Eat your vegetables

I just read that there are no essential vegetables. This is something I have believed passionately all my life, and it is gratifying to see that someone in the food industry finally agrees. The article that made this astounding announcement was targeted at kids, but hey -- unessential for kids should be unessential for adults, too, right? The article said that since fruits and vegetables are in the same food group, as long as you get enough fruits to make up for the missed veggies, you're okay.

Of course, this flies in the face of everything our mothers told us. "If you want to grow big and strong, eat that spinach!" they admonished. "If you don't eat your carrots, you'll go blind," they solemnly warned us. Now, they have no ammunition for getting kids to eat all that gross stuff. A kid in the know can cite proof that vegetables are not essential, and help himself to more grapes.

But wait! After checking the new Food Pyramid, which replaced the Four Basic Food Groups I grew up with -- moms are always telling kids not to play with their food, and here the government keeps playing with whole food groups -- I see that fruits and vegetables have been separated into their own categories. Well, at least now we won't go blind from ignoring our carrots.