Cheese should be a desert not part of normal meals also by your reasoning.

Both cheese and ketchup are healthy in modest amounts as part of a balanced diet. But both can be extremely unhealthy is eaten to excess or as part an unhealthy diet.

So why do you just go away if your going to make extreme statements as a viled form of nationalism.

Ketchup was considered a vegetable in schools during the Regan administration.

How about the French making their smoking bans more widespread and increasing taxes on cigarettes? That would likely have more benefit than going after ketchup.

People can also get used to using alternative, healthier versions of foods such as low-sugar/low-salt ketchup, reduced fat butter, nonfat mayo, sugarfree beverages, lowfat salad dressings, whole grains, and lean proteins instead of sausage, foie gras, and processed deli meats. Portion control, combines with regular exercise, is also key.

Of course, these measures also work well in the U.S. and other countries with an overweight population.

ttmadison -- The French live longer than we do, so maybe they know something we don't.

Aren't they mostly socialists? How could they ever know more than the freemarket?

I blame Occupy Wall-Street for this.

The schools in the US have ketchup available for students. I have no problem with it. It may not be the healthiest thing in the world, but it gets kids to eat their lunches. Chicken sandwhiches and hamburgers would be very dry and unappealing without it. And no, I don't see the lunch menus getting a huge revamp with restaurant quality meals. We're too broke.

In addition to banning ketchup - they should ban french fries (pomme frites) too. It's not like those are good for you.

Ketchup is a cooked tomato product. Mainly, it's acidity content is much too high. To illustrate my point, one time I did an experiment where I ate a whole unopened bottle of spaghetti sauce (probably Francesco Rinaldi mushroom flavored sauce) straight from the jar within about half an hour. After about half an hour to about an hour when I had to go urinate, I found urination somewhat painful, presumably because of the dramatically increased acidity of my urine stinging the walls of my urethra. Needless to say, I always remember this incident whenever I consume concentrated cooked tomato sauce products. Overacidity in the body is one of the primary causes of the promotion of disease according to alternative medicine theory. There are other ways of polluting the body, but overacidity is one of the chief factors that cause the body to break down and malfunction. You could also cite the high fructose corn syrup (sugar) content and perhaps the high salt content also as adding to the damage potential of this condiment.

Harry, I'm glad you understand your body chemistry, but take it from me: TMI.

LeonorG: You consider ketchup a treat? I'm sorry to hear that.

Harry, the reason your urination was painful might be because you "ate a whole unopened bottle of spaghetti sauce." Perhaps if you had opened the bottle and only consumed the contents, it would have been less painful. Shards of glass from that chewed-up bottle can be painful to your wee-wee.

Harry, unless your an uncontrolled diabetic, the kidneys simply don't process anything THAT quickly. There goes that theory.

sorry ketsup is crap..

cream sauces with fat fil up a person so they will not eat carbohydrates which turns into fat

you just want to stay away from oils besides oilive and coconut

burn fat calories then carbohydrate

or carbohydrate turns into stored fat

stevchipmunk -- People need some fat. Boiling food in water sounds gross and you lose all the nutrients. By the way, as I mentioned before, the French live longer than we do; matter of fact, so do a lot of other people. With our miserable health care system and overly processed, fatty, salty and overly sweet food, we don't stand a chance.

Henry - coconut oil is terrible for you. It's right up there with palm oil on the list of unhealthy oils.

Dear God no... not another know-nothing food nazi. There is nothing wrong with ketchup (unless it contains preservatives). In fact, it contains a huge amount of lycopene, a healthy antioxidant that supports good vision, that is also primarily found in tomatos ( a veg that most kids do not like). Processing tomato into sauce (or ketchup) significantly IMPROVES the lycopene content. Further, boiling vegatable decreases their nutritive content, so is a POOR way to prepare vegetables. Further, many nutrient REQUIRE there is be fat aorund to be absorbed. Fat is NOT, in general, a bad thing at all, when consumed in proper amounts for your body size. Food morons like stevechipmunk might considering eating a few more calories so your brain can kick back in...

Amazing how people think serving kids crap doesn't affect them.

Sure it makes a difference but taking 1 crap item out of a multi-1000 item list of crap isn't going to make a difference.

So your solution is, since removing one crap item won't make a significant difference, you might as well keep serving it... Kinda like saying, Hell, I'm already and alcoholic and smoker... might as well use meth!

One step at a time here people, if it's a step in the right direction, no matter how small, at least it's some movement!

do you realize you are comparing ketchup to methamphetamine? Really?

Travis, any food can be abused through over-eating! The mentality that says "Ban it all" is, quite frankly, a cop out! You can either ban the ketchup and hope the kid never takes off the school blinkers outside in the real world, or you can teach the kid moderation, a wonderful concept that applies to an amazingly huge segment of life! A little ketchup, like a little fun, can make life interesting (unless of course you're one of those stuffed shirts that thinks fun is sinful ... are you, Travis?) A lot of ketchup, like a lot of fun, can lead to trouble (so okay, you can't get pregnant from it, but still ...). Banning the "bad" from our kids' lives just sends them the message that we don't think they're capable of learning good choices ... not a message I plan to send to my kids.

I hate to break it to you, but do you know why we don't just revolutionize American food in schools?

When one party or another cuts education again, wonder why you voted for them. Processed food is cheaper to make, cheaper to prepare, and cheaper for the kids to waste. If we really cared, we could do something, but not for free.

Maybe they should just start eating better food that's actually food rather than all the processed crap they eat. Seriously, taking ketchup out of schools and hoping it'll make a difference is like taking table salt off~ Everything in america already has too much sodium in it, much more than you're going to add sprinkling a bit more on~

15 calories in a TBSP or packet of ketchup.

Now shall I list the calories of all the cheeses, breads, sauces, and chocolate that French children have? In fact, one of the most popular after school snacks in France is a hunk of French bread with a piece of chocolate on it.

Agreed Lynseypug, the French may be healthier because they rely more on public transit instead of driving, have better healthcare or generally eat less. However, nobody ever thinks about what exactly constitute as FRENCH FOOD. French food, the general celebrated (northern) French cuisine is composed of meat, fat, and other variations of pot roast. What other country in the world comes up with such perverse food like foie gras (which btw, is made out of force fed goose). That stuff is fatty, fatty and more fatty. One tbsp of ketchup can hardly be worse than 2-3 slices of baguette or croissant (butter!!!!) with more butter or Nutella (sugar!!!!).

OMG, this makes my mouth water. You forgot the wine by the way.