“Who can name five foods that would be considered a vegetable on the Food Pyramid?”

“I know, Mrs. Smith! There’s green beans, spinach, carrots, broccoli, and uhh….”

“How about pizza, Johnny? You can’t forget pizza!”
Is this what we have become? What’s next, strawberry flavored Skittles, a fruit? And people wonder why the number of obese children in America continues to climb.

On Tuesday, November 15, Congress voted down the new USDA guidelines that called for a decrease in the number of potatoes and sodium levels in school lunches, along with an increase in the amount of green vegetables and whole grains available to students. In their defense, Congress announced that the tomato paste slathered on the average greasy slice of cafeteria pizza is a vegetable, disregarding the facts that the paste contains numerous synthetic additives and that the tomato is in fact a fruit.

Now, you might be asking yourself how this makes any sense at all. If you’re generally dissatisfied with the decisions of government, perhaps you’ve written this one off already with a, “Well, that’s Congress for ya.” But for those who have some hope in their government and/ or the future of this country, this is a new low. Even lower than in 1981, when Congress deemed ketchup and pickle relish to be vegetables in school lunches.

So how does this make any sense? Reason number is quite simple really: we’re “poor.” Fruits and vegetables cost a whole lot more than frozen foods. This is just another way to cut corners and cut spending. Despite the Obama administration’s attempts to improve the quality of school lunches, and First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign designed to tackle childhood obesity, Congress seems to think that the overall health of our nation’s children isn’t quite worth the money.

Reason number two is perhaps even simpler. At risk of sounding like a raving radical, I can’t help but point a finger at capitalist greed and the ever-increasing power of big business. Advocates of a limited government claim that allowing Congress to rule on what is served to our children in their sacred school lunches would be to turn democratic America over to the Commies. Sure, on the surface, this may appear to be a somewhat valid argument, but when one digs deeper it becomes clear that instead of giving government more power, we have handed it over to corporate business.

According to The New York Times, food companies such as ConAgra and Schwan have spent upwards of $5.6 million lobbying against the new USDA guidelines. For whom, then, is Congress is looking out? Is it the children who will eat their weight in pizza because it’s a “vegetable,” or is it the companies that distribute this pizza and fear a loss of revenue if schools were to start offering healthier choices? Even little Johnny can answer this one.

If we’re ever going to give up our title of the “Most Obese Country in the World,” we’re going to have to change the mindset of what healthy food actually is, starting with children.

“This agreement ensures that nutrient-rich vegetables such as potatoes, corn and peas will remain part of a balanced, healthy diet in federally funded school meals and recognizes the significant amounts of potassium, fiber and vitamins A and C provided by tomato paste, ensuring that students may continue to enjoy healthy meals such as pizza and pasta,” said Kraig Naasz, president of the American Frozen Food Institute (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062056/Pizza-vegetable–covered-tomato-paste.html?ITO=1490).

Did that sicken anyone as much as it sickened me? I mean come on America, 30.6% of our population is obese. Our runner-up Mexico trails by 6.4%. This is one race we don’t want to win. I don’t have all the solutions, but chances are Congress listening to the opinions of Kraig Naasz isn’t doing us well.

Moral of the story: bend the rules so that you’ll meet the requirements and save money in the process; Make tomato paste a vegetable so that you can rest easy at night knowing you’ve provided “healthy” meals to America’s children and have an extra dime to spare.