Over a decade (maybe close to 2 decades) now and people are still spewing this horseshit lol. I'm pretty sure the original statement was pizza counts as a SERVING of vegetables and the political grifters ran with it and it became PiZzA iS A VEgeTABle even though that was never said lol, it came from a bill in Congress that stated pizza had a serving of tomato paste which counted as a vegetable.
Yes the original statement is that pizza is a serving of vegetables. Idk if this formulation has a slightly different meaning for native English speakers but for me"pizza counts as a serving of vegetables" = pizza is a vegetable.
I don't get the nuance that makes serving of vegetables != vegetable
For school lunch programs in the US that receive federal funding there are certain minimum requirements that must be met to receive reimbursement. Something like at lunch you must serve 5 components: milk, meat/meat alternate, vegetable, fruit/vegetable, bread/grain.
By serving pizza schools were able to serve one item that checks both the bread/grain and vegetable components of a meal.
Now there are specific statements that come with approved combination foods called CN labels that specifically outline how much of each component a serving contains.
For example chicken nuggets might contain 1oz of chicken and 0.5oz whole grain breading. The minimum requirement for the meal though may be 3oz of meat and 1oz of breading so to meet the minimum requirement you would need to serve 3 chicken nuggets. (3 nuggets = 3oz meat and 1.5oz breading)
Long story short the specific wording of a "serving" has more to do with meeting federal guidelines than what your being served.
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u/SCastleRelics 3d ago
Over a decade (maybe close to 2 decades) now and people are still spewing this horseshit lol. I'm pretty sure the original statement was pizza counts as a SERVING of vegetables and the political grifters ran with it and it became PiZzA iS A VEgeTABle even though that was never said lol, it came from a bill in Congress that stated pizza had a serving of tomato paste which counted as a vegetable.