Although it is counter-intuitive to everything we think we know, there has been no direct link found between junk food sold in schools and obesity.

The researchers compared children’s weight in schools where junk food was sold and in schools where it was banned. The scientists also evaluated eighth graders who moved into schools that sold junk food with those who did not, and children who never attended a school that sold snacks with those who did. And they compared children who always attended schools with snacks with those who moved out of such schools.

This being said, there must be some logic to the connection of a poor diet and ill health.

Congress declare pizza a vegetable.

When it comes to school lunches, that is.

The rules, proposed last January, would have cut the amount of potatoes served and would have changed the way schools received credit for serving vegetables by continuing to count tomato paste on a slice of pizza only if more than a quarter-cup of it was used. The rules would have also halved the amount of sodium in school meals over the next 10 years.

But late Monday, lawmakers drafting a House and Senate compromise for the agriculture spending bill blocked the department from using money to carry out any of the proposed rules.

American children don’t have a fighting chance against diabetes and childhood obesity when over 40% of their daily calorie intake comes from school lunch.

Too many American children are obese, partly because of terrible eating habits. Fortunately the government has new standards for school lunches that can have a positive impact.

The new rules for school lunches, revealed last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sound laudable and sane.

Among the standards to gradually be implemented over the next three years are limiting the amount of starchy vegetables (such as potatoes, corn and green peas) to one cup a week; serving only unflavored 1 percent milk or fat-free flavored or unflavored milk; increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables — especially green, leafy vegetables — so that kids are exposed to a variety of vegetables; and requiring that half of the grains served be whole grains. Schools also have to gradually reduce the amount of sodium in meals over 10 years, with the goal of reducing it by more than half.

Parents should be happy.