The noticeable effects of the Obama Administration’s new healthier changes to the school lunches have been truly felt and tasted in the cafeteria.

The new changes to the nationwide school lunch program include strict rules that all milk served must be low fat,  all grains served must be whole grains, serious cutbacks are to be made to sodium intake, more fruits and vegetables are to be served, and pizza now counts as a vegetable serving due to tomato paste.

Many students feel that the lack of available salt makes school lunches less appealing and tasteless. But on the same note, many students are in support of the pizza becoming a vegetable serving because it gives them a reason to not buy or eat the extra “health  nut” food.

I feel that the cutbacks are all for the best.

According to “Salt and your health-Facts” by Dr. Yunez Teninaz, “Eating too much salt can cause it to work unpredictably and may increase the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease fluid retention and other diseases.”

Salt, while adding flavor to any food, is only good for you in moderation as anything is. The attempt to control our sodium intake is a cause I’m in support of. With high blood pressure already affecting an estimated 1 in 3 adults in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control, adding extra salt in my food is not a risk I am willing to take.

I do not feel that pizza should classify as a vegetable because the chances of finding a pizza in our cafeteria with plenty of sauce is slim. The pizza is good, but not good enough to be counted as a vegetable in my mind.

Sure, I may prefer the taste of salty French fries, regular non-baked chips, and fried chicken, but I also prefer a slimmer figure. Feeling comfortable in my body affects how I feel all day and my outlook on life.

People often say, “You have to choose between quality or quantity of life,” but in this situation I feel that the new rules promote both. A program that promotes a healthy, long life paired with the confidence of feeling pretty? Sounds like a solid plan to me. I’m in.