carolonabike
Senior Member
- Location
- Boldon
Pizza - one of your five a day
- Thread starter yorkshiregoth
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swee'pea99
Squire
Why so? Since that appears to be exactly what they *are* doing. As in the headline: "US congress consider classing pizza as a vegetable for school lunches."
Does it matter? Well, not to me. I live over here. But the idea that a pizza slice counts as 'a vegetable' in the context of the intentions underlying 'five a day' injunctions is a nonsense. Those injunctions arose directly in response to kids' fondness for junk like factory-made pizzas and hamburgers, which has left an entire generation, for the first time in history, more obese, less healthy and with a shorter life-expectancy than its parents. With or without tomato paste, crisp iceberg lettuce or a slice of gherkin.
This isn't anything to do with nutritional reality. This is just Big Government prostrating itself before Big Business. Lobbyists trouser the folding stuff and kids go down with heart disease. Plus ca change...
Canrider
Guru
[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1321632816' post='1926752']
But the idea that a pizza slice counts as 'a vegetable' in the context of the intentions underlying 'five a day' injunctions is a nonsense.[/quote]
Yawwwwn.
A nonsense, you say. Why, if the slice of pizza is topped with the standard serving of tomatoes, is it 'a nonsense' for it to count as a serving of tomatoes?
But the idea that a pizza slice counts as 'a vegetable' in the context of the intentions underlying 'five a day' injunctions is a nonsense.[/quote]
Yawwwwn.
A nonsense, you say. Why, if the slice of pizza is topped with the standard serving of tomatoes, is it 'a nonsense' for it to count as a serving of tomatoes?
Zoiders
New Member
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- Ice Station Zebra
Tomatoe...tomatoe whazzed up in a blender and spooned over a pizza.
It's still a serving of vegetable.
The rest of what's in it might be cheap, highly sugared/salted and loaded with fat but at least the kids not going to become deficient of certain vitamins or get rickets, sadly there are parts of the US where the kid just getting fed once a day is a blessing so congress saying it's ok to give kids pizza is fine in my book.
Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia...cities with bills to pay and kids to feed in public schools yet a diminishing population of tax payers to foot the bill.
It's still a serving of vegetable.
The rest of what's in it might be cheap, highly sugared/salted and loaded with fat but at least the kids not going to become deficient of certain vitamins or get rickets, sadly there are parts of the US where the kid just getting fed once a day is a blessing so congress saying it's ok to give kids pizza is fine in my book.
Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia...cities with bills to pay and kids to feed in public schools yet a diminishing population of tax payers to foot the bill.
MissTillyFlop
Evil communist dictator, lover of gerbils & Pope.
I don't think anyone is disputing that it contains a lot of tomatoes.
However, it also contains a load of fat and salt too which standard "vegetable" vegetables don't and as the whole point of the 5 a day exercise is to reduce the intake of calories, salt and fat, this seems to compleely undermine it.
It wouldn't surprise me if fast food lobbyists had something to do with this vote.
Pizza is junk food, no matter what toppings you put on it, as the fact it has dough and cheese as two of the main ingredients makes it unhealthy.
Also not buying the cost argument, as vegetables are quite clearly much cheaper than pizza, especially in the US where they have so much arable land.
However, it also contains a load of fat and salt too which standard "vegetable" vegetables don't and as the whole point of the 5 a day exercise is to reduce the intake of calories, salt and fat, this seems to compleely undermine it.
It wouldn't surprise me if fast food lobbyists had something to do with this vote.
Pizza is junk food, no matter what toppings you put on it, as the fact it has dough and cheese as two of the main ingredients makes it unhealthy.
Also not buying the cost argument, as vegetables are quite clearly much cheaper than pizza, especially in the US where they have so much arable land.
Zoiders
New Member
- Location
- Ice Station Zebra
Looking at it from the middle class point of view then yes kids should not have pizza on the menu if they are having huge portions of highly calorific food at home, some low income families buy nothing but as it's cheap and filling, there is however a level of poverty below even that in the US where you can't rely on children being fed regularly at home at all full stop.
The US public school system will run from the sublime to the ridiculous, it's nothing like our school system, some of these schools are in very large metropolitan areas that are, for want of a better words, completely on their arse.
I am also fairly certain the menu in high schools is down to individual state school boards, just because it's legal does not mean they may choose to serve pizza in the end anyway.
The US public school system will run from the sublime to the ridiculous, it's nothing like our school system, some of these schools are in very large metropolitan areas that are, for want of a better words, completely on their arse.
I am also fairly certain the menu in high schools is down to individual state school boards, just because it's legal does not mean they may choose to serve pizza in the end anyway.
