Congress Mandating Fat On School Lunch Plates

Your special interest legislators are hard at work in Washington, ensuring that American kids, while falling behind in math and reading, can still be number one in girth:

WASHINGTON — Who needs leafy greens and carrots when pizza and french fries will do...?

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.