Not a surprise to anyone who's seen Jamie Oliver take his School Dinners programme to the States. The US has a lot of very strict rules on what goes into a school meal, which sounds fine until you find out what those rules actually are, and then you realize they're just protectionism.

One of Jamie's big fights was against flavoured milk. The defence was that the kids needed to drink milk, and giving them (only) flavoured milk was a way of doing that. The counter-effects of all that extra sugar was quietly ignored....

As for pizza: I can't remember the details exactly, but another rule that Jamie fell foul of was that every meal effectively has to have two carb sources (potato, rice, pasta, bread, etc). This is to allow them to serve pizza with fries (or pasta with fries as described in the OP article). In one show, Jamie prepared a perfectly fine, balanced meal only to be told he couldn't serve it because it didn't have enough bread. In the end he had to give every child an extra slice of bread and then encourage them to throw it away!

Ketchup is a  vegetable! etc.

There is some evidence that tomato ketchup is high in anti-oxidants and can be regarded as a form of protection against certains kinds of cancer. Link. That article also says that it can reduce bad cholesterol and also repair damaged hair.

As I have a prescription exemption card, I'm thinking of asking my doctor if I can get ketchup on my prescription

I didn't read the article

Surely this goes back to 1988. Zappa built a routine around the "Ketchup is a vegetable" material. The weirder end of the Republican party were trying to make it so

I do know that Tomatoes are fruits.

It goes back further than that: the "ketchup is a vegetable" line dates from the start of the Reagan presidency in '81 as an attempt to cut the cost of school meals.

There is some evidence for ketchup having health benefits because - as with a lot of other fruit and veg, such as carrots - more of the "good stuff" in tomatoes gets released when you cook them. The benefits are all rather outweighed by the large quantities of sugar and salt in it, though...

I love cooked tomatoes,especially fried ones,love them uncooked too.I could eat a bag of cherry tomates in one go, no problem.

this ^^^^ 

We can hardly talk and take the mickey over here tho. . they may have tried to reform via Jamie's school dinners but I bet a ton of kids still go home to nuggets, burgers. McD's, turkey twizlers or egg and chips or a take way most nights..  am fairly sure they are not limited to junk food occasionally and healthy food most of the time which would be the better more balanced option... unfortunately the best option is actually the most expensive cos fruit and veg costs a packet never mind lean meats etc..  oh and you need to be able to cook a bit too.. nowt fancy just basics but that seems to not be a priority with people nowadays either..

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad."

- Brian O'Driscoll

he was a brilliant rugby player too.

gwaaaan have a chuckle...

OMG^^^^^ can you believe it?

shoot her, just shoot her

The American Frozen Food Institute praised the outcome of the vote, saying: "[It] recognises the significant amounts of potassium, fibre and vitamins A and C provided by tomato paste

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Are the 'Powers that Be' not aware that Tomato Ketchup and Tomato Paste are not the same thing? Or are they happy enough to gloss over that fact in the name of profit?

And presumably tomato sauce is a different thing again

best bit was..

'the reason u.s americans  can't locate  the u.s on a map is because many u.s americans don't have maps''

hahahaa

Here's another reason - interesting article about the scary trend to dumb down in politics: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...IQAd6gwZN_story.html

I heard today by  a friend who has just moved to the U.S about 'yarn bombing' very very odd Sounds like graffiti for grannies

I'm intrigued by the yarnbombing (didn't know it was called that). I looked up from my studies on the bus the other day to see a whole park full of trees wearing striped sweaters! Too cool, but what a lot of knitting that is! 

I think the term "tomato sauce" is really ambiguous in this article. It needs to be differentiated from ketchup. I'm confused by it to be honest. I think children could do a lot worse than eat pasta with some proper tomato sauce made from tomatoes, and all the goodness they contain.

The pizza is a different argument, but then again, I'll be bold and say that it really isn't the tomato sauce component of pizza that poses the greatest threat to health, is it?

My argument collapses if they are talking about mass produced, over salted, sugared and E numbered tomato sauce. But no one has said that either, so...still a bit confused...

I think we can take it as read we're not talking about freshly-made sauce here: what this story's really about is lobbying by the frozen food industry.

After doing a little more digging, it looks like the OP article is a little misleading. The story's not so much about tomato sauce/paste being considered a vegetable, but rather pizza being considered a vegetable because of its tomato sauce content. The USDA tried to put stricter controls on what constitutes tomato sauce and how its quantities are measured (apparently tomato sauce and paste are currently considered the same thing, so you can see the problem there). The USDA's proposals were however overturned by Congress (under pressure from frozen food companies) as mentioned in the OP article, thus meaning that a slice of pizza still counts as a portion of veg in a school meal due to its tomato sauce content. The stuff about pasta sauce seems to be a bit of a smokescreen.

I'm simplifying things a bit, but you can read more here:

http://www.triplepundit.com/20...able/comment-page-1/

Well, the whole thing is just a mess! Thanks for the link Eugene  An interesting read.

Well soops, in my understanding Tomato Sauce and Tomato Ketchup are the same thing and Tomato Paste and Tomato Puree are the same thing, but Sauce/Ketchup and Paste/Puree are different things.

However, as I cannot claim to be an expert on tomatoey stuff, I am not going to claim that I'm 100% correct on that.

I just probably am,

It does sound very colourful   and kinda cute!

It was! I can barely get through a sweater for myself, though, so I won't be making tree sweaters anytime soon. Maybe a crocus sweater.

I think Snowdrops are smaller!

If it helps...

I do not think that Americans are thick in the slightest.

In fact they are probably up there with some of the most intelligent with a total of 333 Noble prize winners acredited to them

So OP - speak for yourself

Saw this and thought of here : 

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

I just have to say that Americans have been brought up with the "Good Job" "Well Done" attitude and have been brought up with the God Bless America, and all of us deserve to be respected as Americans, attitude.

 (Not God Save The Queen attitude, that a lot of us fight against)   

Thnakyou Triggs Tomato 'sauce' is different to 'ketcup' huh?

LOL, as far as i am concerned ketchup, sauce, paste, puree are all different things!

And as for Poolie..good on you that you're more intelligent than the whole of the USA

I believe so anyway Supa Supes