According to our government, pizza is a vegetable

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Congress Blocks New Rules on School Lunches

By RON NIXON

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/ron_nixon/

index.html?inline=nyt-per>

Published: November 15, 2011

WASHINGTON - A slice of pizza still counts as a vegetable.

Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch, via Associated Press

Titus , a pre-kindergartener, in line for his lunch this month at

West Hamlin Elementary School in West Hamlin, W.Va.

In a victory for the makers of frozen pizzas, tomato paste and French

fries, Congress on Monday blocked rules proposed by the Agriculture

Department that would have overhauled the nation's school lunch program.

The proposed changes

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/us/school-lunch-proposals-set-off-a-d

ispute.html> - the first in 15 years to the $11 billion school lunch

program - were meant to reduce childhood obesity

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/morbid-obesity/overvie

w.html?inline=nyt-classifier> by adding more fruits and green

vegetables to lunch menus, Agriculture Department officials said.

The rules, proposed last January, would have cut the amount of potatoes

served and would have changed the way schools received credit for

serving vegetables by continuing to count tomato paste on a slice of

pizza only if more than a quarter-cup of it was used. The rules would

have also halved the amount of sodium in school meals over the next 10

years.

But late Monday, lawmakers drafting a House and Senate compromise for

the agriculture spending bill blocked the department from using money to

carry out any of the proposed rules.

In a statement, the Agriculture Department expressed its disappointment

with the decision.

" While it is unfortunate that some in Congress chose to bow to special

interests, U.S.D.A.

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/agr

iculture_department/index.html?inline=nyt-org> remains committed to

practical, science-based standards for school meals that improve the

health of our children, " the department said in the statement.

Food companies including ConAgra, Coca-Cola, Del Monte Foods and makers

of frozen pizza like Schwan argued that the proposed rules would raise

the cost of meals and require food that many children would throw away.

The companies called the Congressional response reasonable, adding that

the Agriculture Department went too far in trying to improve nutrition

<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/food-guide-pyramid

/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier> in school lunches.

" This is an important step for the school districts, parents and

taxpayers who would shoulder the burden of U.S.D.A.'s proposed $6.8

billion school meal regulation that will not increase the delivery of

key nutrients, " said Keeling, executive vice president and chief

executive of the National Potato Council.

The Agriculture Department had estimated that the proposal would have

cost about $6.8 billion over the next five years, adding about 14 cents

a meal to the cost of a school lunch.

Corey Henry, a spokesman for the American Frozen Food Institute, said

the proposed rules simply did not make sense, especially when it came to

pizza.

The industry backs the current rules which say that about a quarter-cup

of tomato paste on a slice of pizza can count as a vegetable serving.

The Agriculture Department proposal would have required that schools

serve more tomato paste per piece of pizza to get a vegetable credit, an

idea the industry thought would make pizza unappetizing.

The department said the change would have simply brought tomato paste in

line with the way other fruit pastes and purees were credited in school

meals.

Nutrition experts called the action by Congress a setback for improving

the nutritional standards in school lunches and addressing childhood

obesity.

" It's a shame that Congress seems more interested in protecting industry

than protecting children's health, " said Margo G. Wootan, director of

nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a

nonprofit research group. " At a time when child nutrition and childhood

obesity are national health concerns, Congress should be supporting

U.S.D.A. and school efforts to serve healthier school meals, not

undermining them. "

________________________________

S. Kalman PhD, RD, FACN

Director, BD - Nutrition & Applied Clinical Trials

Miami Research Associates

6141 Sunset Drive

Suite 301

Miami, FL. 33143

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Office ext. 5109

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Email: dkalman@...

Web: www.miamiresearch.com

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