yorkshiregoth
Master of all he surveys
- Location
- Heathrow
Pizza - one of your five a day
- Thread starter yorkshiregoth
- Start date
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vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
The stupidity of Americans knows no bounds.
Trembler49
Veteran
- Location
- Portimao, Portugal
I hope our lot don't find out though.
Fnaar
Smutmaster General
- Location
- Thumberland
Dough!
Night Train
Maker of Things
- Location
- Greater Manchester
If it were a Hawaiian pizza it would provide fruit as well!
Arch
Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
More like 'meat' and veg, I think...
Time to try out my chocolate eclair theory again:
Chocolate, made from a bean, veg.
Flour, made from wheat, a grass, veg.
Butter, made from grass, veg.
Cream, made from grass, veg.
Four portions in one eclair!
Canrider
Guru
Well...from the article:
"Currently, a pizza with 2 tablespoons of tomato paste is counted as a vegetable, however this could be increased to half a cup to equal a vegetable serving according to the new proposals. The Agricultural Department are pushing for tomato puree to be treated in the same way as other fruit pastes and purees."
How many tomatoes go into half a cup of tomato puree? Note that 'tomato paste' in the USA = 'tomato puree' in the UK. 2 tbsp just happens to be the usual serving size for tomato pastes. 16 tbsp in a cup so we're talking quadrupling the amount of tomato paste that used to be considered a vegetable serving. Now how many tomatoes is that? ISTR ketchup has something like 130g of tomatoes for every 100g of ketchup that comes out of the cooking process. So a cup of tomato paste (or puree, again using the USian terminology) could be comparable in terms of concentration.
Ah, but the USDA's standard for 'a serving of vegetables' is half a cup, with a full cup for things like lettuce.
So the half-cup of tomato paste/puree, which is roughly equivalent to its weight of raw tomatoes, is a standard vegetable serving as per USDA guidelines.
So yeah, I'm quite happy for a pizza topped with a standard vegetable serving size's worth of pureed tomatoes to be scored as containing (as it does) a serving of vegetables. Weigh out the base and the cheese and it could very well count as a starch and a dairy serving as well.
Now, what precisely is the problem with that?
"Currently, a pizza with 2 tablespoons of tomato paste is counted as a vegetable, however this could be increased to half a cup to equal a vegetable serving according to the new proposals. The Agricultural Department are pushing for tomato puree to be treated in the same way as other fruit pastes and purees."
How many tomatoes go into half a cup of tomato puree? Note that 'tomato paste' in the USA = 'tomato puree' in the UK. 2 tbsp just happens to be the usual serving size for tomato pastes. 16 tbsp in a cup so we're talking quadrupling the amount of tomato paste that used to be considered a vegetable serving. Now how many tomatoes is that? ISTR ketchup has something like 130g of tomatoes for every 100g of ketchup that comes out of the cooking process. So a cup of tomato paste (or puree, again using the USian terminology) could be comparable in terms of concentration.
Ah, but the USDA's standard for 'a serving of vegetables' is half a cup, with a full cup for things like lettuce.
So the half-cup of tomato paste/puree, which is roughly equivalent to its weight of raw tomatoes, is a standard vegetable serving as per USDA guidelines.
So yeah, I'm quite happy for a pizza topped with a standard vegetable serving size's worth of pureed tomatoes to be scored as containing (as it does) a serving of vegetables. Weigh out the base and the cheese and it could very well count as a starch and a dairy serving as well.
Now, what precisely is the problem with that?
MacB
Lover of things that come in 3's
- Location
- Farnborough, Hampshire
Now careful Vernon some of us have the same sort of relationship/attraction to pizza that you have to pies
Actually we make our own a lot or we buy big ones from Asda and then add extra toppings. So I accept the shop bought ones may not be perfect but I can vouch for the ingredients in the homemade ones, and I don't see it as an unhealthy option.
threebikesmcginty
Corn Fed Hick...
- Location
- ...on the slake
I like pizza and made with quality ingredients it's hardly junk food, calling it one of your 5 a day might be pushing it a tad but the Yanks ain't the only ones, the UK has reclassified various foodstuffs too. In defence of our chums 'over there' on the whole I like America and most of the Americans I've met have been thoroughly decent folk.
swee'pea99
Squire
"a pizza with 2 tablespoons of tomato paste is a vegetable"
- US Congress
"Purple is a fruit."
- Homer Simpson
- US Congress
"Purple is a fruit."
- Homer Simpson
Bayerd
Über Member
- Location
- Marsden, Huddersfield
Tomatoes in processed form are better for you than raw ones are as the antioxidant benefits are raised. This goes for ketchup as well.
Personally I make my own pizzas from fresh veg and by the time I've finished adding onions, garlic, mushrooms, peppers and chillis, you'll find it contains more than one of my five a day with carbs for energy from the dough and protein from the cheese as well, pizza covers the basic nutritional bases.
The last time I looked, all are needed for a healthy diet......
Personally I make my own pizzas from fresh veg and by the time I've finished adding onions, garlic, mushrooms, peppers and chillis, you'll find it contains more than one of my five a day with carbs for energy from the dough and protein from the cheese as well, pizza covers the basic nutritional bases.
The last time I looked, all are needed for a healthy diet......
Canrider
Guru
It should be repeated that they aren't calling a slice of pizza 'a vegetable'. What they're doing is allowing a piece of pizza to 'count' as a vegetable serving (most likely alongside a serving of grains for the dough base and probably a dairy serving for the cheese) for the purposes of checking and monitoring what the schoolchildren are eating, provided it contains a standard USDA serving of tomato sauce on it.
