it would probably lead to higher lunch prices. But APS has also expressed serious concerns about childhood obesity with about a third of students in the district considered overweight or obese.”

KNTV adds that there are economic implications that need to be considered with the new bill.

“Republicans say all of these new nutritional standards that actually they had asked for in some cases may be too expensive and too burdensome on local school districts like those there in the bay area.
Some food advocates here in D.C. Say it's a shame these rules need to be in place. But others, like the frozen food industry, say look potatoes healthy: they’ve got fiber, They’ve got vitamins, they’ve got potassium.”

The Huffington Post spoke with Amy Dawson Taggart, an advocate for healthier food lunches and director of Mission: Rediness, who said.

“We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program. It doesn't take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace.”

Some, like the Washington Post, are likening the new bill to the failed attempt in the 1980’s by the Reagan admistraion to have tomato ketchup credited as a vegetable in school lunch programs.