Congress pushes pizza, fries in school lunches

[PoliticAverse]

(AP) WASHINGTON - Congress is fighting to keep pizza and french fries on school lunch lines, picking apart an Obama administration proposal to make school lunches healthier.

A spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards proposed by the Agriculture Department earlier this year, forcing USDA to pull back an attempt to limit potatoes on the lunch line, delaying limits on sodium and delaying a requirement to boost whole grains.

The spending bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. The department's proposed guidelines would have attempted to prevent that.

The changes had been requested by food companies that produce frozen pizzas, the salt industry and potato growers. Some conservatives in Congress have called the push for healthier foods an overreach, saying the government shouldn't be telling children what to eat.

Read the rest: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57324865/congress-pushes-pizza-fries-in-school-lunches

[Atman]

1. Okay, class...and "Congress" is controlled by what party?

Class? Anyone know the answer?

[Enrique]

2. Congress doesn't like its 9% approval rating

so they're working on driving it down further.

[midnight]

3. I love that wanting healthy foods for our children is an overreach .

If children are given healthy choices early in their lives they can make better choices later on in life. Those conservatives are so hilarious and probably getting a value added deal...

[teach1st]

4. The government tells them what to eat already

We're already telling them what to eat by serving it. Apparently - in the alleged minds of Congress - if we serve kids unhealthy food, the government isn't telling them what to eat, but serving healthier food is telling them what to eat.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Pesky little application of critical thinking skills there.

Patently absent in the GOP brain.

[Lasher]

5. Well this isn't quite as bad as the 'ketchup is a vegetable' thing.

Tomato paste is closer than that.

[queenjane]

6. "changes requested by . . . the salt industry"

Nuff said.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Government can't tell children what to eat, but apparently it's okay to dictate....

what grown adults can do with their own bodies. Yeah, I get it.

[tridim]

9. Depends on the definition of "pizza"

Which can range anywhere from pure junk food to balanced health food.

The "pizza" I ate in grade school was disgusting. Nobody should be eathing that.

[MineralMan]

10. There's pizza and there's pizza crap.

Pizza can be a healthy food, or it can be a nightmare of fat and salt. I'd hate to see all pizza banned from schools. But, I also hate to see kids eat crap.

[leftyohiolib]

11. i remember ronnie "elephant's ass" reagan said ketchup was a vegetable

trees cause pollution.