About congress's last debacle

**ninja9578** · 11-21-2011 01:54 AM

Kristin Wartman: Pizza is a Vegetable? Congress Defies Logic, Betrays Our Children

USDA guidelines wanted to make sure kids got more vegetables, so Congress decided to officially make pizza a vegetable. The amount of tomato paste on it is enough.

Tomato is a fruit, and tomato paste is a lot of corn syrup.

**khh** · 11-21-2011 02:13 AM

They actually passed this law (or whatever it's called)? That's just insane.

**Spartiate** · 11-21-2011 03:03 AM

And this is the country with all the nukes...

**Supernova** · 11-21-2011 03:09 AM

A very stupid case which nonetheless is a perfect example of who runs this country. I'm not suggesting that "99%ers" are upset over school lunches when I say this is exactly what they're pissed off about.

**Descensus** · 11-21-2011 03:24 AM

Looks like I've been eating healthy for years. Thank god.

**Xei** · 11-21-2011 03:29 AM

The intelligence of the USA has now officially been overtaken by this guy:

**Oneironaut Zero** · 11-21-2011 05:02 AM

Good lord.... A vegetable?

A f'cking vegetable??

There isn't a facepalm picture in existence that could possibly suffice...

**Original Poster** · 11-21-2011 05:14 AM

We need to reduce greenhouse gases so carbon monoxide is now considered an oxygen

**ninja9578** · 11-21-2011 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

There isn't a facepalm picture in existence that could possibly suffice...

http://jasonbstanding.com/blogparts/...y_facepalm.jpg
close enough

College students must be very healthy.

**Black_Eagle** · 11-21-2011 11:06 PM

Remember: when it comes to making a good pizza, the sauce is everything.

"No, Congress did not declare pizza a vegetable - The Washington Post"

**Xei** · 11-21-2011 11:29 PM

The story did sound like one of those typical hyped-into-a-lie things. Like when a headline reads 'scientist disproves God' when all he has done is refined mathematical work on spontaneous quantum fluctuations. Or whatever.

**Seroquel** · 11-21-2011 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

There isn't a facepalm picture in existence that could possibly suffice...

**Original Poster** · 11-22-2011 01:18 AM

Nothing on TV is funny anymore so we're just going to have to force ourselves to laugh at Two and Half Men.

**Oneironaut Zero** · 11-22-2011 02:36 AM

Lmao. Sero, that's probably the closest possible substitute.

I also love the counter-argument the Washington Post put out, attacking the (obviously satirical) claim that 'pizza is being made a vegetable', by saying 'it's just the sauce, and it's not unhealthy!' Note that they say nothing about how tomatoes are fruits, and that there is very little to suggest that these processed pizzas are doing anything to provide kids with their recommended servings of vegetables - ontop of giving them all that other crap that isn't healthy. They are just like "what, pizzas aren't been declared vegetables! People who can't see this are stupid, 'nanny-state' advocates!"

No, Congress did not declare pizza a vegetable - The Washington Post

**ninja9578** · 11-22-2011 03:23 AM

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Nothing on TV is funny anymore so we're just going to have to force ourselves to laugh at Two and Half Men.

I take it you are watching the Ashton Kutcher episodes. Turn on the reruns of the Charlie Sheen episodes, you don't have to force with those.

**Xei** · 11-22-2011 03:28 AM

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Note that they say nothing about how tomatoes are fruits, and that there is very little to suggest that these processed pizzas are doing anything to provide kids with their recommended servings of vegetables

There is no objective definition of 'vegetable'. It is a colloquial term with no scientific basis; tomatoes are fruits but they can also be vegetables if you want.

**Original Poster** · 11-22-2011 03:44 AM

Originally Posted by Xei

There is no objective definition of 'vegetable'. It is a colloquial term with no scientific basis; tomatoes are fruits but they can also be vegetables if you want.

Funny how the tomato's position as a vegetable is dependent on whether or not pizza should be considered healthy.

**Xei** · 11-22-2011 03:55 AM

It has been legally classified as a vegetable in the USA since 1893. Unless you're suggesting the President has a spare flux capacitor..?

Additionally, since when were vegetables healthy and fruits unhealthy? If you're going to be wrong at least try to be coherent about it.

**juroara** · 11-22-2011 03:59 AM

Well, I've always liked my fair share of vegetable pizzas

**ninja9578** · 11-22-2011 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by Xei

There is no objective definition of 'vegetable'. It is a colloquial term with no scientific basis; tomatoes are fruits but they can also be vegetables if you want.

Isn't the primary ingredient of tomato paste in the USA corn syrup, not tomatoes?

**Oneironaut Zero** · 11-22-2011 04:01 AM

Originally Posted by Xei

There is no objective definition of 'vegetable'. It is a colloquial term with no scientific basis; tomatoes are fruits but they can also be vegetables if you want.

Interesting. Do you have a source for that?

I've got one that says otherwise:

The confusion about 'fruit' and 'vegetable' arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Blueberries, raspberries, and oranges are true fruits, and so are many kinds of nut. Some plants have a soft part which supports the seeds and is also called a 'fruit', though it is not developed from the ovary: the strawberry is an example.

As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits, such as tomatoes or bean pods, may be called 'vegetables' because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The term 'vegetable' is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come. Occasionally the term 'fruit' may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb, for example.

So, the answer to the question is that a tomato is technically the fruit of the tomato plant, but it's used as a vegetable in cooking.

Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? : Oxford Dictionaries Online

According to this, tomato as being a fruit is technically, scientifically correct. Tomato being labelled a vegetable is simply used colloquially in cooking, which, logically, should not hold any weight as to whether or not it's considered a vegetable, in terms of nutrition.

You disagree?

**ThePreserver** · 11-22-2011 05:00 AM

I'm not here to argue whether or not tomato is a fruit... but weren't they working on some other thing... I think they were trying to reduce our deficit or something silly like that.

I guess the status of pizza was more pressing.

**juroara** · 11-22-2011 05:07 AM

what? what? deficit? What deficit

No we should argue about fruits and vegetables instead - congress says so

**ThePreserver** · 11-22-2011 05:15 AM

Originally Posted by juroara

congress says so

MAN! I only wish there were some way... we could... maybe FIRE THEM. What if somehow we could fire all 435 of our Representatives in the SAME YEAR?!?!?!? If only...

Approval rating at 12%? I think they want to be the first to reach 0%.

(Seriously people, out the incumbents or vote third party. Better yet, DO BOTH!) /rant

**Original Poster** · 11-22-2011 07:52 AM

Originally Posted by Xei

It has been legally classified as a vegetable in the USA since 1893. Unless you're suggesting the President has a spare flux capacitor..?

Additionally, since when were vegetables healthy and fruits unhealthy? If you're going to be wrong at least try to be coherent about it.

Lul yeah cause pizza is a fruit.