# Pizza as a vegetable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 18, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341 "2011-11-18T14:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/21 "2011-11-18T17:39:27Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Of course it is. Of course it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/22 "2011-11-18T18:21:42Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If parents want their children to eat pizza, they can ask the schools to serve it. And if they _really really_ want their children to eat pizza, they can buy it themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/23 "2011-11-18T18:43:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The money comes from the states in the first place. Let it stay in the states and let the states manage this. I’m sympathetic to this viewpoint, but there’s something to be said for having a uniform set of guidelines as to what constitutes a nutritious meal. I suppose we could let each state decide for itself what makes for healthy meals for kids, but it seems like a duplication of effort. And it really distracts from the actual point, which is that this particular bill wasn’t necessarily written with nutrition in mind but with trying to weigh budget requirements against dietary standards. The “best” solution would be to get the USDA to relax its standards for what constitutes a healthy diet. But I don’t see that getting much traction politically. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/24 "2011-11-18T19:01:00Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Unless the whole crust of the pizza is one big piece of pepperoni. Brilliant! I want one! ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/25 "2011-11-18T19:04:48Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If parents want their children to eat pizza, they can ask the schools to serve it. If they don’t, they can ask the schools not to. Schools have a hard enough time getting our kids educated. Let them decide what they think, acting _in loco parentis_, is best for the school and the kids. > > Alternatively, get the feds out of the local schools all together. Very Libertarian of you. Except the damage local control would do is scary. Want some Dearborn Schools teaching the Muslim religion because there is a majority of Muslims in the area? The Federal government tries to keep school standards somewhat even across the land. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/26 "2011-11-18T19:27:15Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The money comes from the states in the first place. Let it stay in the states and let the states manage this. The states are [reimbursed by the federal government](http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/AboutLunch/NSLPFactSheet.pdf)for lunches and snacks served in public schools: > [@](#): > > 1. How much reimbursement do schools get? > > Most of the support USDA provides to schools in the National School Lunch Program comes in the form of a cash reimbursement for each meal served. The current (July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012) basic cash reimbursement rates if school food authorities served less than 60% free and reduced price lunches during the second preceding school year are: > > ```auto > > > Free lunches: Reduced-price lunches: Paid lunches: > > $2.77 $2.37 $0.26 > > Free snacks: Reduced-price snacks: Paid snacks: > > $0.76 $0.38 $0.07 > > ``` > > Higher reimbursement rates are in effect for Alaska and Hawaii, and for schools with high percentages of low‐income students. For the latest reimbursement rates visit FNS website at [www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/notices/naps/NAPs.htm](http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/notices/naps/NAPs.htm) So it comes from the states in the first place, but is reimbursed from the feds in the second place, so suggesting it should “stay in the states” is disingenuous at best. Unless you can show that they would spend that money anyway, even if it were not reimbursed. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/27 "2011-11-18T20:14:39Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Very Libertarian of you. Except the damage local control would do is scary. Want some Dearborn Schools teaching the Muslim religion because there is a majority of Muslims in the area? > The Federal government tries to keep school standards somewhat even across the land. The 1st amendment ensures that no religion is taught, as religion, in any public school, anywhere. Your slippery slope does not exist. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/28 "2011-11-18T22:57:38Z")
Pizza is actually _counted as a vegetable now_, the debate is about a proposal to stop counting it as a vegetable which would effectively lead to its removal from cafeteria menus because the vegetable fiction is the only reason pizza is on there in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/29 "2011-11-18T23:18:52Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > I can’t see why the 2 Tbs of paste couldn’t be combined with other veggies on the pizza to equal a half-cup serving of veg. (Whether kids would actually eat the veggies or not is a different question. :p) Yes please put those other vegetables in a easy to dispose of bag along side the pizza 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/30 "2011-11-18T23:20:36Z")
I, for one, am glad our good Congresscritters are ever vigilant, lest some kid somewhere has pizza for lunch. Won’t someone think of the children? ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/31 "2011-11-18T23:57:10Z")
This is absurd. A proper serving a vegetables is a pile of french fries with a 4oz squirt of ketchup. Alternatively, a large scope of tater tots may be used as a substitute. Both of which need to be cooked in pure vegetable oil, as hydrogenated as possible, our kids need as much hydrogen as we get get into them. I for one am shocked that the US government can’t figure out what a child should eat for lunch. Didn’t you guys put several men on the moon, what did those guys eat? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/32 "2011-11-19T00:03:14Z")
Tang. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/33 "2011-11-19T00:05:48Z")
We still have that food pyramid thing right? What does it say about pizza? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/34 "2011-11-19T01:00:11Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > We still have that food pyramid thing right? What does it say about pizza? Pizza is basically pyramid shaped, so it should be good to go. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/35 "2011-11-19T01:12:00Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Just to be clear, the current standard is 2 tablespoons tomato paste = 1 vegetable. The new standard being proposed is 8 tablespoons. Isn’t a tomato actually a fruit? Did anyone tell them about that? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/36 "2011-11-19T01:21:51Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > We still have that food pyramid thing right? Nope. [Replaced by MyPlate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyPlate)in June, 2011. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/37 "2011-11-19T01:22:20Z")
Someone writing on [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_paste) has a sense of humor, even if he doesn’t have a sense of grammar: > [@](#): > > Though the process of heating cooling and reheating removes most if not all of the tomatoes nutritional value and health benefits. It is still considered to be a vegetable and suitable for substituting as a serving of vegetable if layered between pasteurized cheese and above highly processed wheat flour in the from of pizza. Lasagna and other tomato paste derived dishes may be considered for vegetable status in the near future. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![slm2955](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c6cbf5/32.png) [@slm2955](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slm2955)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/38 "2011-11-19T01:26:05Z")
> [@FixMyIgnorance](#): > > What gives? I’m really not sure what’s going on here. Me neither, I don’t understand how pizza is a veggie:confused: ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/39 "2011-11-19T01:28:27Z")
> [@slm2955](#): > > Me neither, I don’t understand how pizza is a veggie:confused: Did you bother reading the contents of this thread before posting that? Never mind, that’s a rhetorical question. ---
**Author:** ![slm2955](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c6cbf5/32.png) [@slm2955](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slm2955)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341/40 "2011-11-19T01:42:26Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Did you bother reading the contents of this thread before posting that? Never mind, that’s a rhetorical question. But tomato is considered a fruit though, so I don’t know why they are trying to make it a vegetable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pizza-as-a-vegetable/603341.md?page=3)