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Another helping of vegetables, please
For those who doubt the Bush administration's credentials as the spiritual successor to the Reagan administration, one of the Kossacs has unearthed this item.

WASHINGTON - Anyone trying to add more fruits and vegetables to their diet may have just gotten an unlikely assist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Based on a little-noticed change to obscure federal rules, the USDA defines frozen french fries as "fresh vegetables."

[...]

The Frozen Potato Products Institute appealed to the USDA in 2000 to change its definition of fresh produce under PACA to include batter-coated, frozen french fries, arguing that rolling potato slices in a starch coating, frying them and freezing them is the equivalent of waxing a cucumber or sweetening a strawberry.

One order of chili cheese fries covers most of the basic food groups. All these years I've been eating much more healthily than my mother ever thought.