In early 2011, Obama’s presidency and areas of concentration started to focus on the rising epidemic that is childhood obesity. This new program swept across nation’s schools and deliberately made an effort to clean out junk food from the school’s lunch programs. Congress, as you can probably imagine didn’t take this very well. The clouds of money that they were going to lose popped into their head. They started making valid excuses that the parents should be controlling what the kids eat. While that is a definite possible solution, not every parent necessarily cares about what their child eats.

Congress started getting more and more desperate and started to make ridiculous claims that would appeal to the lovers of junk food that, according to congress, pizza is technically a vegetable. The truth of the matter is, congress passing pizza off as a vegetable is biased. While people may argue that pizza has healthy qualities that other meals don’t have; to consider pizza as a vegetable, the junk food will be replacing actual vegetables in school lunches for the cheaper, more profitable junk food. This is beyond irresponsible.

America’s food company’s number one priority is to make money. They’re not in the business to keep America healthy, they’re in it to make green stashes. This is an obvious statistic that anyone should recognize as correct. Congress’s excuse to consider pizza as a vegetable is to make pizza sound healthier than it actually is and to get more and bigger profits. The ingredient that congress is justifying as a vegetable is tomato paste. Not only is tomato a fruit, not a vegetable but paste is pure fat, with little tomato, and unhealthy calories meshed together. According to the nutrition facts label on the back of Preggo Tomato Sauce, it has double the sugar than a Coke, twice the added fats and more sodium that the recommended 800mg per meal. The cheese on top of the unhealthy sauce is a whole other story. Not only do processed cheese contain a lot of fat, but sugar as well. Pizza crest tends to be a whole grain substitute soaked in various unhealthy oils and baked to a crisp. Vegetables have fibers and healthy vitamins to fight off the negative effects that they may contain. Pizza does not have many vitamins that make the negative effects so ever more effective.

In 2011, a representative of congress went out in public that anyone who thinks pizza is a vegetable is considered “outlandish” When you revisit the facts, the Agriculture Appropriations Bill does not state anywhere that pizza is a vegetable. The facts have been bloated all over the media with the substantial phrase being placed on the Fed Up movie poster. When we look more in depth about who specifically announced pizza as a vegetable, it was the Ronald Raegan Administration. Critics exploded with outrage that the administration was allowing starchy foods such as ketchup and pizza sauce as a vegetable to get these foods into our schools. As a result, the administration had to cut down on costs to support the program as the next president came to office.

People may argue that pizza is a nutritious meal, and that keeping this food product in our schools is a requirement. While pizza does have qualities that most people would associate with vegetables such as vitamins and fiber, it is still not the healthiest choice on the market. What schools are trying to do is pass off pizza as a healthy food that will let you lose weight and prevent heart disease. They tell you this because most teenagers like pizza, and to describe pizza as a smart choice; it will make profits go up. In reality, pizza has negative effects that do cause obesity and heart disease, and by promoting it as a daily healthy choice; the obesity crisis will just rise.
To allow congress to pass off pizza as a vegetable is a negative sign that congress may have too much control over our nation’s meals. What will they do next? Pass off cookies as harmless bread? With the amount of sugar added into our regular white bread it might as well be a cookie. Congress’s actions are beyond ridiculous, bottom line. They might draw some excuses to make the argument more two- sided, but the fact is congress labeling pizza as a vegetable is a clear sign that America’s government might be manipulating us in a wrong way.

Works Cited:
"Childhood Obesity Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 24 Apr. 2015. Web. 21 May 2015.
Siegel, Bettina E. ""Fed Up" Film: Why You Should See It -- and Tell a Friend." The Lunch Tray. N.p., 14 May 2014. Web. 21 May 2015.
Kliff, Sarah. "No, Congress Did Not Declare Pizza a Vegetable." Washington Post. The Washington Post,                                                    21 Nov. 2011. Web. 21 May 2015.
Rosenthal, Andrew. "It's Delicious. But Is It a Vegetable?" Taking Note Its Delicious But Is It a Vegetable Comments. The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2011. Web. 21 May 2015.